Eduardo Lebrija VIMN Mexico
The advertising sales representation agreement consolidated between Viacom and Sony Pictures Television for the Colombia, Peru and Ecuador markets would be the first phase of a more extense agreement, clarified Eduardo Lebrija, SVP and general director of VIMN Americas North and Panregional Sales.
“We decided that linear and traditional advertising could be a sort of phase one with Sony for something bigger –as in more regions- further on. But the original idea with this agreement is that it does not remain just there, neither by regions nor portfolio size, and thinking as a block, how we can both be stronger,” he added.
We must recall that Viacom has aims to enter the world of AVOD with Pluto TV, which it recently acquired in the US and will soon be launched in Latin America.
Lebrija mentioned it is not new that the advertising market is consolidating and contracting in Latin America. “We decided to go with SPT in these markets since it is an important opportunity to be able to have scale and leverage before advertisers and clients so that we are strengthened as a portfolio”.
An important aspect of this agreement is that the portfolios of these companies complement each other. On one hand, SPT is strong in the homemakers demographic with AXN, while Viacom is solid in children’s with Nickelodeon.
Lebrija said that the priority now is to train the Sony team in the sales of their brands, including the return of events such as Kids Choice Awards and the Unplugged that are very profitable in markets like Brazil and Mexico and with with they aim to achieve something similar in Colombia.
