How Wavy Expanded Across LatAm via Vertical Use Cases
The strategy combined local PR in Mexico and exporting validated Brazilian industry use cases.
Juliana Rosso Frediano explained Wavy's Latin American international expansion strategy on Marketing - The Podcast. The company leveraged local PR agencies and exported proven Brazilian vertical use cases to unlock markets in Mexico and Colombia.
Juliana Rosso Frediano, CMO at First Answer, explained in a conversation with Bruno Gimenes on Marketing - The Podcast how she structured Wavy's international expansion across Latin America prior to the company's acquisition by Swedish group Sinch. The discussion is part of an episode that also covers building revenue architecture in tech companies.
In the video above, Frediano shares that she took over Wavy's branding leadership and subsequently assumed responsibility for growth and performance following the departure of the previous team lead. At the time, the company was part of Grupo Movile—alongside businesses like iFood and Sympla—and offered a communication platform connecting multiple channels, featuring official WhatsApp APIs and SMS messaging.
Exporting sector use cases
The primary challenge of the international operation, which maintained a presence in Mexico and Colombia, was transferring the track record built in the Brazilian market to new territories without relying on the brand equity of its parent company.
"And my main job was to take these industry-specific use cases we had here in Brazil and bring them to these other countries. For instance, having omnichannel customer service here for telecom companies was something we had already managed to implement for laboratories, but in Mexico, not yet," Frediano explains.
Building local authority
In Brazil, the ties to Movile opened corporate doors. Abroad, the brand had to build its reputation from scratch to position itself before major accounts and media outlets.
"We piggybacked a lot on Movile, and in other countries we didn't have that privilege—to drive company growth, which was 35% year-over-year, and bring those industry cases to other countries as well, things that had already succeeded here in Brazil, taking them across Latin America as a whole," Frediano notes regarding the initiative, which included hiring local PR representation in Mexico and earning coverage in the local edition of Forbes.