This week, the LATAM RoundUp brings the story of digital investments in Latin America, highlighting the fast growing Brazilian market; Instagram and Twitter emphasise the importance of Brazil in their revenues; and a local event that brought traditional print media to discuss the digital impact in business.

Local crisis does not affect digital ads

Even though in Brazil much is heard about an economic crisis, in 2015, the digital ad market in Brazil is expected to grow by 16%, reaching USD$3.4bn. The country is also the leader in digital ad spend in Latin America. The data comes from a recent eMarketer’s forecast, which revealed that by 2019, 45.9% of digital advertising market in the region will come from Brazil, reaching USD$5.79bn.

This represents 49.9% of the LATAM performance. Mexico and Argentina are also on the top of the market share, with 17.6% and 11.5% respectively.

Even though eMarketer didn’t reveal any data about programmatic media specifically, companies and specialists in Latin America forecast a fast growth in the coming years — especially due to the economic situation of the country. This was a strong topic of the LATAM Programmatic Insight panel during ATS New York last week, emphasising that automated trading can be cheaper and more effective when compared to other approaches in the digital market.

Brazil is the biggest market for Instagram

Instagram confirmed earlier this week that the social network has 29 million monthly active Brazilian users. It’s the second most engaged country, behind the United States only. More than 60% of Brazilians with an account access the app at least once a day — and half of the instagrammers have come across a new brand or product through the social media portal.

The company also affirmed that Brazilian top posts are food, travel, and events; and users tend to follow celebrities, fashion icons, and people from the music industry. Marne Levine, COO, Instagram, was in the country and emphasised the importance of social media in the local advertising scenario. “We offer a creative platform for companies with different sizes to show their best work, and local business are doing that in a great way."

Instagram started selling ads in Brazil in April, and since September is making its inventory available through a self-service platform.

Twitter wants to double its revenue in Brazil next year

Another social media platform disclosing objectives for the country is Twitter. The company announced it has grown by 139% in revenue in the third quarter, compared to the same period last year. It has also grown its advertisers by 45%.

According to a press release, Twitter reaches 40.7 million users in Brazil — considering users who access the tweets via partner apps.

Guilherme Ribenboim, vice-president LATAM, Twitter, revealed that the main objective is to double revenue in Brazil next year. “Digital ad investment is protected right now, increasing its share in our performance”, Ribenboim said. According to him, the main focus to reach the number will be video ads, integrated with TV shows and partnerships with local events, such as the Olympic Games in Rio, next August.

Print media debates digital

The Internet News Media Association hosted in Sao Paulo several media companies to discuss how to increase audience, revenue, and brand awareness in the digital era.

Folha, Estadão, Zero Hora, and O Globo participated in the meeting that happened in Google Brazil headquarters. One of the objectives of the event was to put local media in touch with executives of international companies — such as El País and The New York Times — so that they could share best practices and case studies involving several approaches in digital marketing.