After reporting on the departure of Duilio Malfatti as general director of Euro RSCG Brazil, as well as that of the creative officer Jader Rossetto a few months before, the network’s regional CEO - Ricardo Monteiro –analyzed the current situation of the Brazilian branch and the local market, in conversation with adlatina.com. He also dares to point out the remarkable differences between the business and creativity in Brazil and Argentina, including the creative officers’ salaries.

Four golds, nine bronzes and almost ninety finalists were reaped by Latin America in the Outdoor category at the 55th edition of Cannes Festival. “The judges were strict and very professional,” said, Fernando Bellotti, the Argentine representative who evaluated the material in this category. As regards the region, he said the level is “very good,” although he recognized that as far as Argentina is concerned at least, “they still prefer to make commercials and not outdoor”.

The American laboratory assigned its Ensure and PediaSure products to the Grup Totalcom advertising agency. Furthermore, Smash BTL, which also belongs to the Totalcom Group, will run the below the line business.

(Cannes, Wednesday June 18 2008, 5.40 pm – local time. Special correspondent) – From a personal point of view it was a positive outcome, but his participation as a Radio judge at his edition of the Cannes Festival was disappointingly short in some aspects for Daniel Reynoso. In conversation with adlatina.com he described how the pieces were chosen and highlighted Latin America’s performance.

The president of CP Proximity Chile, Felipe Ríos, will travel to France next week to join the CannesLions Direct judges panel. He is excited at the challenge and at being given the opportunity to see what is being done in the international online world, although Ríos said that “outstanding campaigns” could come from anywhere. From his conversation with adlatina.com, it is clear that Ríos who comes from a “remote and small” country, has not lost sight of the fact that Chile has become “highly competitive.”

As part of a comprehensive campaign that includes graphics, Craverolanis, the agency headed by Juan Cravero and Darío Lanis, designed a series of roadside actions for the Orbital lens brand inviting people to kiss “with unbridled passion.” The article contains a link to see the campaign.

Daniel Reynoso thinks that the country has registered too few examples at Cannes – only 25 for the category - considering the amount of good advertising that can be heard on Argentine radio. In this interview, we offer the opinion of the partner and CGD of Dialogo Publicidad, the only Argentine judge at the Festival serving on the Radio panel.

Ricardo Martino, general manager of Savaglio/TBWA, reflected on the agency’s performance in 2007 and highlighted the use of the main network tools, the continuity of Sangre and the work put in by Ernesto Savaglio.

The agency headed by the creative Rodrigo Gomez announced that a new client had been added to their portfolio: Nexustel. This addition is relevant because it will allow them to work for the North American market.

In May Unilever Latin America will carry off the prize for Advertiser of the Year in El Sol, to become the first Latin American company ever to be awarded this honor in the Festival.

She has joined Africa to fill the role of general accounts director for Philips. The executive has just left TBWA/BR, where she was accounts vice-president. The opinion from Africa was that Lang is “very well prepared for the position thanks to her broad experience with international accounts”.

Michael Wall was named chief executive of BBDO Portugal. The executive, who moved to Portugal in 2006 without any plans for working, cut his ties with Fallon in May last year to go on a sabbatical. Ten years ago, Wall launched Fallon London together with Robert Senior, Laurence Green, Andy McLeod and Richard Flintham.

On Wednesday 26th the first edition of the Latin American Mobile Marketing Forum took place at the Sao Paulo Sofitel Hotel. The event was sponsored by the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association), the global concern devoted to marketing mobile telephones. One of 26 presenters, André Zimmerman, general director of Media Contacts Brazil, gave his point of view on the potential of this discipline. The details of his address are in this interview.

Publicis Groupe prevailed in the pitch for Bank of America’s media account, valued at 234 million dollars. Those competing were Universal McCann, of Interpublic, the digital company AvenueA/Razorfich and Prometheous, of Omnicom, the media center that had held the account up to then, and Starcom who was the winner.

The agency headed by Miguel Nóbrega must begin to search for a replacement this month of chief creative officer, held up to now by Jorge Teixeira, who announced that he is leaving the agency March 31.

During the presentation of El Sol in Argentina, adlatina.com interviewed the regional general director of Young & Rubicam, Guillermo Vega, who will be a judge for the movie and television category. Vega admitted that he is excited to be one of the judges at the Festival because of “the excellent level of the pieces that are presented and for the Latin American quality.”

Only a short time after launching his own project with Mariano Minini –Veintiuno-, Damián Coscia has been tempted away by the multicultural agency Diego + Heymann + Partners to take over the position of general creative director. “I didn’t start out on any kind of search”, said Coscia. He reports he was called in by a consultant for some interviews and found the project very interesting. Coscia – who left La Fusión at the end of last year – will be traveling to Miami next week. “The truth is it scares me a little”, he said about his relocating definitely to this North American city.

The local MindShare branch carried out a survey to assess the role of women today in Argentine society. More than half the respondents believed that male chauvinism is no longer as widespread due to people having managed to free themselves of “former prejudices”. The report also analyzes the way Woman’s Day – to be celebrated next March 8th – is perceived, and underlines certain qualities identified among women occupying positions of authority or power: responsible, efficient, competitive and unyielding.

