In this week's LATAM Roundup, the following stories: a new regulation published in Brazil established that video advertising campaigns should be registered in the local Association and pay the Condecine fee, the same way TV and cinema ads are charged; WhatsApp reveals that 10% of their user base is Brazilian, even though it's unclear how Facebook monetises the platform; and local hires in the industry, such as Marco Calliari, Ipsos Brazil new CEO.

Brazilian video ads now to pay extra fee

According to a new regulation published last month by the Nacional Cinema Association in Brazil (Ancine, in Portuguese), Brazilian film producers are obliged to register their audiovisual advertising films made to be published on the internet. That means they are also liable to pay the Condecine fee, mandatory for video advertising in the country, and the digital fee is calculated in the same way of the TV or cinema fee.

The new rule was released by the Brazilian Association of Audivision Productions (Apro), who emphasised the importance of complying with the new rules — especially because “digital advertising is now great part of producers' revenues”.

The specs established that the existing regulation now applies also to “public broadcasting of, at least, 23 frames per second, excluding GIFs and ad banners made with similar technologies”, leading the market to believe that banners, and other forms of digital ads other than video, are included. All the information is available in Ancine’s website (in Portuguese).

10% of WhatsApp's user base is in Brazil

WhatsApp revealed that 10% of their worldwide user base are Brazilians: there are 120 million active accounts in the country. According to the Nacional Telecommunications Agency (Anatel, in Portuguese), the app is installed on at least half of the 242.8 million mobile devices in the country.

WhatsApp was acquired in 2014 by Facebook for USD$19.2bn (£14.8bn), and it is still unclear about its revenue stream. It’s known that the large active user base in Brazil might have brand opportunities; but the country wasn’t chosen to be one of the markets in which Facebook is testing paid services for the platform.

Ipsos Brazil has new CEO, and other hires in the local ad industry

Ipsos Brazil presented Marcos Calliari as their new CEO, after Alexandre de Saint-León’s departure to join Ipsos Connect in Asia Pacific alongside Silvia Herranz. Calliari is familiarised with the company, having been working as head of Ipsos’ market intelligence division.

Changes also in agencies in Brazil: Mario D’Andrea, president and CCO, Dentsu Aegis, is now president of the Brazilian Advertising Agencies Association (Abap). He mentions the recovery of self-esteem for professionals in the industry and the importance of giving the economic context for the market as the challenges during his period ahead of the institution.

Finally, André Chueri left multiplatform operations at RecordTV to assume the role of president at Ampfy. The executive has more than 17 years experience in the Brazilian ad market, recently being CEO at Click Isobar ad agency. At Ampfy, he will he head of the digital advertising agency operations with the shareholders: CEO, Pedro Cabral; and Gabriel Borges, planning director.