CEO of the agency specializing in OOH, Daniel Simes reviews two years of operation and talks about expectations for the medium
With two years of operation, Streetwise has been consolidating an agency model specialized in out-of-home, which remains one of the fastest growing media in Brazil, today with a 12% advertising share, behind only TV and internet. CEO Daniel Simes states that, to continue evolving, the medium will have to work harder and harder to show results and develop its own metrics. The metric that works for digital is one, for OOH it has to be another. In terms of media platforms, the medium has evolved a lot. What I think needs to evolve are the campaign result metrics, he highlights. In the following interview, the executive says that one of Streetwise’s objectives is to have the best professionals on the team, at the same level as large agencies. Today, the agency has as partners Paul Heath (ex-Ogilvy) and Rodrigo Famelli (ex-Africa), in addition to Daniel Jotta (ex-aldeiah.) as VP/partner.
What is your assessment of the two years since Streetwise was launched? What changed from there to here?
The most important thing was to actually understand the model and put the thesis into practice, correcting several things that we imagined, but only in practice can we understand and prove that the model works. This was the main mission of these two years. In other words, set up an out-of-home agency, which serves customers directly and full service. This is something relatively new. We know that the model of creating independent and, on top of that, segmented agencies in Brazil is difficult, because the culture of large agencies having everything. Breaking through this barrier is difficult work.
Was Streetwise the first with this model in the country?
I wouldn’t say we were the first, because that would be unfair. There is Altermark, which has been doing important work for 20 years, but we developed a concept that will serve advertisers and be full service with creation. There was no such model of having an out-of-home agency serving the advertiser from end to end. We are not born to be a service provider for big agencies. This was the main rupture, because the market acted that way. Agencies cannot do everything and are subcontracting. We chose not to do this and, rather, serve the advertiser directly, because we thought it would generate more value for them.
And how do you see the movement of agencies launching OOH arms today?
I think this movement of creating hubs is good, like Galeria creating Vitrine and Africa, Rua Africa. Firstly, because the market is showing that our thesis makes sense and, secondly, because the agencies themselves are wanting to do something better. Because if everything was fine, they wouldn’t create hubs, departments.
This also has to do with the increased relevance of OOH media, right?
OOH had a 2% advertising share, today it is 12%. A client of mine, the president of a large company, told me something very interesting last week. He said: The way OOH was done was complementary, the end of the strategy. And today it is a relevant part of my business. And I can no longer look, as I did, at the end of the meeting. Having a specialist agency means constantly looking at OOH as strategic. This is how Streetwise wants to shake customers. Famelli (Rodrigo Famelli, co-founder and COO of Streetwise), who was vice-president of media for Africa for 17 years, 100% exclusively thinking about OOH, as well as Daniel Jotta (VP/partner of Streetwise, with experience in vilah., BETC/Havas and DPZ). This was another basic point that I always said: Streetwise will have the best professionals, because I know that to set up a business you have to do something at the same level as the big agencies. This is what Streetwise is proposing: we are specialists, we only do OOH, but the people at the agency are at the same level as the agencies that are on the market. Streetwise’s front-line team can be compared to any top agency leadership. And perhaps the most important characteristic is that the OOH market has transformed a lot in recent years, especially vehicles. It was a static medium, with little technology, with a weak inventory, and today it has become a global reference. Digitized, modern, with the best products. So, we can’t think, plan and create for OOH like we did ten years ago, because it’s another medium.
How is Streetwise evolving?
We started with a client, Banco Santander, which in our view, in addition to being the biggest investment in the medium, has always been the advertiser who understood how to do OOH well in the past. Igor Puga (the bank’s marketing director) had this vision a few years ago. And the agency was completed today by serving Burger King and Kroton. These are the fixed customers. But we do occasional work all over Brazil, as we did for Alice and Enjoei.
Is there room for OOH to grow further in Brazil?
In my opinion, yes. But we have arrived at a time that will be more difficult, because this jump was important, but now how do we go from 12% to 20%? I think there’s a lot of room for growth, but it won’t be simple. The medium will have to work harder and harder to show results, work on metrics, but understanding that we are OOH, we are not digital. The metric that works for digital is one, for OOH it has to be another. Television still has a 50% share and not using digital metrics. If we stop to think about it, there is nothing more backward than television metrics. Ibope with a minimum percentage of people who have devices connected at home. And 50% of the market’s money is going to TV. We need to have metrics specific to OOH, which will build recall, positioning and sales. I think it is important to build metrics and processes to better measure the result. I think this is a lever for growth. I think another lever is necessary to do a better job for brands. Create better for the medium. We need to have more focused work so that the advertiser has the security of putting more and more money into the medium.
Read the full article in the October 9, 2023 edition
