Community at the heart of the game: how Red Bull Bragantino built its community relations strategy in Bragança Paulista

Summary

Red Bull Bragantino wanted to understand what role the club can play in the city where it plays. Studio FH conducted a full territorial diagnosis of Bragança Paulista, researching more than 1,500 organizations, analyzing and describing more than 70 sociocultural clusters, and running two rounds of in-person active listening with community leaders, cultural collectives, schools and public agencies.

The core deliverable was the Cluster Library, an asset classified into three levels of depth that now guides where the club operates, who it works with and in what order. Building on it, we designed the activation recommendations for 2026 and the structure for an ongoing relationship with the region.

The challenges

• High visibility, low reach

  The brand is strong downtown and barely present in the outskirts and rural areas, precisely where football is lived as an everyday emotional bond.

• Concrete barriers to the stadium

  Insufficient public transportation on weekends, ticket prices and the symbolic distance between the club and families who live far from the stadium.

• A culture no one had cataloged

  The common view downtown was that the city has no culture. What we found was a set of active collectives, from coffee to ceramics, operating in isolation and without a shared narrative.

• Insight that becomes decision criteria

  Without criteria, each activation starts from scratch: a new search for partners, a new negotiation for access, new exposure to reputational risk in actions disconnected from where they take place.

“Football emerges as the only symbol shared between these two worlds.”

How Studio FH helped

We started with the initial mapping research, covering more than 1,500 organizations in Bragança and its surrounding region. From that universe, we analyzed and described more than 70 clusters, classified by area, audience profile, theme and activation potential. With the criteria set, we went into the field:

1. Initial mapping of the regionMore than 1,500 organizations surveyed in Bragança Paulista and its surrounding region.
2. Cluster LibraryMore than 70 clusters analyzed and classified by area, audience profile, theme and activation potential.
3. Active listening in the fieldTwo visits to outlying neighborhoods, the rural area and downtown, listening to social and community organizations, cultural collectives and key institutional players, including the Department of Social Assistance and Escola Viverde. We observed cultural practices, mobility, access and local consumption.
4. Cross-referencing with the city's SDGsWhat we heard was cross-referenced with Bragança's Sustainable Development Goals indicators, prioritizing the areas where the region is most vulnerable.
5. Prioritization and problem treeClusters prioritized by impact potential, cultural fit and feasibility; a problem tree separating symptom, problem and cause.
6. Activations for 2026Three activations recommended for the first quarter, each tied to a pain point identified in the field.

The club backed the project with a strategic decision on how deep to go, institutional coordination with the city government, departments and public schools, resources for the activations, and mobilization of its own internal structure to lend legitimacy to the actions. The choice to invest in diagnosis before investing in a volume of events was Red Bull Bragantino's, and it underpins everything that came after.

The results

• Cluster Library delivered with more than 70 entries across three levels (identification and location, profile and connection potential, strategic depth) and a geographic map of the curation.
• The club's own tool to plan activations, cut local coordination time and make decisions with less reputational exposure.
• Consolidated territorial analysis report, cluster ranking by priority and guidelines for the 2026 community engagement plan.
• Three scheduled activations tied to defined audiences. In the cycle carried out with the club, the community children's carnival, Easter (which replaced back-to-school in public schools) and the Women's Month gathering came to life.
• Activations with the club that engaged more than 1,300 children, and an International Women's Day gathering with leaders of local organizations.
• A continuity policy built from what leaders asked for in the field: the community ambassador program.

Comparing the two formats, the Carnival and Easter actions and the Women's Day gathering, shaped the logic of the next cycle: activations anchored in a local pain point, with community leaders involved from the design stage, sustain the bond after the event.

From listening to an Ambassador Network

The ambassador program got off the ground: 11 leaders and representatives of social organizations in Bragança Paulista now form a network connecting the club to the city's communities. The first meeting took place on August 29 at Nabizão, to present the proposal, share the diagnosis of social needs and hear from those who live these issues every day. One of the challenges the club raised: increasing the presence of residents from the outskirts and rural areas in the stands.

“No one knows a community's needs and potential better than those who are present in it every day.” — Pedro Eliert, founder of Freehelper, to ESG Inside

In practice

Three fronts that show how understanding the region turned into action.

In the media

ESG Inside · September 10, 2026 Freehelper and Red Bull Bragantino create a volunteer Ambassador Network to strengthen ties with Bragança Paulista communities The network brings together 11 leaders and representatives of social organizations who act as a bridge between the club and the city's communities. Read the full article ↗

Conclusion

Red Bull Bragantino chose to understand the region before filling the calendar with events. With more than 1,500 organizations researched, 70 clusters cataloged and in-person listening in outlying neighborhoods, the rural area and downtown, the club now has its own criteria to decide where it acts, who it works with and in what order.

These foundations led to activations that brought together more than 1,300 children, relationships with leaders who previously had no channel to the club, and an Ambassador Network that keeps listening alive between events.

Studio FH is FreeHelper's social impact studio, responsible for designing and running corporate impact programs.