Portada asked 15 major panregional marketing and media executives, the so-called cream of the cream in Latin American-panregional decision making, about what to expect for 2014, what countries and ad categories will be the leading ones and where they see the main challenges and oportunities for the industry. The wide gamut of opportunities and challenges cited include Programmatic Buying, Taking the most advantage of the World Cup, getting more bidders at Mobile RTB exchanges, Social Media advertising, Integrated TV-Mobile Campaigns, Social Media & Video,Content Curation and Creation and more. Below 15 points of view every panregional marketer and media professional should be in the know about.

The questions:

1 )Where do you see the main opportunities for panregional advertising growth in 2014?

1a) What ad categories do you see growing the most?

1b) What countries do you see growing the most?

2 ) What are the main challenges?

3) Where do you see the main room for improvement for Latin American agencies?

Alejandro Campos Carles – Co – Managing Director & Founder – StartMeApp

1)We are receiving requests from global agencies and some specific brands for the Brazilean market mainly.

1a) Services, Entertainment, Technology, Games and Corporate presence.

2) For StartMeApp 2014 challenge is to become the absolute leader as mobile RTB exchange in the Latam and Hispanic market. Our challenge for this year is to activate a seat on our “self service, demand side platform” for at least 5.000 global bidders.

3) Agencies will need to accept and adapt mobile as a part of media mix and promote mobile budgets and technology value for their brands.

Guido Conterno – Director Ejecutivo – GDA

1) Knowing how to extend before and after the Brazilian 2014 Cup.

1a)  Tourisms and Technology.

2) Balancing in Latam the print and digital media mix and design 360 campaigns that are not a copy paste among different ATL & BTL platforms.

3) Learning how to integrate ATL & BTL platforms to maximize the audience behavior not the basic ROI index.

Leandro Cruz de Paula – Chief Revenue Officer – US Media Consulting

1) One area with panregional growth potential in Latin America is programmatic buying. While larger markets like the US will lead the growth in this region, Latin American advertisers are also well aware of its potential and in fact we’re helping a number of brands through MediaDesk, our online ad buying platform. Programmatic has appeal due to the potential to target audiences more precisely and at market prices, and this was partly why we created MediaDesk in the first place. From an advertising standpoint, social media also has huge potential for growth in Latam. Brands now appear to be much more willing to invest in social media advertising and now understand the high level of engagement that Latin Americans have with social media. For instance, we’ve noticed strong interest and investment ever since we launched our Facebook Exchange retargeting partnership with Triggit. The advertisers know that Facebook takes up 94% of the time Latin Americans spend on social media and are now seeing that heavy engagement translate into strong response.
Another growth area that we think could surge in 2014 is the integrated TV/mobile campaign. We’ve noticed a sharp uptick in business once we started selling Shazam in Brazil and other countries in Latin America. This speaks to the fact that more and more Brazilians are watching TV with their smartphones or tablets—or both. As such, it makes sense to try to reach consumers with a campaign that blends mobile and TV the way that Shazam does.

1a) With the recovering of the world economy and some big events scheduled to happen in Latam this year, global brands will turn their dollars to Latam to maximize the returns and protect or expand their market share. The Internet penetration will keep growing steadily as portable (tablets and mobile) access become ubiquitous both in high population and rural areas. With that we tend to see most of the consumer products brands investing in 360 campaigns that would combine the power/penetration of TV/Radio to the interactiveness of the Internet and the multiplying factor of the social nets.
We’re running campaigns for a variety of ad categories and currently there isn’t one particular category that brings us more business than others. That said, based on our market observations, it seems like tech products have great potential for growth in Latam, particularly mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Travel also seems to have potential because Latin Americans seem to be leisure traveling more than ever before and many are making their travel arrangements online. Finally, clothes are one of the top products that Latin Americans purchase online through e-commerce, suggesting that we could see many more fashion brands step up their investment levels.

2) Some political and economical instabilities are still in place in the region and not all the main brands have learned how to overcome those barriers. Partnering with local players that have the expertise in doing business in several currencies and with different taxes models will be key to succeed.

3) Agencies must be able to concentrate their investments and resource in what is their core expertise and have an ecosystem of partners in the region to operate all the rest locally. With a vast amount of local media companies, some specific laws about content production and localization and even the ability (or lack of) to move investment from one country to another, agencies must rely on partners that are able to fulfill that operation smoothly, helping them to getting even better in their core businesses.

 Alfonso Cueto – ESPN – Sr Director – Multi Media Sales

1) We’re finding growth centered around advertising partnerships based on a foundation of customized content development. These type of partnerships thrive with scale on our television networks and engagement in our digital and social platforms.

