SABRE Awards 2022: Sherlock Communications named the best Latin American agency

Dynamism is our thing. Thanks to our multicultural and multidisciplinary team, we have been named the best Latin American Agency of the year by the Sabre Awards 2022. Also recognised is our company’s innovative work culture, focused strongly on employee development.

As a company operating in 13 Latin American countries, Sherlock Communications invests heavily in long term education for its consultants, according to their requirements and opportunities, inspiring them to seek the best results in their personal and professional lives. 

Our consistent investment in our people has led to our clients being rewarded alongside our agency, with 17 communications experts acknowledging the best communications campaigns of their niche in Latin America. 

Our campaign for #Dating has been awarded as the best of the year in the Marketing to Consumer (New Product) category, while our work with Playtech has been awarded in two categories: Business-To-Business Marketing and Public Education. This achievement once again highlights the importance of interpersonal connections, a value which we work on daily.

Most online dating app users consider them to represent a gamification of relationships. This is especially true in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, when half of the people we interviewed from Mexico and Chile said they were unsatisfied with the lack of meaningful connections on dating apps.

Why Mexico and Chile? The #Dating (Hashtag Dating) brand wanted to bring meaningful relationships to these countries. Unlike other dating apps, #Dating provides strong foundations to help people build truthful relationships by sharing interests, values and hobbies – sharing hashtags, not swiping profiles.

While every dating app promises to help its users find the one – not always likely, given the dynamic of this kind of app – dating is different in every part of the world. So #Dating asked us to develop a localised campaign for these two countries.

Using the insights of our survey, drawn from conversations with over 1,000 respondents, we built a Latin American, Spanish-language campaign, maintaining the brand’s young, fun identity while inviting a wide range of people to talk about the how the app overcomes the dangers and dishonesty of other dating platforms, as well as highlighting #Dating’s unique benefits and features. These included digital influencers and senior spokeswomen – something no other dating app brand has done before.

Thanks to the creation of new Spanish-language Instagram and TikTok profiles and influencer engagement, our Sabre Awards winning campaign increased online engagement, attracted followers, and grew brand awareness considerably. 

We also put into practice an App Store Optimisation campaign, which resulted in a 56 percent increase in organic downloads in Mexico between June and July, while Chile recorded a 20 percent growth. The app also reached first position in Mexico and third in Chile in the dating category. 

Gambling is still a sensitive subject in Latin America, involving a range of different regulations in each country. Playtech – the world’s largest online gaming and sports betting software supplier – partnered with Sherlock Communications to highlight solutions for local betting operators looking to quickly and effectively comply with player protection rules and raise industry standards.

We decided that the most effective approach would be to highlight Playtech’s philosophy and considerable experience in other markets, developing and directing our messaging according to the context of each country, always keeping in mind the main goal of ensuring player well-being and safety. 

The next step was to create and share an exclusive report with the media covering leadership thinking in technology, AI, and its role in ensuring player protection in our target Latin American markets – including Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Colombia.

Our Sabre Awards winning campaign positioned Playtech as a great leader in modernising the sector, highlighting the biggest barriers for the gaming industry in Latin America, sharing vital information about local consumers and stimulating a debate about the industry and legislative routes towards solidregulation and market expansion.

“Exploring uncharted territory is never easy in Public Affairs. That said, Sherlock Communications has guided us in our quest to create an unprecedented consumer study in Latin America, to better understand the region’s characteristics and opinions about regulation, player protection and technology”.

— James Newman, Director of Corporate Affairs at Playtech.