T'KOM INTERNET ADVERTISING was founded in 1998 to offer services to buyers and sellers of advertising, with a unique and exclusive focus on cyberspace. Since then, T'Kom has shown that the Internet can be a valuable tool for those advertisers who want to increase the efficiency of their communications and promotions, as well as for those who sell advertising space.
Pedro Teller[acute{i}]a, president of T'Kom, believes that the Internet allows advertising messages to reach targeted segments of the consuming audience and that those messages have a greater impact than publicity in more traditional media. Currently, T'Kom "represents and sells advertising for 190 web-sites, which generate about 6.7 million web pages that reach 7.3 million users in the Spanish-speaking world. Four million of those are in Spain, and the rest are split between Latin America and the Hispanic market in the United States."
T'Kom is a full-service agency supporting interactive campaigns. "The companies that we can offer a completely unique service to are those companies that do not want expand their campaigns within traditional media," Teller[acute{i}]a says.
The company's "one-stop" service covers everything from design and planning to development and control over Internet ad campaigns. Promotional campaigns of virtually any kind can be directed to large or specific audiences, including introductory and follow-up campaigns for advertisers who are using the Internet for the first time. T'Kom also features a network of varied web sites -- local and international, generic and specialized -- as well as search engines and e-commerce services.
"What sets T'Kom apart from other publicity agencies are our clients. Our credentials are those firms, which are either great in size or leadership, that use our services online," Teller[acute{i}]a points out.
T'Kom's client list is wide-ranging. The company serves as online agency for Cisco Communications, Microsoft, Compaq, Adobe, Mitsubishi, British Airways, Scandinavian Airlines and Banesto. Also on the list are telecommunications companies Retevisi[acute{o}]n and Jazztel, Swedish telecom giant Telia and Internet companies Ya.com and Lanetro.com, to name a few.
The objective, according to Teller[acute{i}]a, is to cement T'Kom's international presence with offices in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. "The Hispanic market in the U.S. is operationally the most important in terms of volume of activity," he says. "But we also have offices in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia and recently opened another office in Peru. We are also adding offices in Lisbon and S[bar{a}]o Paulo as part of our strategic focus on the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets," he says.
T'Kom is betting on the Latin American market. "We already have about 60 to 70 people dedicated exclusively to online publicity, and we hope to create another 30 to 40 jobs by the end of the year. Right now, we represent 250 editorial projects on which we are the only source of revenue. That is, for about 2,500 people who work on more than 190 websites."
As a source of packaging and support marketing for advertisers, T'Kom hopes to lead the market, with 50% of its clients in Latin America, 30% in Spain and Portugal and 20% in the United States. "The main attractions of the Latin American market are the active presence of most major Internet companies and a rapid growth in the number of users," Teller[acute{i}]a says. "By year's end, Chile hopes to have 2 million users. Last year, that number was 300,000. Meanwhile, there should be another 2 million users, and in Mexico 2.5 million at least."
Josep Guirao is T'Kom's director of business development in the U.S. A former television and film producer who worked for 10 years in traditional advertising media, Guirao is very clear about his belief that the future lies on the Internet.
"The possibilities that arise from the so-called 'convergence,' such as the general public's access to the Internet, will revolutionize the market for advertising as we know it," Guirao says. "In the year 2005, 50% of publicity and advertising will be interactive, and traditional advertising agencies that don't have the technological tools to compete, will be left behind."
T'Kom has invested more than US$20 million in research and technology development with the goal of offering targeted marketing services, brand awareness campaigns, micro campaigns and more. And the company boasts more than 22 e-commerce projects in its current portfolio.
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