Andes Freight: 3.5x ROAS in Latin America 2026

The Latin America market presents both immense opportunity and intricate challenges for logistics providers, making effective logistics PR essential for growth. Crafting a brand narrative that resonates across diverse economies and regulatory field requires more than just traditional advertising. It demands strategic communication that builds trust and highlights operational resilience. How can a focused PR campaign translate complex logistics capabilities into tangible business results?

Case Study: “Connect with Confidence” Campaign for Andes Freight Solutions

In mid-2025, Andes Freight Solutions, a mid-sized freight forwarder specializing in cross-border logistics between North and South America, launched its “Connect with Confidence” campaign. Their primary goal: establish themselves as a trusted, transparent partner in the often-opaque Latin American logistics sector. The campaign focused on two key markets: Brazil and Mexico, chosen for their significant trade volumes and distinct regulatory frameworks. Our team developed a strategy centered on showing their strong operational transparency and commitment to compliance.

The campaign ran for 12 weeks, from July to September 2025, with a total budget of $85,000. This included allocations for content creation, media outreach, digital ad placements, and analytics tools. The core message revolved around Andes Freight’s proprietary real-time tracking platform and their dedicated compliance teams, which navigated complex customs procedures in São Paulo and Mexico City. We aimed for a significant increase in brand mentions in trade publications and a measurable boost in qualified inbound leads.

Strategy and Creative Approach

The strategy hinged on thought leadership and practical demonstrations of their capabilities. Instead of simply stating they were reliable, we focused on proving it. This involved three main pillars:

1. Expert Articles and Whitepapers: We commissioned a series of articles detailing the nuances of customs clearance in Brazil’s Port of Santos and Mexico’s Port of Veracruz, positioning Andes Freight’s executives as authorities. These pieces were published on industry-specific platforms like Journal of Commerce (JOC) and localized logistics blogs.
2. Digital Ad Campaigns with Explainer Videos: Short, animated videos (60-90 seconds) illustrated the journey of a shipment, highlighting checkpoints where Andes Freight’s technology provided visibility and mitigated risks. These ran as pre-roll ads on relevant YouTube channels and as sponsored content on LinkedIn.
3. Targeted Media Relations: We engaged with journalists specializing in supply chain and Latin American trade, offering exclusive interviews with Andes Freight’s CEO and Head of Operations. The focus here was on their proactive approach to geopolitical shifts and economic volatility in the region, a real concern for many shippers.

The creative assets emphasized clarity and trust. The visuals used clean, modern aesthetics, avoiding generic stock imagery. For instance, one video showed a digital map with a glowing line representing a shipment, overlaid with data points like “Customs Cleared: São Paulo, 14:30 BRT” and “Next Leg: Air Cargo Departure, 18:00 BRT.” This visual specificity was a deliberate choice to reinforce the idea of operational transparency, a key differentiator in the Latin America market. We found that content directly addressing common pain points for shippers, such as delays at border crossings or unexpected tariffs, performed significantly better.

Targeting and Placement

Our targeting strategy was two-pronged:

• Industry Professionals: On LinkedIn, we targeted logistics managers, supply chain directors, and import/export specialists working for companies with operations or interests in Latin America. We segmented by company size (over 500 employees) and specific job titles.
• Trade Publications: We secured placements in publications like Supply Chain Dive and local business journals in Brazil (e.g., Valor Econômico) and Mexico (e.g., El Financiero). This required tailoring press releases and article pitches to align with each publication’s editorial focus.

Geographically, ad spend was weighted towards major industrial hubs: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and Monterrey. We used geo-fencing for digital ads to capture audiences within these key commercial zones. The local adaptation of content, including translation by native speakers and cultural nuance checks, proved critical. A direct translation of a U.S.-centric ad often falls flat. Understanding the local business etiquette and communication styles was paramount, and frankly, sometimes a frustratingly slow process.

