Vice President Advertising Sales

Carmelo Di Fazio

Miami, Florida

VP Ad Sales & Marketing / VP Media / Writer / Content creator

Extensive high-level professional experience in media areas: advertising agencies, TV channels (open and pay TV), traditional media, OHH and digital in LATAM and USA.

Successful management of multi-million accounts with global investments in advertising, promotions, content creation, special events, brand integration and developing of new markets.

Robust knowledge of multiculturalism and consumer habits in the markets in LATAM and the USA. Expert in media analysis with emphasis on global and regional advertising investment plans. Development of integration and sponsorship strategies for special programs: sports, musical, cultural and distribution of movies and TV series.

Creation of innovative and high-performance advertising sales strategies for sponsoring brands, which increased their audience reach and sales.

High level of analysis to identify the best market opportunities for each brand based on their investment plans.

Writer of five books published in Spain, Colombia (1) and Venezuela (2) that were best sellers in 2015. My novels are written to be adapted to movie scripts or TV series. Sales rankings in Venezuela: https://revistavenezolana.com/2015/11/65608/ / https://www.larepublica.ec/blog/2015/03/27/top10-libros-mas-vendidos/

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

NuestraVision.tv Miami, FL January 2017 – Present

Nuestravision.tv is a Mexican TV channel, owned by America Movil, Grupo Slim. It is a channel founded in 2018 that broadcasts movies from the golden age of Mexican cinema, TV series, live news shows from Mexico, sports and musical programs. It is a channel designed for the Mexican, Latin and classic cinema audience in the USA and is distributed on OTA, cable and digital with a coverage of 80 million viewers in the USA.

Advertising Sales Director, marketing & content. Miami, FL

Creation of the channel's sales and marketing department, from the beginning of the signal's transmission in the USA.

Defined sales strategies, with emphasis on innovative ideas to increase the channel s profit. Example: multi-year contracts with high investment accounts and guarantee of exclusivity in the product category. Create on-screen promotions with high-impact brands, i.e. Tecate.

30% increase annually revenue in the second year.

We quickly achieved signal distribution on cable and digital systems: Pluto TV, DirecTV, Vix, Dish Latino and other platforms.

Our distribution increased from 4 million homes to 12 in less than one year.

DirecTV Pan-American Miami, FL November 2014 - December 2016

DirecTV Pan-American was a division of DirecTV USA, owned by AT&T launched to cover the South American region (without Brazil). The company offered advertising space on its own channels, with emphasis on sporting events: Venezuelan baseball, Copa America soccer, local sports tournaments, Golf Channel and music events.

Advertising Sales Director Miami, FL

Designed of the advertising sales plan for the region, reaching 67% above the original budget.

Our broadcast of the Copa América Chile 2015 was the most watched among South American TV channels, with record viewership with 28% of the entire audience by country.

Creation of integrated sales plans on screen, i.e. Nikon with a budget of US$600K for a 2-month brand promotion.

We doubled the number of sponsors on the thematic channels: Golf Channel, Music & Concerts and, in the case of Venezuelan baseball and the Caribbean Series, we tripled advertising sales, being a historic event on the sports channel.

Profexor.com Miami, FL May 2012 – May 2013

Was a digital company founded by former Publicis executives, who developed a teaching concept for specialized academic courses in different topics: photography, graphic design, art history, mathematics, language and literature. The company sold the courses through a prepaid card linked to telephone companies in each country in LATAM and the USA.

Advertising Sales Director Miami, FL

Created commercial alliances with newspapers and magazines in various LATAM markets with shared profits. Colombia Case with Diario El Tiempo for US$1MM.

Designed a sponsorship opportunity for Nestle Mexico along with pre-paid phone cards with Nestle product logos on them.

Commercial proposal for Telefonica Peru, Mexico and Venezuela to integrate the brand in the most in-demand courses.

Warner Channel LATAM, US Miami, FL August 2001 – August 2011

Warner Channel is a pay TV channel designed to cover the LATAM market. It is one of Warner Bros. multicultural content divisions with original programming from Warner Bros Studios in both languages English and Spanish. During my management it was placed among the first three TV channels for series and movies and #1 in advertising sales in its category as an individual channel, not a group channel. In 2018 the channel and Warner Studios became the property of AT&T, and three years later they were sold to the Discovery group.

Advertising Sales Vice President LATAM & Miami Miami, FL

Management of multi-million-dollar advertising sales in more than 12 markets in LATAM and Miami, with strategies that included promotions and brand integrations with key clients and multi-year investment packages.

Success stories throughout the region, i.e. Colgate, Telefonica, Tequila Hornitos, GM, Ford, Banco Santander, Nestle, P&G and many others. Clients who increased their investment with us by more than 40% each year, thanks to advertising planning that always exceeded the rating, reach and GRPS values in favour of the client versus the competition.

I led a team of 45 people in offices in seven key markets and 25 people as sales representation team.

We increased profit when we separated the channel s signal in five key markets, a strategy that allowed us to triple sales in the first year and maintain the trend of success in advertising sales at 30% each year.

The client portfolio increased by 400% from the first year to the end of my management.

