MEF Executive Questionnaire #12: Rafaela Furtado, Abril Digital

MEF continues to seek new ways to profile its members and promote the thought-leadership of the senior executives within these companies. We are pleased to launch the MEF Executive Questionnaire to reveal the real people behind the industry in an informal and entertaining manner.

This will be a regular feature of the MEF blog, so make sure you subscribe via email or RSS. If you are a senior executive from one of our member companies and would like to be featured then please contact MEF Marketing Director, Stephen Jenkins.

The twelfth in the series is from Rafaela Furtado of Abril Digital.

1. Please describe briefly your main company activities and your role within that organisation

Abril is the largest magazine publisher in Brazil and one of the largest media companies in Latin America. Abril publishes six of the top ten magazine titles in Brazil. The focus for growth is on digital projects by Abril Digital under the umbrella of www.abril.com.br. Services include internet portals, mobile applications, mobile content and new-generation social network services.

My role is to bring digital/mobile initiatives to the company and provide innovative solutions to effectively deliver Abril’s content to the mobile users.

2. Without necessarily revealing any confidential information, please outline the principal business models your company uses
Abril leads the magazine market in terms of both circulation and advertising. The Abril Group has its own operations for distribution of magazines and volumes in the news-stands and sales stands in the outlets. In the mobile business, the revenues come from the Abril’s content distributed/billed by the mobile carriers to the users.

3. What is your company currently working on that is going to move the industry forward?

The Abril Group is one of the biggest and most influential communication groups in Latin America, providing information, culture, education and entertainment for practically every sector of the population, and integrated in an array of other media platforms. Abril was the pioneer in the subscription TV sector with the launching of TVA, the first to offer digital TV, wide band internet and Voip in the country. MTV was the first segmented TV in Brazil, launched in 1990. Abril also plays an important role in the internet market, providing exclusive access to more than 80 sites for all subscribers.

In the mobile sector, Digital Abril is the branch of the Group responsible for Abril’s new digital business and developing products, contents and services in platforms and in formats that surpass expectations of this new public, being pioneer in wireless services since 2000, offering more than 160 products under 32 Abril brands, available through all mobile carriers in Brazil.

4. What is the most important piece of technology in your life?

The chip and the mobile phone

5. What mobile device(s) do you use?

Nokia and BlackBerry

6. What’s your favourite application?

Twitter

7. What’s your ringtone?

Moby – In My Heart

8. Which mobile industry blogs do you regularly read and why?

Mobile Marketer, Teleco, M&M, Update or Die, among others.

9. What is the biggest mobile content issue that is likely to affect the industry within the next 12 months?

Premium Content X 80% pre-paid mobile users base X open mobile internet. How to manage to offer free content in a very immature market for m-advertising?