Colombian startup Viajala, changed its business when tourism plummeted, in the pandemic and now also runs a lucrative global digital marketing platform that manages 50 million dollars in advertising expenses of companies from all over the world.
This is Equeco, a digital advertising campaign management platform that, with the help of artificial intelligenceIdentify the keywords most used by real buyers in Internet searches to help your clients, companies from different sectors, to create automated online ads to attract consumers.
Equeco was born in August 2020 to serve clients from all over the world, mainly from Europe and the United States, but now it wants to expand in Latin America, the cradle and niche of Viajala.
«Latin America is definitely a key region for us as part of our team is based in Brazil and some of the world’s largest Google advertisers are in Brazil and Mexico«, said in an interview with EFE the CEO and co-founder of Viajala and Equeco, Thomas Allier.
The Viajala team is made up of five entrepreneurs of different nationalities. Its model differs from similar pages because it does not sell tickets or accommodation.
The Franco-Colombian executive affirms that Equeco was conceived to serve clients worldwide and that, despite not wanting to give priority to any region, it plans to expand in Latin America, especially in Brazil, for already having a strong local presence and because the Brazilian online advertising market is one of the largest in the world.
The platform already has two large clients in the region, with whom they had relationships from Viajala, that manage hotel chains with some 500 hotels in Mexico, Colombia and Peru (the Colombian Ayenda and the Mexican City Express).
Viajala was founded a little over a decade ago in Colombia to help Internet users find cheaper flights and hotels, and in 2013 it began its internationalization with contributions from initiatives such as Wayra (of the Telefónica Group) and with operations in most Latin American countries, where it took over as regional leader, surpassing even Skyscanner and Kayak.
software issue
But in 2020, when the pandemic brought down tourism, the founders of
Viajala decided to take advantage of the software they had created to boost their own marketing and offer it to companies interested in improving their internet advertising strategies.
«The high performance of Viajala’s ads allowed us to survive while other companies disappeared from the market. It was when we realized that we could create a new business with the tool that it used to help other companies improve their marketing campaigns,» he said.
Equeco identifies the keys with which buyers They do internet searches, which can be carried out in various sectors and countries, which allows companies to better position themselves on platforms with ads, such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads. The platform helps scale campaigns across online searches and automations to improve their performance, so you can handle thousands of daily operations without being constrained by the limits of a human team.
A new marketing strategy that has revolutionized the way companies relate to their customers and promote their products or services.
«Equeco’s expansion was very fast. It started only two years ago, but it already manages more than 50 million dollars in advertising expenses, and serves clients from all sectors, including tourism, commerce and real estate, including some important ones such as Typeform, Kiwi.com, Findhotel, Farmatodo and Olaclick”, he expressed.
According to Allier, it was natural for Viajala to focus on Latin America, but it didn’t make sense for Equeco to do so as well.
«Equeco comes from another time and another context. It is a software service company whose innovative approach can meet the needs of digital marketers around the world who harness the power of our AI to grow their advertising campaigns,» he explained. .
The executive added that the platform serves online brands around the world and in any language. «Imagine being able to run ad campaigns in the Bahasa Indonesian language without anyone on the team knowing how to read it,» he said.