# btg's card only works on btg's machine; the client funds the tunnel > btg closes its card scheme, the emirates lead the round for the tunnel to be dug there, and google measures the data it receives: whoever sits on both sides writes the rule. - edition: Saturday, September 12, 2026 (2026-09-12) - notebook: product & markets - topics: payments · media · brand · brazil - items: 9 from 7 sources - original: https://tonho.wtf/en/daily/2026-09-12-produto/ - portuguese edition: https://tonho.wtf/diario/2026-09-12-produto/ - authorship: written by an llm pipeline, reviewed and translated by antonio leandro (tonho.wtf) --- The card BTG launched yesterday only works on BTG's card machine. The Boring Company's Series D was led by the UAE government, and that's where the money will start digging a tunnel of more than 150 km. Google receives the advertiser's offline data and hands back its own metric saying how much that data was worth. In all three cases someone sits on both sides of the table, and whoever sits on both sides writes the rule. It's the same conversation as Monday's yardstick (Sept. 7), when OpenAI built its own index. On Friday Google added an aggravating factor: whoever writes the rule can also rewrite it after you've spent. Promotional credits that advertisers had already used were voided, with no appeal. The contradiction of the day is in media. Molson Coors says it quadrupled engagement after swapping the legal approval workflow inherited from TV for looser briefs, at creator speed. The day before that story ran, Conar ordered an influencer's video about EMS's weight-loss pen taken down, and the argument that the video didn't even name the drug's brand didn't save it. My read: you can outsource the voice to the creator, not the responsibility. The more regulated the category (and beer is one of the most watched), the more a loose brief costs. ## product and growth **[Tracking das Favelas, by NÓS](https://www.meioemensagem.com.br/marketing/tigre-coral-suvinil-votorantim-e-deca-sao-lideres-em-construcao)** — In the building materials edition of this ongoing study (800 favela residents, collected via app, 3.5-point margin), Tigre has the most complete funnel and the highest NPS. Votorantim and Deca have awareness and purchase, but lose steam on preference and intent. What the table teaches is that, among the leaders, "it's easy to find" moves in lockstep with "I trust it": Tigre at 50.1% and 49.7%, Coral at 44.7% and 41.3%. In a category bought at the neighborhood store, distribution is part of the brand. One detail the article doesn't explain: Lorenzetti ranks above Votorantim and Deca on all ten published attributes and is left off the leaders list, so the ranking uses a criterion the table doesn't show. Also worth remembering who's measuring. NÓS is, as the name says (Novo Outdoor Social), an outdoor advertising company, and the panel is made up of people who already use a survey app. ## brand and ip **[Smart Fit](https://updateordie.com/2026/09/12/smart-fit-novo-posicionamento/)** — The chain launched the positioning "É mais que Fit. É Smart Fit." ("It's more than Fit. It's Smart Fit."), with a campaign by Milá, a new identity (palette, proprietary typeface, icon system and the smile as the central element) and the app as the place that brings together Coach, Body, Nutri and Energy. The decision is less about the palette than about the center of gravity: the relationship moves out of the physical gym and into the app, where you can sell more things to the same member. The slogan stretches the brand without changing the name, which is the cheap way to expand. The article gives no pricing for the services and no adoption numbers. For now it's a brand promise, and the number that will say whether it worked is how many members use anything beyond the workout. **[MSP Estúdios and Herchcovitch](https://www.meioemensagem.com.br/marketing/msp-estudios-lanca-colecao-de-halloween-com-herchcovitch)** — MSP licensed Penadinho, created by Mauricio de Sousa in 1963, and Mônica illustrations made for a 2004 episode for a Halloween collection: five cotton pieces between R$790 and R$2,190. In the same year, the company reset Turma da Mônica's issue numbering to 1 and launched a biweekly Milena comic. My read is that both ends of the catalog are working at once. Comic book No. 1 opens the door to the new reader, and a 63-year-old secondary character becomes a designer sweatshirt for those who grew up reading. A deep catalog lets you license the niche character at a niche price without touching the newsstand price of the main title. **[Standard essential patents in Brazil, on IPKat](http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2026/09/guest-post-standard-essential-patent.html)** — Pedro Marcos Nunes Barbosa (PUC-Rio and Denis Borges Barbosa Advogados) and Ryan Abbott (Surrey and UCLA) list gray-area practices on both sides of SEP litigation in Brazil, including expert witnesses who sign opinions drafted by the client or by AI. On the holder's side, there's the request to seal the case and the syllogism "my patent is in the standard, your product uses the standard, therefore it infringes," used to extract an injunction. On the accused's