In this Latin American RoundUp we bring you three stories: another acquisition of a Brazilian company by a big media group — WPP bought Grupo Máquina; Teads reveals its goals for Brazil in 2016, given the opportunities in native video and mobile; and finally Nielsen launches its social media metrics product.

WPP buys Grupo Máquina

Cohn & Colfe, an agency part of WPP group, announced last Monday (18 January) that the company has closed a deal to purchase the majority of Grupo Máquina, a Brazilian PR and communications agency, the forth biggest company in the sector. Neither the price of the deal nor the percentage was disclosed.

This is the forth acquisition of the British group in Brazil — which has been investing heavily in several approaches of digital market in the country. In 2014, Kantar media bought Grupo Ibope Media, a metrics and media measurement institute. More recently, in September 2015, WPP also acquired Concept-BR and Agência Ideal — which joined the PR and digital content branch of the group.

Grupo Máquina was founded in 1995 by Maristela Mafei and now will operate as Máquina Cohn & Wolfe. Mafei remains in the company as a general manager, reporting directly to Donna Imperato, Cohn & Wolfe, CEO.

The acquisition is an example of how overseas media agencies are investing in Brazil, boosted by the devaluation of the local currency, according to some industry leaders. The last similar deal was made late last year, when Omnicom bought Grupo ABC.

Teads aims to double Brazilian operations

In an interview with Karen Ferraz, ExchangeWire Brazil, Pierre Chappaz, CEO, Teads, gave details about expectations and plans for the year — highlighting the goals of the company given the opportunity during the Olympic Games, in August in Rio de Janeiro.

The company grew its income by 65% in 2015, reaching US$140 m (approximately £98 m). Latin America is now its forth largest market — after the United States, the United Kingdom and France — and Brazil represents half of the region, growing by 15%. “[Brazil] is a market where media trading is still quite traditional, and this is very important to understand here when comparing the country to other places in the world. But this is changing to software, and we are seeing more guaranteed deals, specially as leaders start to trust players and tools in the ad tech scenario”, said Chappaz.

Chappaz revealed that Teads aims to double its operations in Brazil, where it has already closed deals with a great number of publishers such as O Globo, Estadão, IG and Terra. Among advertisers, the SSP platform has been used by TAM, Natura and Hipermarcas — and a recent partnership with MediaMath in Latin America focus to increase the business even more.

“The quality of the inventory still needs to have a better quality, improving specially the premium inventory”, said Chappaz. Among the opportunities in 2016, he points out native video and mobile — criticising bad planned pre-roll campaigns in such ambients.

The full interview can be read on ExchangeWire Brazil (in Portuguese).

Nielsen launches social media monitoring

Nielsen announced its Social Content Rating, measuring for the first time conversations and metrics in social media. Firstly, the only latin american country in which it will be available is Mexico.

“Social Content Ratings is part of our efforts to measure campaigns in a cross-platform scenario”, justified the company in a press release. Nielsen also clarifies that a lot of interactions about TV content happens before or after the content is being broadcasted.

The launch received criticism from the industry. Pry Marcondes, director, Meio e Mensagem, published an article in which classifies the product as a “late release” — taking too long to respond to the demands of the digital market.