“I have been at DDB for 4 weeks. I spent 98% of the time traveling to get abreast of everything,” said Juan Carlos Ortiz making his debut in his new position, agency and holding: president of DDB Latin America. The trips took him to the Buenos Aires branch of DDB, where Ortiz presented his vision to José Luis Longinotti, president of the agency; Hernán Jáuregui and Pablo Batlle, CGDs, who all listened enthusiastically. “I was telling Lolo, that Juan Carlos Ortiz’s words are music to our ears,” said Jáuregui. Meanwhile, Longinotti recognized that the key to Ortiz’ arrival is his creative profile.

Tuesday at 7 pm, the official ceremony handing over command of the Círculo Creativo de México took place at the Industria Film Studio. José Manuel Pepe Montalvo – creative VP at Ogilvy México as from the beginning of the year – will replace José Arce – partner and general director of Kastner & Partners – as president of the Circle. At the previous edition of the Círculo de Oro, Montalvo had served on the Television, Radio, Print, Exterior and Innovation Media judges panel.

He is the chairman of BBDO Argentina and Círculo de Creativos Argentinos. At the end of May he will chair the Graphic and Radio judges panels at the El Sol Latin American Communication Festival. Well known for his advertising career and recognized as a presenter, Carlos Pérez reflected on the current situation of Argentine creativity, in conversation with adlatina.com.

Spokesmen for the Brazilian Neogama/BBH explained to adlatina.com that “the designation was not the result of a contest but the recognition of the agency’s work, and that they have strengthened the team with two creative directors by hiring Wilson Mateos – ex AlmapBBDO – and promoting Márcio Ribas. The agency headed by Alexandre Gama, who is also the creative general director and supervises the creative and planning areas, also announced that during 2007 it grew 81% compared to the previous year, “the largest growth of the 20 main agencies of the country according to the Ibope/Monitor ranking,” and a turnover of 430 million dollars.

Over the last five years, beauty care and cosmetic brands have undergone a sustained rise in advertising investment. The data from a survey carried out by the Mindshare media center confirms the tendency: Argentineans are increasingly concerned about their body image and aesthetics. Cosmetic surgery to “enhance beauty” is growing in the country. Half way through last year, for example, the investment volume for 2006 had already been reached in the skin care and facial cream categories.

JWTPharma, the division of JWT Mexico specializing in marketing pharmaceuticals and health products, recently added Jorge Soldevilla to their ranks as creative general director. His arrival coincided with an increase of accounts at the agency headed by Rocío Elizond: JWTPharma has just been chosen by Roche to work on communication for Xenical, their weight-loss drug. In an interview by adlatina.com, Soldevilla spoke about the responsibility of doing advertising for the pharmaceutical industry.

Grey Spain announced the arrival of Ramiro Bernardo and José Carlos Gómez at the Madrid branch, as creative director and art director, respectively. Both will work for the Madrid City Hall and the Red Cross and will also be in charge of new business.

The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, is contemplating taking Ryanair to court because of an unauthorized ad in which he appears next to his fiancée. The airline’s campaign refers to Sarkozy’s future marriage to the Italian singer Carla Bruni and, obviously, to their flight’s low prices. It is not the first time that Ryanair creates controversy by including European politicians in its campaigns.

(by Valentina Vescovi, adlatina.com staff). AlPunto celebrated on Friday afternoon. After ten intense days competing with another eight agencies for a share of the Time Warner Hispanic account, they received the news that they were the giant’s favorite. AlPunto CGD, Diego Castillo in conversation with this media, said “It is an elusive account because years ago the agency also was a pitch finalist, but nothing came of it.” Wiglatino had run the Time Warner account for the Hispanic market of USA for a year and a half.

(by Valentina Vescovi, of adlatina.com’s staff). One is at a bus stop waiting for a ride. The shelter shows photos of bills that advertise some type of service, but a closer look shows that the bills are an invitation to add credit to your mobile phone, right then and there, through a digital system. The outdoor becomes interactive. Just like Money goes digital by OMD and TBWA\Whybin New Zealand, there are many to be seen in the world, and media landscapes can no longer be painted like a picture, but as a succession of incidents. In conversation with this media, the regional CEO of Omnicom Media Group, Mauricio Sabogal gave his point of view on the media outlook in Latin America, the tendencies of advertisers’ media purchasing, investment percentages in the increasingly multiple platforms, and tendencies. He also announced the launching of MediaClick, a new conglomerate network that appeared in the region but that will be implemented worldwide.

According to Universal McCann’s recently published report on advertising investment 2007 and estimates for 2008, world advertising investment will be 653,900 million dollars this year. The figure reflects a 4.6% increase in 2007’s values. Notwithstanding its recession, the United States will manage to maintain its investment volume thanks to the Super Bowl, the Olympic Games and the presidential elections. In the rest of the world, Argentina, China and Russia will be the countries to show most growth.

This adlatina.com columnist gave his opinion on the panorama presented by the US elections after the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. He also spoke about consultants fees and how much the candidates are willing to fork out in the race to the White House.