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Marketing to LatAm: Next steps for Audi and CMR

At the recent Mexican Forum for Advertising and Media, organized by Portada in Mexico City, the advertisers panel included speakers Lucía Carreón, Marketing and Communications Manager for Audi, and Rodrigo Luis Piñero, Marketing Director for Corporación Mexicana de Restaurantes (Mexican Restaurant Corporation, or CMR)...

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At the recent Mexican Forum for Advertising and Media, organized by Portada in Mexico City, the advertisers panel included speakers Lucía Carreón, Marketing and Communications Manager for Audi, and Rodrigo Luis Piñero, Marketing Director for Corporación Mexicana de Restaurantes (Mexican Restaurant Corporation, or CMR), which serves as controller for Chili’s, Wings and other restaurant chains. Both speakers shared their vision of what their brands will do on the media stage next year, which will be saturated with an election war and the Olympics. The panel was moderated by Lidia Rubí Harfush, of Grupo Lala.

Audi aims for segmentation and making smart use of its money

One of Audi’s main concerns is its handling of money, because "luxury brands have very small budgets, as we sell a very small volume," says Carreón.

With this in mind, Audi will seek to find the best advertising investments next year to use their money most effectively. This will not be easy, says Carreón. "It’s also a big challenge, because in our search for better deals, we suddenly find ourselves doing crazy things like negotiating annually to get better rates, thus limiting ourselves if other good deals come along during the year."

Regarding upcoming media saturation as a result of big-budget political campaign advertising and costly ad packages for the Olympics, Carreón says that the key will be to "segment our advertising very well and be very selective."

Migration to digital and BTL

Carreón also discussed the company’s efforts to migrate to digital and BTL: "Year after year, we have been moving our print budgets to online…the money we are moving will also go toward BTL. We sponsor many sports events such as golf and polo, and sometimes also some soccer."

Regarding new technologies, Carreón highlighted the iPad, "which is wonderful, because it not only allows us to have a point of contact, but also to create a database and even sell. It is a very cost-effective platform," she noted.

Looking for “influencers”

Finally, the Marketing Manager for Audi spoke about the importance of receiving recommendations from influential people on social networks, and says it will be one of the company’s focal points in its future marketing efforts: "People on social networks do not always want to talk to the brand.  We know that people prefer and believe more in another person who talks about the brand, rather than hearing it from the brand itself."

CMR aims to capture the consumer’s full attention and make him feel good

Rodrigo Luis Piñeiro, Marketing Director for Mexican Restaurant Corporation (CMR), talked about the changes the brand is making in its advertising investments and the things it plans to keep.

Customer service is one of the things which will remain the same: "At CMR, we will continue doing what we do today, which is to make our clients feel like they're at home."

Regarding upcoming changes, the move to digital will be crucial. "Much of what we’ve done up to now is invest a big part of our budget in local media (print and radio), but now we’ll also be looking a little toward film and migrating to digital," said Piñeiro.

The company’s main goal will be to find platforms where it doesn’t have to compete for the consumer’s immediate attention: "We will go where we have the full attention of the consumer. (In film,) you have the viewer’s full attention, there is no switching."

Brands have to do things that are relevant

As a final thought, Piñeiro said that brands have the challenge of doing important things that can reach more people in an organic way. Regarding what the media presents, "the more relevant the brand is to the consumer, the more relevant it will be for the media outlet to put it into its magazine."

Audi and CMR: What to do about the upcoming electoral war?

Both advertisers shared their perspectives on what to do next year with the tense atmosphere that will surround the upcoming elections.

For Lucía Carreón of Audi, it is clear that much will have to do with content: "With the upcoming electoral war, as brands we will have to face the challenge in a very smart way…by providing highly relevant content, especially on social networks."

Rodrigo Luis Piñeiro of CMR opined: "Given the mood of the people and what will happen politically, people are already maxed out and what we'll do is make people feel at home and that all is well."

Piñeiro also warned that consumer indexes will likely dip due to the uncertain political climate and that "we all need to proceed with more caution."

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