You don’t need to be a great digital marketing expert to realize that there is a real revolution in the market. There is a growth in the interest of companies, an increase in the number of digital agencies and a high demand for training that allows mastering the subject in a practical way.
Understanding how the educational universe is going is essential to know what the next steps are in the market. For this reason, we spoke with Gabriel Augusto, General Director of FLAG and the Marketing Director of the training area of Grupo Rumos (FLAG, Rumos, GALILEU and Alta Lógica).
Gabriel already has 18 years of Communication Design experience and took over Flag 11 years ago. Since 2010, the market has changed, technologies have advanced, and Digital Marketing has revolutionized the way companies interact with their customers.
But what has really changed? How can we evaluate the current scenario? At what point is maturity and knowledge in national Digital Marketing? With so many doubts, we went for a consultation with the specialist.
In these 11 years ahead of Flag, what are the main changes that you can point out?
Gabriel Augusto: In recent years, we have seen faster acceleration in terms of agency services. If before many had focused on press relations, media relations or creative agencies, today they have come to see the need to incorporate digital into their services. In addition, many exclusively digital agencies have also emerged.
Thinking about digital has completely changed. If before there was the idea that digital was just sending emails or posts on social networks, now there is an idea about strategy. Even in the education part, we saw specific courses such as Google Ads or Email Marketing. Today everything is integrated, with a focus on strategy, implementation and practice, as well as a more present market.
RD: Our market is in LATAM and your company is from Portugal, but it has always been good to know the progress of other countries. What is your assessment of the current digital maturity in Portugal?
GA: If we look at the Portuguese market in isolation, I think we have a relatively interesting maturity; We are no longer taking the first steps. There are companies that do very interesting things, there are companies that were even born with digital and are setting an interesting trend on the national scene.
If we compare it with the world panorama, we still have a long way to go. But this is closely related to the available budget, education and information of the people. However, we are on the upward path and we are going fast. The truth is that it has been getting faster and faster. In recent years, we have seen it due to the number of professionals in the market, the number of relevant conferences and Portuguese speakers that are at the same level as foreign professionals, something that we did not see a few years ago.
RD: With all these changes, can a change also be observed in the profile of FLAG students?
GA: Without a doubt! More than 8 years ago, when we launched training in the digital area, the profile of the people who came to Flag was IT. Today we have many more communication and marketing professionals. The transition was clear, and now we see many journalists, sociologists, and other careers wanting to transition to digital. Which is actually very interesting, since these are areas that are linked to knowledge about consumer behavior and this provides another type of know-how. Students have become more multidisciplinary, which does not allow us to define an exact audience, either by age, training or positions.
RD: Regarding FLAG, how has growth been in recent years?
GA: We have grown a lot, especially in Digital Marketing. In total, we have 8 training areas and, as of today, Digital Marketing represents more than half of our turnover. Before the digital topic, we work with a focus on design, web design and user experience. I can say that, in recent years, we have doubled the size of FLAG.