1a) Technology, personal care products, travel/hotels, telecommunications, and movie studios.

1b) In a general sense Mexico and Brazil. From ESPN’s perspective we have a strong focus to grow Colombia as we’ve introduced localized content and talent, as well as opening up an ESPN Colombia office at the end of 2013. The company is extremely excited about our potential for growth in that market.

2) More options for advertisers to spend, such as search and social media. Additionally, limitation of minutes in certain markets such as Mexico and Argentina force us to be smarter with the management of our inventory and pricing.

3) We’re seeing some of this already but it is crucial to move away from a low cost, rotator type mindset, and continue to improve and mature towards multi platform engaging sponsorships centered around a creative idea that is editorially relevant for our fans but connects with the brand in a unique and powerful way.

Helber Díaz – Director – MediaBrands Miami

1) Many opportunities in the pan regional market, the main stream could be:

• Social Media & Video will remain with higher growth , tied to this trend Content -curators and creators- have a great opportunities ahead. Due to increasing media vehicles , (more tv channels , apps, web pages, social page , etc) the demand for multi platform tools/software focused quality performance and efficiency will be an opportunity. Additionally, Analytics – is key as a part of the pan regional service , delivering take aways for more marketing areas.
• Emerging brands for pan regional media and agencies represent great opportunities. Many of them will have an start up mindset, this means a new business model for these projects will be essential.

1a) Telecommunication & Technology, Ecommerce & Social Commerce, Tourist, Beverages, Education.

1b) Tier I Brazil and Mexico. Tier II Colombia & Chile.

2) The Business model between media, agencies and clients is changing , buying performance will move from price to engagement or ROI metrics, this means a mutual commitment between all industry players. A new generation of workers (Millennials) with new aspirations and priorities will have an effect on agencies talent retention policies and/or this agencies will create new structures in order to fit with the new workers culture. An Advertising market raising on Programatic buying and performance , will need a new currency based on trust and transparency. Big Data, Mobile apps and Social networks are reading the consumer changes , agencies will manage those tools to give the brands real advantage , this means adjust or renew knowledge , tools and staff.
Content Becomes a “Channel” , brands will acquire or create their own content to support long term media actions and/or social media. Media vehicles/channesl are raising, maintain the same reach is not affordable anymore.

3) Companies’ marketing departments are transitioning to a data-driven approach, in order to deliver tangible effects on ROI results. Agencies will need to improve their analytics tools and staff in place , allowing measurement of the effectiveness through multi platform sources.

Cynthia Evans – MEC Latin America

1) Online and video, TV plans are becoming video plans that include traditional linear TV plus online video a la YouTube, and a host of other video streaming and download offers – from Netflix and Crackle to Glu.

1a) Personal care, telecom, automotive and the media themselves are leading in nearly every market.

2) Commercializing offers, of whatever kind, from messaging to data; and uncertainty related to government regulation and evolution of media offer.

3) Back to basics of communication investment now that the messaging portfolio is more than main broadcast TV vendors.

Lucio Grimaldi – VP, Managing Director – Publicitas Latin America & US Hispanic

1) I believe pan-regional advertising is going through an evolution and transformation from the traditional perception associated with it. In these terms, we see digital, mobile and video as the main opportunities for growth in 2014 and the near future. We are also seeing the first signs of growth in the automation field, which will also have a big impact in the way that “pan-regional” buys have been perceived and done.

1a) Technology, Travel & Tourism, and Entertainment.

1b) In terms of growth I see Mexico, Colombia and Peru. Also, despite a recent slowdown in the economy, Brazil will obviously remain as the key and largest market in the region.

2) The main challenges are given by specific political and economic scenarios is key markets as Argentina, Venezuela (and Brazil) to a certain extent. Some of the policies adopted in these markets completely challenge pan-regional buys and force many brands to act or have operations at a local level (or in some cases leave these markets).

3) I am a big advocate for integration and presenting integrated solutions to clients and agencies. I have seen many agencies taking a very positive step in this direction and adopting an integrated mindset, especially during the last year. I see this as the biggest opportunity for improvement in this region, not only for agencies but also for brands, publishers and content-related companies.

Carlos Gutierrez – CEO Miami McCann

1) Main opportunities are in the digital space. By its very nature, digital (in whatever expression: display, search, social media, microblogging, digital production, etc. is the ideal medium for a centrally managed origination.

