From Soho to Sao Paulo: Sherlock Digital Opens to Close Anglo-Brazilian Gap

    LONDON, ENGLAND, February 21, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Sherlock Digital (www.sherlockdigital.net), a new digital communications consultancy, officially launches today in London and Sao Paulo, offering a full-scope of digital marketing and communications services to both Brazilian and international brands.

Heading up the new venture are Alasdair Townsend and Leonel de Oliveira, respectively the former Business Strategy Director (and shortlisted Young PR Professional of the Year 2012) and Finance Director of 2013 PRCA Agency of the Year Eulogy!. The Anglo-Brazilian pair is joined by partner Vivianne Cordeiro, ex-Ecommerce & Marketing Director at entertainment and petro-chemical giant, Videolar S/A.

With a specific interest in helping companies successfully enter the Brazilian market and navigate the cultural divide, Sherlock Digital will offer three main service pillars: digital strategy and market-entry consultancy; social media, content and performance campaigns; and design and build services.

Sherlock Digital launches with a team of five staff and a roster of clients within the transport, healthcare and FMCG sectors, which will be led primarily from the Sao Paulo office with support from London.

Explaining the vision and strategy behind Sherlock Digital, Alasdair Townsend, Managing Partner, said: "While no one denies the economic growth and opportunities in the region, many marketers still see Brazil as 'developing' rather than developed. From both a digital and creative point of view, that simply isn't accurate. Some of the best work we've seen in the last five years has come from Brazil and in many respects; this kind of unfettered creativity and technical expertise is not matched in the UK.

"However, there is a danger for international brands that fail to fully understand both the cultural complexities and the sophistication of the Brazilian market before trying to penetrate it. Sherlock Digital's offering is designed to bridge this cultural gap: to harness Brazilian creative energy and overlay it with robust strategic and planning frameworks, traditional strengths from the other side of the Atlantic. In short, by taking the best aspects of our experience in UK and in Brazil, we focus both perspectives to help UK and Brazilian companies realise their international potential."

Martin Raven, former Consul General and Director UK Trade and Investment in Brazil, commented:

"The UK has always been an important trade partner for Brazil and with the strength of the economy and attention stemming from The World Cup and Olympics, more and more companies are beginning to set their sights on the country and beyond Europe. Even though growth has slowed slightly, there are clearly great opportunities for British businesses but the reality is, from a cultural and particularly legislative and operational point of view, there are also many differences, challenges and sensitivities.

"To be effective, especially from a marketing and comms perspective, companies cannot simply assume that what works well in the UK will work well in Brazil, they need robust strategies which harness and are based on local market expertise and insight."

THE BRAZILIAN OPPORTUNITY IN NUMBERS

Brazil forms a key part of the Government's stated industrial strategy and British companies have more than doubled their exports to BRIC nations since before the financial crisis. UK exports to BRICS rose from GBP12.7 billion in 2007 to GBP27.1 billion in 2012, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

In his most recent trade mission to Brazil, speaking at FIESP business association, David Cameron said: "Yours is clearly one of the most successful and fastest-growing economies on our planet. I want to link Britain to all of those countries, and Brazil is prime amongst them" (10 Downing Street, Oct, 2012)

Consumers in Brazil spent more than 27 hours per month online on their desktop computers, representing the highest average engagement of all Latin American markets (Comscore)

The Brazilian internet audience is very young on average, with 18 percent of users age 18-24 and 30 percent of all users age 25-34 (Comscore)

Brazil is the fourth largest mobile market in the world with more than 260 million active mobile connections, 60 million of which are mobile broadband. Brazil is set to maintain a strong pace of growth and reach 135 million mobile broadband connections in 2014. If current trends continue, almost all internet users, and close to 60% of the country's population, will go online using mobile phones by 2017 (GSMA Mobile Observatory)

Social Media sites capture the largest percentage of consumers' browsing time in Brazil at 36 percent. Facebook has emerged as a strong leader in the category with nearly 44 million unique visitors in December 2012, up 22 percent vs. year ago (Comscore)

Brazil is the second largest user of Facebook in the world. Facebook users are mainly concentrated in two of the major cities, with over 34 per cent from Sao Paulo and over 12 per cent from Rio de Janeiro. The majority of users are between the ages of 15 and 24 (Comscore)

With over 41 million users, Brazil ranks second in the world in terms of the number of Twitter accounts and fifth globally in terms of usage (Comscore)

58% of Brazilians who use Twitter read posts from their favourite companies (SocialBakers)
YouTube reaches 79% of Brazil's internet users (Comscore)

42% of Brazilian consumers between 25 and 44 make a purchase after receiving a marketing message through a social network (ExactTarget)

The social gaming market is predicted to be worth $238 million by the end of 2014 (Comscore)

With our uniquely Anglo-Brazilian background, Sherlock Digital is a different kind of digital communications consultancy. We develop and execute country-specific and international marketing and communications programmes that combine the very best aspects of Brazilian and British expertise and thinking.

From planning and strategy, platform design and development to campaign management and evaluation, all of our services are designed to offer focused and clearly measurable results for your business.

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