In the first panel of the LatAm Summit on programmatic buying, Diego Fernandez Martin, SVP/Managing Director of Starcom, moderated the conversation between Clara Alvarado, Senior Marketing Manager of Cisco; Marlene Moronta, Marketing Director of Estee Lauder; and Alejandro Campos Carles, Co-Managing Director & Founder of StartMeApp.
So is Latin America ready for Real-Time Bidding (RTB) and programmatic buying?
Clara Alvarado of Cisco said that on the one hand “there are some big infrastructure problems,” but on the other “major companies are also making big investments in order to work with RTB in Latin America.” She added that “today there are some media agencies which are really prepared for programmatic buying, and others that aren’t.”
According to Alejandro Campos Carles of StartMeApp, “Latin America still faces many challenges, but it is experiencing great growth and there are many advertisers these days who need to reach audiences and not media.”
Diego Fernandez of Startcom asked: Is RTB a trend, or is it the future?
“Data is everything, and will still be everything 20 years from now,” answered Campos Carles. For her part, Clara Alvarado said: “I don’t think it’s a trend, I think programmatic buying will make life easier for people, who will no longer be getting ads which are irrelevant for them.” Marlene Moronta of Estee Lauder answered: “I think that some aspects of RTB won’t stay the same as they have been up until now, but I definitely believe we are moving towards programmatic buying.”
Moronta emphasized the importance of producing content in real time, and the importance of placing it correctly, in an organic way. “It doesn’t just have to be good content: it has to be in a relevant context.” Moronta also said that it is “necessary to interact with consumers and that they join in telling your story.”