2) It is difficult not to fall for the usual cliches that affect the entire industry and not just the panregional community. If I try to zero IN on a specific pan regional challenge I’ll go for appropriate versioning. Regardless where the material was originated it has to truly sound (and be perceived as) Brazilian to Brazilians, Mexican to Mexicans and so on and so forth. That requires a lot of effort to do it right. We still see some centrally-managed communication efforts that by attempting to be “regional” end up sounding foreign in every country and local in none. We have to keep in mind that “Latin americans” don’t exist. What we have is Argentineans, Brazilians, Mexicans, Colombians, etc. The only ones who pursue a regional view are regional marketers and agencies. Local consumers care only so much about what’s going on in the other countries, so the communications must still feel local to them.

3) Metrics and accountability. LatAm agencies in most cases still have a long way to provide the level of analysis and intelligence that the current volume of performance information available can potentially deliver. That could translate in enormous productivity gains for agencies and clients, but still (as an overall industry) we have not put our finger on it.

Fernando Maroniene – Group Manager Marketing, Latin America & Caribbean – Adobe

1) The shift to digital is inevitable, as it is can be measured and monetized. Adobe understand this trend as 75% of the Adobe WW ad spend is currently digital. Some areas of opportunities are:
· Digital Magazines and Apps : Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) solution is powering significant circulation growth and reader engagement in digital magazines. Since the launch of Adobe DPS, less than three years ago, more than 150 million digital publications have been downloaded on mobile devices (tablets and phones). Those magazines offer a better reading and interactive experiences, to the point that DPS created apps have three times as many unique monthly readers than this time last year. It also gives publishers powerful analytics capabilities to maximize reach, engagement, conversion and retention.

· TV everywhere : Customers want’s to watch TV like experiences content across multiple devices, from TVs to tablets and smartphones. The popularity of consuming broadcast TV online continues to grow dramatically. Adobe Digital Index has seen the number of authenticated streams increase by 400% in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2012. The average number of unique visitors to sites with online TV content grew nearly seven fold in the first six months of the year compared to same period in 2012. In addition, Primetime’s authentication technology is now used by more than 50 TV channels powering more than 100 apps and web sites across all major device platforms including iOS, Android, Windows 8, Xbox, Roku, Apple TV and SmartTVs. Customers of Adobe Primetime authentication technology include Disney, TBS, Inc., Viacom, Fox, NBCU, Scripps, A&E and others.

1b) The countries we see the biggest growth in the above cited technologies are Brazil and Mexico.

2) The main challenge for companies is to define a viable business model for the new technologies. About TV everywhere, the challenge is the same: How to define a sustainable business such as increasing viewer engagement and boost revenue with dynamic ad insertion that seamlessly blends with live or on-demand TV content across devices.

3) The agencies needs to set the pace with technology and understand the new opportunities it brings. For digital magazines for example, is not a matter of replicating the paper magazines on a digital device, but how to create a digital version that enriches the experience making the most of the technology such as incorporating animated info graphics, videos and other resources that are not available in the paper version. In other words, the agencies needs to re-think the way the create ads for the mobile devices.

Fernando Mariano – President Multimedia Inc.

1) With the Word Cup being held in Brazil it seems for me that there will be opportunities for pan regional advertising related to the games, mainly at the participating countries.

1a) Information Technology, Travel.

1b) Brazil, Argentina, Mexico.

2) Competitive pricing.

3) Digital media opportunities.

Fernando Monedero – SVP, Head of Middle Office & Digital Specialties of Havas Media Miami

1) Thanks to the technology evolution in pan-regional markets, the consumer is getting more connected and they are using multiple platforms, so marketers and sellers are finding new and better ways to connect and target them. Because of these developments, I see “mobile” as one of the main advertising trends, the brands will use this to approach the consumers closer to the moment of purchase via geo-targeted activities. We will continue keeping growth in buys through “Real-time bidding (RTB)” models, making faster and more effective marketing strategies, implementations, and optimizations. And “Social Media” will become the link with the experience of multiscreen usage where the advertisers will be more confident than before.

On the other hand, cable TV will remain as the “king” for marketers looking for branding and reach, but they will mix it with online video strategies, to maximize their results. Other “off line” channels, such as print, cinema, radio or OOH, will continue decreasing their usage relevance for marketers, except for brands looking for specific location or seasonality advertising goals.

1a) With the advent of cookies and tags technologies, marketers are getting very specific consumer data information regarding behaviors and activities which is resulting in the deeper analysis of results, helping them to confirm the success of their advertising investments. This technology is going to be key for “Retail” sellers and it will be the reason why the category will grow significantly in 2014.

Other important subject to consider this year is the “Soccer World Cup”; this classic event will dramatically increase, the advertising activity of categories such as “sports” and “entertainment”. The right brand content development will be key for them.

