• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, August 29, 2013

Headway Digital, a global trading desk and one of the leading demand-side platforms (DSPs) in Latin America, this week announced the integration of its DSP with its data management platform (DMP). The DMP, DataXpand, is Headway Digital's subsidiary company and focuses on Latin American markets and U.S. Hispanic audience data.

Sebastian Yoffe, director of business development at Headway, and Martin Kogan, the company's co-CEO and co-founder, told RTM Daily that their DSP and DMP underwent soft launches a few months ago, and that clients using both have seen impressive results. Yoffe said, "Up to four, five, six months ago there was no way to buy data [for Latin America and U.S. Hispanics]. We have been running campaigns for the past five months…and we have approximately 80-100 campaigns that have been implemented all over Latin America." He claimed that brands using the Headway DSP/DMP package have seen 30-50% lifts in click-through rates and a lift in conversion rates for performance campaigns.

While the past five months have gone well for the company in the Latin American markets, Kogan and Yoffe said that the region is still in diapers when it comes to layering data on campaigns. "We have seen a lot of demand, but we are doing a lot of evangelizing," Yoffe said. "We are basically preaching out that this is a new and innovative model. The agencies and brands want to engage in these types of buys, but…we have a lot to go. 2014 is where this will get bigger."

There isn't resistance to big data and audience data, Kogan and Yoffe said, but the Latin American brands and agencies are taking baby steps. "They see this as something new, something different, something innovative," Yoffe explained. "People tend to like that, but at the same time they are afraid. It changes the way they've done it for years." He said that some will take on one or two campaigns to start but eventually renew and add campaigns.

Headway's expertise is in global markets, or anywhere outside of the U.S., and Kogan stressed the importance of understanding the different between the U.S. marketplace and the rest of the world. "The trends in the U.S. usually replicate in the rest of the world," he noted.