This week’s LATAM Roundup brings the following news: a local study reveals that digital agencies grew by 50% in Brazil last year, despite only 34% of them offering automated services; Predicta forecast growth by 80% in 2017, after increasing their revenues by 20% last year; Twitter Brazil have a new general manager; and finally, out of home Clear Channel starts being audited by Brazilian Institute IVC. 

Digital agencies in Brazil: growth by 50%

There is a strong demand for digital marketing services in Brazil, despite the economic downturn in the country. Most of business in the sector saw their number of clients grow by 49.7% last year.

Data comes from Digital Agencies Panorama 2017 study, made by Rock Content ad Resultados Digitais. The companies heard 1.222 agency professionals, between August and September last year, in order to evaluate the sector’s offers. The study also raised attention to the fact that clients are willing to hire agencies to be responsible for their digital strategy, instead of developing it in-house and hire only executors.

The main services in digital agencies' portfolio in Brazil are: social media management and monitoring (73.7%), followed by digital media buy-in through Google AdWords and Facebook Ads (72%), and digital content creation (68.8%). Just a small percentage offer end-to-end services, covering the entire purchase path online.

The study also showed that just a few agencies offer marketing automation: 34.5% of the surveyed group. Also, only 23.3% do sales consultancy, able to affect KPIs directly.

Predicta forecast 80% growth in 2017

In 2016, Predicta grew their revenues by 20%, compared to their performance in the previous year. The increase was attributed to new adserver contracts with big companies, such as the telcos TIM and Vivo, the Brazilian food company BRF, McDonald’s, and Volvo. “We have a relevant role, helping them to identify and analyse the customer journey”, said Guilherme Mamede, new business vice-president, Predicta, in interview to ExchangeWire Brazil.

In 2017, the company is aiming at a much bigger target. Predicta forecast a 80% growth, driven by new contracts acquisition opportunities brought by last quarter. “We won most of the public procurements in which we participated in 2016 and we brought in important clients to our portfolio. Their projects, the local market development and this years’ prospecting jobs are going to be the pillars of our growth this year”, said Mamede.

The company is working on offering more end-to-end services in different channels, not only with programmatic media but also with search, social, and adservers. “This way, we want to offer more accuracy in the consumer path of our clients' media, allowing Predicta to be one of the few companies in the sector that can analyse and help companies in the entire user purchase path”, said.

Twitter Brazil chooses Fiamma Zarife as general manager

Fiamma Zarife was chosen by Twitter Brazil to lead the national operations of the company, as the general manager. She steps in as Guilherme Ribenboim leaves the position to focus on his main role: vice president, Twitter Latin America, working with developing solutions for global clients.

Zarife’s last position was agencies director for Twitter, since 2015. She has 20 years of experience in telcos and finance, and was previously content vice-president at Samsung Latin America and has also worked for the mobile carriers Claro and Oi.

“We have chosen Fiamma to be in front of the Brazilian operations on Twitter so that we can go deeper on what we’ve been doing in the country since we started here: create value for our users and strategy relationships with media, agencies, brands, and advertising partners”, said Ribenboim in a press statement.

Clear Channel starts being regularly audited by Brazilian IVC

The OOH company Clear Channel announced it will be constantly audited by Communication Verification Institute (IVC, in Portuguese). The Institute is the main auditing institution for media in Brazil.

The initiative started with the Brazilian Out of Home Media Association (ABOOH), suggesting monthly reports and certifications in Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba, where Clear Channel keeps their boards. “With the auditing, we want to ensure that out of home media is a sector with a great reach and impact to several kinds of campaigns” said Lizandra Freitas, general manager, Clear Channel.