1b) Local politics and currency fluctuation normally has a strong influence on the Latin American Region. While the outlook is favorable it can change quickly. I would hope for a recovery in Argentina and continued growth in Mexico and Chile, but other than those countries, the country with the biggest growth potential will be Brazil because of the “World Cup”, which is a major international event. Brazil has the largest population in South America, an expanding economy, and a reasonably stable political outlook.

2) The overall marketplace is rather crowded. The challenge is to make a difference, using the various scenarios of marketers, agencies, channels, and devices, which continue to increase and evolve. To be successful it is essential to innovate and update.
On the other hand, the capacity of strategy and effective results measurement will be key to generating “Trust”, which is the fundamental bond among brands and consumers, marketers and clients, etc. etc.

3) I think Latin American agencies are very creative but this year will must improve their usage of technology, a little far from other neighbor markets as US.

Alberto Pardo – CEO Adsmovil

1) In the past 2-3 years, panregional advertising has changed dramatically , in part because of political and economic situations in countries like Argentina and Venezuela and the emergence of Mexico and Brasil in the Latin context.

I see opportunities for TV and Digital at the most:

Cable Tv will grow this year because of the soccer world cup and regional sponsors wanting to reach large amount of people. I see opportunities on mobile which is the fastest growing segment in the advertisement world today and also in Video formats. On the other hand I see a couple of opportunities: the first one is related to companies coming to LATAM to do business because of the great economic moment in most of the countries and panregional advertising becomes a great product for them.

The second one, is the large amount of local companies opening operations overseas that can leverage panregional advertising.

1a) Cable and Digital will grow the most. Cable TV will grow again partly because of the world cup in Brazil.

Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay , Ecuador , some central American countries and Brazil are going to play the world cup and it is the first time Latin America has so many countries playing the World cup. This will have a huge impact in advertisement investment this year in many countries.

Digital also will experience double digit growth. Mobile will be the key for the growth, Video will also experience growth in all countries.

2)I think there are so many challenges in the panregional advertising. Local budgets still very important for brands specially in Mexico and Brasil, so they compete with regional resources. The variety of types of media, and the complexity of the digital world are really some of the challenges I see.

3) The digital economy has changed dramatically the role of the agencies. There’s a lot of room to improve and to innovate on this regard.

Pedro Quinzaños – President & Managing Director – Virket.

1) We think that in 2014 we will see noticeable growth in digital media advertising that will outgrow television, radio and graphic media advertising. According to ZenithOptimedia, throughout this year and into the year 2015, online advertising will increase by 15%, meaning an overall 66% increase in the region of the global advertising share.  That means that online advertising will demonstrate the highest growth.

Online advertising has many advantages for the advertisers. Unlike the traditional advertising methods of TV or graphic media publishing, where it is only possible to calculate the delivery of message but not the viewer’s attention, online advertising can be tracked and measured 100% with every click, which permits for comprehension of the advertising’s impact, as well as the calculation of profit from the advertising investment.

Furthermore, traditional advertising of the old publishing methods is very intrusive. For example, while watching a television program, a consumer could be forced to watch a product advertising that doesn’t interest him, considering that the advertising space of these media is segmented by large consumer group profiles. Online advertising, however, can be directed at users individually, and, thanks to the user activity registry, it’s possible to use its information to submit announcements that are of their interest without bothering the user with promotions that may not be of his interest.

Advertising is facing a paradigm shift from the outdated and costly advertising (above-the-line), with its massive and doubtful impact, to advertising that is personalized and pinpointed to every individual user, while also completely measurable using ROI (return on investment) methodology. Additionally, the online advertising has its benefits by being cheaper than the mass media advertising. Meanwhile, the consumer also benefits from this shift, since online advertising reduces SPAM and replaces it with announcements of interest.

1a) The fastest advertising will be the kind that is directed at the users of mobile devices, such as tablets and cell phones. According to a study made by eMarketer, by 2016 Latin America will see the largest growth in mobile device advertising, a total of 39%, making it the second region with the most growth in the world. It’s estimated that by 2014 mobile device users in Latin America will reach 430 million, with Brasil, Mexico and Argentina (in the descending order) comprising the regional trend. The online advertising will grow and sustain itself in conjunction with the growing use of mobile devices. This is the year of “retargeting”. The target audience will become more segmented. The key to the marketing is in the user and advertising that is automated accordingly. Using such analysis as Big Data and Predictive Data, it will become possible to get to know the clients better and offer announcements according to their personalized profiles based on the use of cell phones and tablets.

