In this week's LATAM Roundup: Brazilian agencies are asking for more transparency from the digital industry, especially Havas' decision not to use Google's tools for ads; Direct Talk and Seekr now are DT+Seekr in Brazil, and with new funding will expand customer relationship tools throughout the Spanish speaking Latin America; RTB House aim to grow 200% in Brazil in their second year in the country; and the rankings of radio audience in Latin America, by Triton Digital.

Brazilian agencies are asking the digital industry to be more transparent

Last week in Brazil was marked by several reactions of agencies and advertisers to Havas’ latest decision to boycott Google products for online ads, against the called “lack of transparency” when publishing ad campaigns. The Brazilian Association of Advertising Agencies (Abap) positioned themselves by requiring Google Brazil to review their practices when managing internet ad campaigns.

Abap distributed an official statement on Thursday (23 March) in which they highlight that “this moment is an excellent opportunity for the digital market to demonstrate its commitment, not only with its general audience, but also with advertisers and ad agencies, particularly, which have been setting aside expressive and growing budgets to invest in digital technologies”.

They also emphasised a need to adopt metrics and independent auditing to verify digital campaign results and a more effective approach of companies when fighting fraud. “For the Brazilian ad agencies, both actions — fixing wrong attitudes and adopting new best practices of operations — are the most urgent and severe results, given the current advertising activity”, they said.

Direct Talk and Seekr now form DT+Seekr

The Brazilian companies Seekr and Direct Talk announced their fusion after receiving R$10m (£2.5m) from CVentures, which was already a Seekr’s investor. The new company is called DT+Seekr and they will aim for Latin American expansions, reaching the Spanish-speaking market starting with Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Chile and, later on, Argentina.

Seekr was founded in Blumenau, and is specialised in brand monitoring on social media. Direct Talk, on the other hand, is focused on consumer relationship softwares based in Sao Paulo. Together, their yearly revenues are around R$30m (£7.5m). They now have 130 employees and 700 clients.

CVentures raised the money, backed up by Brazilian Finep, the local government’s fund for Studies and Projects, and Interamerican Developing Bank (BID)’s funds.

RTB House complete one year in Brazil with 50 new contracts

Retargeting company RTB House completed their first year in Brazil with 50 new clients, served by eight members of the local team based in Sao Paulo. The main goal for this year, following up 2016 growth and the global pace, is to grow their account team by 200%. Worldwide, RTB House have announced their revenues increased by 140% last year.

“We know that the first year of operations in business is always challenging, especially when a global company bets on a new segment of the market, which is what is happening for us in Brazil”, said Rodrigo Lobato, country manager, RTB House Brazil.

One of the local brands that is part of their portfolio is Polishop, which announced an increase by 64% in sales after retargeting based on deep learning, reflecting 9% in their ROI. RTB House also have contracts with online retailers, such as Sephora, Centauro, and Zoom.

Triton Digital make Webcast Metrics available in LATAM

The audio tech company Triton Digital announced the the expansion of Webcast Metrics’ online audience monthly rankers to Latin America, publishing their first Ranker for the 25 top-performing LATAM streaming audio stations and networks. Data comes from the Webcast Metrics audience measurement platform, from January 2017.

Prisa Radio (Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Mexico) is top of the list, based on average active sessions from Monday to Sunday, with 40.5k; followed by Grupo Acir (Mexico, 6.6k) and Grupo JBFM (Brazil, 5.2k). Even North American radio made it to the list, with AccuRadio, from the United States, in the 10th position.

The full list is available online.