If Latin America is a business area of interest to you, a report by AdAge.com on marketing success stories in Latin America makes interesting reading.

The report outlines ten companies that have done well in 2009 – nine of them in Latin America and one in Spain – which illustrates good things are going on in an area of the world that may not capture front-of-mind attention in the English-speaking business world.

The ten companies and campaigns highlighted by AdAge are:

• Molinos Rio De La Plata Argentina: soup for mothers
• Pepsico Argentina: diga ‘Pecsi,’ no ‘Pepsi’
• Sky Brasil: Gisele Bundchen brings HD-TV to life
• Tarjeta Naranja Argentina: happiness is orange
• Tigo Colombia: getting a signal
• Corona Mexico: brand pride
• Hyundai Brasil: consumers like their cars
• VTR Chile: going digital
• HSBC Brasil: straight to the online point
• Coca-Cola Spain: burn with juice

My favourite is Pepsico Argentina and what they did with their iconic brand name, changing it in one market to reflect how consumers use the name: they call it ‘Pecsi’ and not ‘Pepsi.’ That included branding, logo and packaging changes as you can see above. Bold.

All terrific examples of creativity, knowing your market and knowing your customer.

• Details: The Best of Spanish-Language Marketing in 2009.

As some people point out in the comments on AdAge, ‘Spanish-language’ in the title to their story is wholly incorrect as Brazil is in the list, and they speak not Spanish but Portuguese. My calling it ‘Latin America’ is a bit better but not wholly correct as Spain’s in the list.

What would you call it?