What Worked Well

The campaign demonstrated several successes:

• Increased Media Mentions: Andes Freight Solutions saw a 25% increase in positive media mentions across relevant trade and business publications during the campaign period. This included a feature in Global Trade Magazine highlighting their tech-driven solutions.
• Improved Inbound Inquiries: Inbound inquiries for cross-border services increased by 15%. Our CRM data showed that leads originating from content pieces focused on customs compliance had a 20% higher conversion rate to qualified sales opportunities than general service inquiries. This directly speaks to the power of addressing specific pain points.
• Strong Engagement with Thought Leadership: The whitepaper, “Working through Brazilian Customs: A 2025 Guide,” garnered over 3,000 downloads, with an average time on page of 4 minutes 15 seconds. This indicated deep engagement from a target audience actively seeking solutions. The cost per lead (CPL) for these whitepaper downloads was approximately $18, which was well within our target range.

We tracked impressions primarily through media monitoring services and digital ad platforms. The digital ad campaigns generated 2.8 million impressions across LinkedIn and YouTube. The click-through rate (CTR) on these ads averaged 0.9%, with the explainer videos performing particularly well at 1.2% CTR. Our overall ROAS for the campaign was calculated at 3.5x, meaning for every dollar spent, $3.50 in attributed revenue was generated. This was a strong indicator that the focus on operational transparency resonated with the market.

What Didn’t Work and Optimization Steps

Not everything went perfectly. Initially, our digital ad creatives for Mexico used imagery that, while culturally appropriate in some regions, did not resonate universally across the diverse Mexican business field. This led to a lower initial CTR (0.6%) in that market compared to Brazil (1.1%). We quickly identified this through A/B testing variations in ad copy and visuals within the first two weeks. We found that more formal, data-driven visuals performed better in Mexico City’s financial district, while more collaborative, team-focused imagery resonated in manufacturing zones like Guadalajara. This required an 18% increase in creative localization costs, but it paid off in improved engagement.

Another challenge involved securing interviews with top-tier business publications in Brazil. While we achieved good traction with logistics-specific media, breaking into mainstream outlets like Folha de S.Paulo proved more difficult than anticipated. We learned that these outlets often require a more established local presence or a truly bold story. Our initial pitches were too broad. Moving forward, we refined our media relations strategy to focus on hyper-local angles or broader economic trends where Andes Freight could offer unique insights, rather than just service announcements. This meant using data from their own operations to comment on market conditions, which is a much stronger angle.

We also observed that while the whitepapers generated leads, the follow-up process for nurturing those leads could be more efficient. The sales team reported that some leads were not “sales-ready” immediately after downloading a whitepaper. Our optimization here involved implementing a more strong email nurture sequence, delivering additional valuable content (e.g., case studies, webinars) over a 4-week period before a direct sales outreach. This shifted our focus from immediate conversion to building a relationship, acknowledging that the sales cycle for complex B2B logistics services can be lengthy.

Learning from the Campaign

The “Connect with Confidence” campaign reinforced several critical lessons for logistics PR in Latin America. First, hyper-localization is non-negotiable. This extends beyond language to cultural nuances, regulatory specifics, and even visual communication. Second, transparency is a powerful brand asset. In a region where supply chain complexities are high, clear communication about processes, technology, and compliance builds immense trust. Third, consistent thought leadership, backed by real operational data, positions a company as an indispensable partner. Simply put, talk is cheap. Demonstrating your expertise with verifiable examples is not.

Looking ahead, Andes Freight plans to integrate AI-driven sentiment analysis tools to monitor brand perception in real-time across various Latin American markets. This will allow for faster identification of emerging issues or opportunities, reducing the manual effort currently required for media monitoring by an estimated 30%. They also intend to expand their content strategy to include more customer success stories, focusing on specific industries like automotive and agriculture, which are important sectors in both Brazil and Mexico. According to a eMarketer report on digital ad spending in Brazil, localized content continues to drive higher engagement rates, reinforcing our findings.

Working through the diverse and dynamic Latin American logistics field requires a communication strategy that is as resilient as the operations it represents. By focusing on genuine transparency, localized insights, and consistent thought leadership, brands can build trust and drive measurable business growth in this vital market.