side, FRAND becomes charity, and after years of paying royalties it turns out at renegotiation that the patent is worthless. The point for anyone selling 5G devices here: Brazilian law doesn't distinguish standard patents, so the injunction that pulls the product off the market is on the table, and that's what sets the license price. My read is that the piece hits both sides, but the section on injunctions leans toward the holder. The page I got cuts off at the start of the conclusion, and I didn't read that part. ## media and attention **[Google gives data back and takes credits away](https://www.stackedmarketer.com/news/google-hands-advertisers-new-data-tools-then-takes-back-their-credits/)** — Data Manager arrived in Google Analytics and DV360 along with a new metric, Data Strength Uplift. According to Google, connecting offline and app data yields on average 26% more incremental ROAS, a number from Google itself. In the same package, according to Stacked Marketer, the API developer token goes away and access now depends on a Google Cloud project. On top of that, promotional credits were voided after being spent, including $3,200 from one consultant, with no appeal channel. It follows Wednesday's (Sept. 9) story on manual bidding: the advertiser hands over the data, the platform measures how much the data helped and changes the credit rules after the spend. First-party data still belongs to the advertiser. The yardstick that says what it's worth belongs to Google. **[Molson Coors at creator speed](https://digiday.com/media/molson-coors-ditches-its-tv-era-workflow-to-move-at-creator-speed-quadrupling-engagement/)** — Since March, with the consultancy The Shake Squad, from Movers+Shakers, Molson Coors has changed how legal and marketing work with creators: the approval workflow inherited from TV gave way to faster, looser briefs. The model now covers 230 marketers across more than 100 brands in the US and Canada. The company says engagement quadrupled, but wouldn't say how much of that turned into sales. The feed only carried the opening of the article, so I don't know what concretely changed in legal. My read, even so: the bottleneck with creators was on the brand's side, in an approval chain designed for a 30-second commercial. **[Conar and EMS's pen](https://www.meioemensagem.com.br/comunicacao/conar-suspende-anuncio-de-caneta-emagrecedora-da-ems)** — On Thursday (10th), after a consumer complaint, Conar's Ethics Council ordered the suspension of an Instagram video by influencer Camila Dias saying the "Brazilian weight-loss pen has arrived at a super affordable price." The product is a prescription drug. EMS argued that it had already taken the video down, that the drug's brand wasn't named and that the content was informational, tied to its treatment access program, but the rapporteur didn't accept it. The decision applies only to that piece and can be appealed. The takeaway for anyone working with creators: leaving out the brand name doesn't turn an ad into information, and Conar treats the creator's video as the brand's ad. ## market and capital **[BTG Pay](https://neofeed.com.br/negocios/btg-entra-em-adquirencia-e-traca-plano-para-nao-ser-mais-um-na-disputa-das-maquininhas/)** — A year after announcing its entry into acquiring, in a market the bank itself counts at more than 300 players, BTG showed its full portfolio: a B2B credit card, card machine, payment link and split. The decision that matters is the closed-loop scheme. The card carries the BTG Pay brand and is only accepted on the bank's machine, with terms, installments and limits set by the client's profile. The R$50.5tn market figure is almost 70% TED and Pix between companies (R$35tn), and what the card offers that Pix doesn't is payment terms. My read: it's a credit product dressed up as payments, consistent with a unit whose portfolio went from R$2.2bn in 2019 to R$32.1bn in 2025. But a closed loop only spins if buyer and seller are already in the base, and the bank didn't say how many companies have signed up. **[Boring Company](https://braziljournal.com/seus-tuneis-nao-vao-longe-mas-a-boring-company-continua-a-escavar/)** — Musk's tunnel company was valued at $23bn in a $3bn Series D. The round was led by the government and other entities of the UAE, included Sequoia and a16z, and will fund the start of a project of more than 150 km in the country. The investors also committed to introducing the company to other governments that might commission projects. If targets aren't met, the company can buy back part of the shares, a clause Brazil Journal calls bizarre without detailing the mechanism. The only system in operation is the Vegas Loop, at 6.5 km with nine stops. My read: when the lead is the project's client and the co-investors promise to bring in more clients, the round works as a pre-sale, and the valuation prices the order book more than the track record of delivered work. ## stalled sources First Round Review (320 days without publishing), Gurwinder (258), Calculated Risk (244), Elad Gil (145), Y Combinator Blog (88), Anti-Mimetic (59), Acquired and Adjacent Possible (34), Kyla Scanlon (30), Sherwood News and Collab Fund (26), Commoncog (19), Granted (15).