IgnitionOne opened a new office in Brazil earlier this month, taking the number of their global offices to 13. Will Margiloff, CEO appointed home-grown agency veteran and successful entrepreneur, Edmardo Galli as Managing Director of their new operation which is based out of Sao Paulo. The company enters Brazil with a solid base of clients, such as Brazilian Telco, Telefonica and global automotive, travel and hospitality brands.

Speaking on the phone with SEW, Galli outlined the digital opportunity in Brazil. There are over 85 million Brazilians online, with 97 percent of those online using social networks. 56 million users from Brazil makes it the second largest country on Facebook - wiping out Orkut and toppling Google as the most visited site. 75 percent of those online accessing the web via mobile devices, which is the second most popular access point to the internet.

"Brazil commands 70 percent of all Latin American e-commerce sales and has highest per capita online spend," Galli said.

According to eMarketer, advertising spend in Brazil from 2011 to 2012 will grow by approximately 16 percent of which the fastest growing channel will be online where budgets are estimated to grow by approximately 71 percent.

During the call, Margiloff chimed in, "We see Brazilian marketers being able to leapfrog the digital challenges that US, Asian and European markets have faced. Testing strategies in Brazil is going to be shrunk down to two years and the typical pain points felt in other markets can be eliminated from the outset. Brazil is hotbed of creative talent and IgnitionOne can help Brazilian marketers accelerate their digital know-how with 'battle-tested' technology to find innovative ways to circumvent local challenges."

Galli agreed, "Here in Brazil we have really sophisticated marketers but there is a lack of tools. They just don't have all the toolsets needed in the digital marketing space. We would like multinational companies to join Brazil and find help us find solutions."

Echoing Galli, Margiloff said, "For example, Telefónica has 40m mobile subscribers and it is their job to work out how to make use of all the online data. We understand that we can't serve our customers remotely and we need to provide a world class customer service with an understanding of the local culture and also understand what makes our technology work for them."

"When we go into a market we go into it for the long haul. We've tried to enter market with bright people - we need to make Brazilian marketers smarter. Our aim is to be a partner rather than a vendor, enter with local know how and expertise and position ourselves as thought leaders."

IgnitionOne's new MD for Brazil Galli, is best known in marketing circles for launching, 10’ Interactive (10’ Minutos), one of the first digital agencies in Brazil in 1996. Galli sold the agency to Ogilvy & Mather which subsequently became Ogilvy Interactive in Brazil.

In an interview with PulsoSocial Galli also made some interesting comments about the Brazilian market.

"It’s such a distinctive market that it has to be run by local people… The interesting point is that we usually skip all the years of testing that go by in the United States in developing the market. We arrive late in the game and just adopt the solutions that have already been tested in the United States."

With the online market in Brazil showing a distinctive propensity towards mobile and social as the de facto access points to the web, it may not be long before we will be looking to Brazilian marketers to learn a thing or two about Earned Media and M-commerce.

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