This week’s LATAM roundup: Brazilian e-commerce expects growth during this year’s Black Friday; Walter Longo leaves Grupo Abril, Tassinari leaves Criteo to join Taboola; and digital media purchases surpass social media campaign management among Brazilian agencies.

Brazilian e-commerce expects growth during this year’s Black Friday

Black Friday in Brazil has entered e-commerce's most-awaited dates in the Brazilian market a couple of years ago; and many data-driven companies release data in the period forecasting the numbers of online purchases during the weekend. This year, the expectations are high: the sector forecasts R$2.5m (£580m) in sales between November 20th and 24th, an increase by 18% compared to last year’s performance. The numbers were compiled by the Brazilian Association of E-commerce (ABComm), which also expects 10 million purchases in the period, with an average ticket of R$240 (£55).

Currently, Black Friday is the second most important date for e-commerce in the country, just after Christmas, according to Google and Ibope recent surveys. The intention of online purchases remains the same this year as in 2016, with 87% of Brazilian internet users saying they want to make at least one purchase online. Mobile is growing in preference among users, jumping from 22% in 2016 to 31% this year mentioned as the preferred way of purchases in the period. Nine-in-10 internet users say they will research prices before closing a deal online, and 56% will use search to look for discounts — slightly up from 53% in 2016.

According to Criteo, mobile already represents 44% of the Brazilian online retail market. In general, apps represent 16% of the mobile market — and the same percentage of desktop purchases have originated in mobile.

Last year, e-commerce business saw an increase by 302% of their online transactions during Black Friday, says RTB House, after analysing around 400 campaigns in ten different markets in a report around the date in different markets. In Brazil, online traffic during Black Friday tends to be 103% higher, when compared to the rest of the month of November.

This year, RTB House expects similar numbers – the conversion rate in 2016’s Black Friday was 70% higher than the previous year. “The increasing investment in digital advertising and the growth of people buying online make us believe that we will see a new record in 2017”, said Rodrigo Lobato, country manager, RTB House.

Walter Longo leaves Grupo Abril; Tassinari leaves Criteo to join Taboola

Walter Longo has left the presidency of Grupo Abril, one of the biggest Brazilian print and online publishers. He is now part of the administration council of the group, related to innovation and strategic decisions. Arnaldo Figueiredo, who has been the Grupo Abril’s vice-president for the past 15 years, was nominated president.

In the ad tech space, Fernando Tassinari has left his position as country manager at Criteo Brazil, which is now on Alessander Firmino’s hands. Firmino has been working as general director, Criteo Latin America, since January 2015. He was one of the responsible team members who brought the company to the region in 2011, as a commercial director and then general manager in Brazil.

Tassinari, on the other hand, has joined Taboola as country manager. The company is a platform for content discovery, offering publisher solutions to distribute their content organically or in sponsored campaigns.

Digital media purchases surpass social media campaign management among Brazilian agencies

For the first time, digital media purchases surpassed social media management when it comes to the most requested services to Brazilian digital ad agencies (82% versus 81.7%, respectively), according to a recent study by Resultados Digitais and Rock Content. The study heard 1042 team members of agencies in Brazil, between last August and September.

Marketing automation services requests had also a noticeable jump, from 34.5% in the last edition of the study to 51.3%, Another good sign for the maturity of the digital agency market is the adoption of performance metrics, of which organic traffic (60.4%), sales (49.3%), and leads (47.3%) are pointed as the main business KPIs.

The study also reveals that more than half of the agencies (55.6%) increased the number of clients in 2017 and are optimistic about business performance next year. The Brazilian market has around half of agencies (48%) with an average ticket of R$2,000 (£464) for their services. Around 63% has annual revenues about R$120,000 (£27,800).