2) The biggest challenge will be to be able to know how to reach and capture the audiences. Internet users are not passive people that can stay for hours in front of the same screen. Instead these users constantly move from one screen to the other, from the screen of their cell phone, to the screen of their computer and to the screen of their smart TV. This highlights the importance of online advertising, since it’s more adaptable and allows announcements to appear on any screen with access to the Internet. It’s crucial that the Latin American businesses understand these circumstances of change and turn to the local production of quality content that will satisfy the growing demands of the users. Consequently, advertising has to be specifically designed for the Latin American market, and not copied from the content of the United States or Europe.

3) According to the analysis of Comscore, 4 out of 5 consumers in Latin America search for products and services online. Nevertheless, many small and midsize businesses let this opportunity pass, since 35% of businesses don’t even have a website. The best opportunity for these businesses is to turn to the digital media. This means that businesses must have a website, where clients can search for products and prices. Businesses also must invest into mobile device advertising, and finally, businesses have to participate in social networks in order to create interactive platforms that can capture potential and future clients.

Latin American companies will have to open themselves to all online platforms in order to maintain their competition levels. They no longer can disregard the digital media, particularly, that of the mobile advertising, due to its expected growth that will become an exceptional opportunity.

Roberto Ricossa – Avaya

1) The digital market in Latin America is increasingly fragmented with data that confirms that brands should have a presence on all possible platforms, with a current PCs and notebooks domain, but with a rapid and uniform growth in smartphones and tablets use. On the other hand, social media and online content video should be an important part of the advertising strategy of companies, without neglecting ads Display type, where Mexico and Brazil outstand for its large number of users connected. After all, Social Networks and Video Files are presented as the main opportunities to develop files segmented marketing campaigns and reach the target audience.

1a) Advertisers face substantial opportunities in the mobile advertising segment, which will have much larger growth than segments, powered by the number of users with an age range between 15 and 34, which account for more than 50 % of Latin America’s digital population.

2) On the other side, it is extremely necessary to integrate advertising generated content for social media, online video channels and e-commerce, where the analysis of real-time data is one of the most important tools for understanding the rapid change of people’s consumer trends.

3) The main challenge that brands and advertising agencies face is to understand the digital world and to keep up with technological advances that directly impact the paradigm shifts of consumption by people. The digital education, both for work teams and customers, is critical to create successful campaigns. Implementation of data analysis tools in real time outstands within the wide range of possibilities open at this point, which quickly allows detecting trends and changes of consumption. In addition, the fact that content marketing campaigns are being generated is ideal to have a presence in all channels.

As well as the brand’s challenge is to identify people’s consumption behaviors, agencies must redouble their efforts to make this happen. At this point, is worth noting the generation of content marketing strategies with increasingly local and segmented guidance, the Big Data necessary concepts implementation and data analysis constitute the horizon digital agencies and Latin American advertising should lead their eyes to.

With the addition that the latter, the ones specialized in traditional ads, have an obligation to incorporate Online Marketing departments in the short and medium term. Finally, agencies with clients whose brands operate in the entire region have a wide spectrum in Brazil to develop their best advertising works. Not only because of the number of inhabitants and its growing markets, but because in just two years, the country will host major sport events in the world: the FIFA 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Latin American markets have far to go, is right there is the main challenge for agencies and brands. In this way that offers endless opportunities, to discover and take advantage of some of them is the only way to achieve success.

(Sources of numerical data: Digital Future in Latin America 2013 by ComScore, Portada Latam Summit, U.S. Digital Consumer vs Latam)

Gaston Taratuta – CEO IMS

1) The main opportunity for pan-regional advertisers, agencies and publishers is the Brazil World cup that take place during June-July 2014.
This event allows advertiser to connect with 500M fans, Miami, as a connecting point for Latin America can help advertisers to send one message across several countries.

1a) All categories who want to relate or be linked to the World cup, official sponsors, those who are not sponsors but are willing to do some ” guerrilla” marketing, etc

Digital advetising will see most of the growth considering most of broadcaster players at the Pan-egional ecosystem do not own world cup rights, but ESPN some how. It will be a bad year for the other players such as Disc, Turner, Sony, etc.

2) The #1 challenge is the compensation model that today does not benefit agencies at all. ” Its a buyers market “, and without a fair compensation for services I do not see agencies equiping themselves with multidisciplinary teams who can understand, for example, new media formats such as, Waze, Spotify or Twitter.

3) Years ago (12) the point of entry to the internet were portals, then moved to search, today in my opinion they are App’s and it will continue to evolve, to keep up with the speed you need dedicated teams and the adequate client to be able to develop these new platforms. So, clients and agencies have a great , great opportunity to extract value that today is on the table.