Net profit remained between 38% and 43% thanks to successful advertising sales. That placed us as the tier s leader.

We consolidated pre-sales of advertising spaces in the five key markets, a factor that guaranteed us 82% of the following year's budget and that helped us look for new clients well in advance.

In markets with currency devaluation effects, we created business models to sell advertising in advance and thus avoid the impact of the currency exchange by receiving the money immediately and changing it to US$ three years in advance.

The integration of brands and sponsorship of special events allowed us to increase the demand for spaces with a premium of 85%, a key factor in multiplying profits per hour.

Venevisión (Cisneros Group) Caracas, Venezuela August 1999 - August 2001

Venevision has always been the leading open TV channel in the Venezuelan market. It is part of the Cisneros group holding company. It is the most relevant TV channel in the country and in several Latin American markets. Its TV productions are marketed in more than 60 countries, especially Miss Venezuela, Venezuelan baseball, game shows, novels, series and movies. For more than 60 years it has been the reference on Venezuelan TV.

Regional Advertising Sales Director Caracas, Venezuela

Creation of the advertising sales strategy for the upfront sales, definition of prices based on guaranteed ratings and achieved greater investment volume per brand.

Advertising sales growth above 20% each year.

Designed of corporate multimedia investment plans crossed companies in the group: radio stations, audiovisual content production companies. This idea generated alliances with high investment clients and diversified the sources of income in favour of the Cisneros group of companies.

Supervision of the marketing and research department, key pieces to increase the channel s profitability.

I was part of the management committee of the channel and the group.

Sony Entertainment TV (HBO) Caracas, Venezuela January 1997 – August 1999

Sony Entertainment Television, launched in LATAM in December 1996, is one of the pioneer channels of cable TV in the region, and was part of the HBO Latin American Group of pay TV channels. I joined from the beginning. The programming grid was based on series and movies from the best studios in the USA which were aired in English with Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. Famous series such as The Nany, Friends, Two and a half men among others allowed the channel to be among the five most watched.

Regional Marketing Director Caracas, Venezuela

• Development of marketing strategies and promotions to increase subscribers, ratings and strengthen the positioning of the channel.

• Creation and development of sweepstakes, contests and sponsored promotions increasing advertising sales and network’s awareness.

• Development of marketing programs aimed to increase advertising sales opportunities, boost distribution and build a strong relationship with cable operators and satellite systems in key markets.

• Media Planning in order to buy advertising to increase the channel awareness and positioning in key markets such as Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela.

• Increased ratings by 20% in Prime Time by creating network’s direct marketing unit

• Supervised Creative Services unit in the development of subscriber focused campaigns.

• Management of Affiliate Marketing events and promotions with MSO in the region. • Conducted market research to improve the positioning of the channel, including image studies, focus groups, quantitative, etc.

Venevisión (Cisneros Group) Caracas, Venezuela September 1993 - January 1997

Director of Marketing & Ad Sales Caracas, Venezuela

Development of the channel's advertising sales and marketing strategies which increased sales and improved audience ratings by 22%

Creation of advertising sales models with guaranteed ratings allowing a 28% increase in the channel's billing.

Design of investment plans for channel clients, sponsorships of special events and multi-year purchases of multinational brands.

Improvement in audience data analysis to create new metrics that allowed us to establish comparative parameters against competing channels.

Presentations of monthly audience results as a sales tool and support for marketing management.

ARS / D'Arcy Caracas, Venezuela January 1991 - September 1993

ARS is the oldest and most important advertising agency in Venezuela. In the 1980s it joined the Darcy International Agency with a presence in more than 60 countries and built the group of agencies with the highest turnover in Venezuela for many years. Most of the accounts were multinational brands and the Venezuelan brands with the longest history: Viasa, Mavesa, Polar, Petroleos de Venezuela. Its creative campaigns won countless international awards and it became a global benchmark.

Media Director Caracas, Venezuela

Preparation of media investment plans based on audience strategies.

Management of media advertising strategies to guarantee greater R&F for the client and thus increase the number of viewers.

Streamline purchase billing processes in advertising media.

Analysis of competitor strategies to find better purchasing alternatives for our clients.

Study market changes and new trends to generate greater integration of brands in the media.

Implement audience analysis and projections to determine better future purchase planning and avoid loss of profitability for the client.

McCann Erickson Caracas, Venezuela August1998 - January 1991

McCann Erickson was born in New York in 1930. It was the number one agency in the world in the 70s. It was a benchmark in creativity, new businesses, media and audiovisual production. In Venezuela it has always remained among the ten most important advertising agencies. In the 90s it merged with other local companies.

Media Manager Caracas, Venezuela.

Handling the media buying and analysis for the agency s clients.

Evaluation of programs and media content.

Analysis of competition-level costs and investment levels/impressions.

Negotiation of rates in order to increase client’s metrics campaigns.

Advising the client in the global media buying.

EDUCATION

Instituto Universitario de Nuevas Profesiones – IUNP, Caracas, Venezuela

Bachelor in Advertising and Marketing

Universidad José María Vargas - Caracas, Venezuela

Business Administration and Finance

PWC

Professional improvement courses in areas of sales, marketing, digital advertising, new businesses and communication.

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