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S4M Closes Offices in Brazil; Mobile Reaches 13% of Digital Travel Sales

In this week's LATAM RoundUp: French S4M steps back of Brazil, transferring their local operations to Miami and dismissing the team members in Sao Paulo; Mobile already represents 13% of the digital travel market in Brazil, according to Criteo's Travel Flash Report; and finally the first results of the local market in 2016 with Harrenmedia and Adsmovil numbers in Latin America.

S4M transfers LATAM operations to Miami, steps out of Brazil

The French mobile programmatic platform S4M announced the end of their Brazilian operations, just after completing one year with local offices in Sao Paulo and two years of local business. The Latin American operations are being transferred to Miami, whereas FTPI/Boobox will begin charge of representing S4M in Brazil.

The company did not give many details, but it’s known that S4M is creating a hub in Miami that will join their business efforts from the New York offices and develop further contracts focusing on Mexico, Colombia and Panama — betting on the potential of the Caribbean market.

Several team members in Brazil were dismissed, but the company did not mention the future of the staff in the official statement. Instead, they mentioned “new businesses in the [Brazilian] Northeast coast, South and Rio de Janeiro, with good expectations also in Brasília”.

The official statement also points out the opportunity to offer the Latin American inventory to the hispanic market in the United states, exchanging good practices among the players. “Our presence in Brazil is covered and it will be scalable with FTPI/BooBox, which will have a dedicated team for that”, said the company.

Mobile platforms boost tourism market in Brazil

Mobile transactions already represents 17% of online travel reservations in Brazil. Smartphones are the preferred mobile devices for purchasing airline tickets and accommodation, with 13% of the online market share.

Data comes from Criteo’s “Travel Flash Report” study, which also emphasised that the usage of smartphones and tablets for travel reservations between June 2015 and June 2016 has risen by 31%. Criteo analysed travel sales from ~1,000 travel agencies and advertisers in the sector.

Brazil is the third country in the ranking of smartphone preference over tablets, behind Turkey and Japan. “In order to attract new users or to retain customers who already take advantage of the smartphones, it is necessary to invest more in services, simplifying them. Not to mention the websites, which should be mobile friendly or offer an app”, commented Fernando Tassianry, general manager, Criteo Brazil.

Adsmovil’s and Harrenmedia reveal their revenues in Brazil

Adsmovil completed their third year with local operations in Brazil with a growth by 60% in the number of clients and by 40% in the number of campaigns. According to the company, 2016’s positive performance was mainly due to their mobile programmatic platform and new formats of video ads, such as vertical and 360º.

Alberto Pardo, CEO, Adsmovil, emphasised how important local teams are to achieve a good performance in Latin America. Also, local partnerships, such as alliances with MOAT and AppsFlyer, were successful strategies in the local market.

Adsmovil has been focused on Latin influences in general also in the United States. One of their projects in 2016 was the "Latino Voice”, in partnership with University of Florida. They have mapped the votes from Latin communities in the American elections.
The Latin American company Harrenmedia also disclosed their results for the year: an increase by 150% in the sales, boosted by video and mobile research to advertisers and agencies. Some of the company’s biggest contracts were also signed this year, such as Mondelez, Samsung, Fiat, Bayer and Renault.

“Considering all the political and economic uncertainties in brazil, the first semester was below expectations. However, great variety of digital platforms and our positioning as ‘human and digital intelligence’ platform changed this scenario and our commercial teams were able to perform positively, above the average”, said Alex Baptista, country manager, Harrenmedia Brazil.