Vocento’s nationwide classified advertising network is unique in the Spanish media sector, with leading brands in the three major markets for online classified advertising: real estate with pisos.com (in the top 3), employment with Infoempleo.com (in the top 3) and automotive with autocasion.com (top 7).
In 2014, Vocento strengthened the generation of advertising revenues, with a carefully executed sales strategy. An alliance was agreed with Schibsted to operate the car business of the Mil Anuncios portal, a very attractive window of opportunity for the group.
In 2015, the strategy will be aimed at developing the main business in each vertical, with a particular focus on professional profiles (B2B) to strengthen the customer base.
The business will continue to focus on value added products and services using new technologies.
In 2014, Vocento’s employment website focused on mobility, which provides 40% of traffic, and launched a new version that is optimized for segmentation with new vertical notification tools for matching job seekers with vacancies, improving the appropriateness of matches.
The major highlight of the year, however, was the start of the process of redesigning the website, which will come to fruition in 2015.
Infoempleo.com remains the second most visited jobs site in Spain, with a monthly average of more than 900.000 unique users, according to ComScore MMX December 2014 data. Avanzaentucarrera.com, the complementary training portal has been redesigned with a new responsive look, enabling easier multi-device access and improving conversion ratios.
Avanzaentucarrera.com has a significant presence on social networks, which increased in 2014, with more than 4,000 fans on Facebook and almost 2,500 followers on Twitter.
Over the course of 2014, Autocasión Hoy S.A. increased its profitability and maintained its positioning in the competitive marketplace for classified automotive advertising. This was possible thanks to sustained readership figures that, across the portals belonging to the company, reached an average level of more than 850.000 unique monthly users (ComScore MMX December 2014).
The strategic alliance between Autocasión with Autobiz in the used vehicle market performed positively, as did the alliance with multinational company Mascus in the second hand industrial equipment and vehicles segment. Revenues coming from the Sistema VO, a powerful IT tool which enables car dealers to optimize their management and increase their profits and revenues, rose by 91%. Revenues at Mascus.es grew by 16%.
At the end of 2014, Autocasión Hoy S.A. signed an agreement with the Schibsted group to run for two years, under a commercial license, the professional vehicle section of Milanuncios.com.
Finally, in terms of technology, the company focused on developing its mobile platform (including the mobile website and apps for iOS and Android, and on getting ready for the launch of its new website in the course of 2015.
The pisos.com portal is Vocento’s real estate website. Over the course of 2014, there was a complete renovation of the portal along responsive lines, enabling users to search for property from any device. This change responds to the growing use of the site from smartphones, which now account for more than 40% of user access. In total, a user base of almost 1.7 million, with more than 125 million page views, reflect the success of the website, which has consolidated its position in the top 3 sites in the sector in Spain.
In terms of the marketing and communications strategy, pisos.com has increased its presence as an expert portal in the online and offline media, and at the main real estate fairs and professional events. It has also increased its visibility on television, with spot campaigns, sponsorships and advertising during programmes. It has continued to increase its presence on national radio programmes with high audience levels and in leading regional and national newspapers.
In addition, pisos.com now completes its offer with pisocompartido.com, a website which brings together users who are looking for or offering rooms to rent, and with habitat24.com, an exclusive portal for professionals. In the social networking area, pisos.com continues to develop on these channels, with 10,000 followers on Twitter and 42,000 fans on Facebook, up 50% from last year.
In 2014, 11870.com consolidated its position as the leading website for recommendations of other websites and businesses in Spain, with more than one million users according to ComScore MMX December 2014. At the end of the year, it had 127,000 registered users and 96,000 registered companies, growth rates of more than 15% from the previous year.
At the end of 2014, the service had more than 353,000 opinions about websites and 1.2 million photographs, making 11870.com the absolute leader for the number of opinions and SME photographs in Spain.
The business lines of the company performed positively in year, especially for social media services (+54% vs. 2013) and Reservations (+44% vs. 2013). The other business lines grew slightly in the year.
Tusanuncios.com brings together people interested in buying and selling a wide range of products. It also offers a specialist technology solution that enables professionals and retail customers to interact, facilitating the buying, selling and renting of goods and services in a straightforward and simple way. The portal has more than 200,000 unique users (ComScore MMX December 2014).
Oferplan is a portal providing exclusive discounts to readers of Vocento media and newspapers. In less than three years, it has become a preferred platform for users to access the best offers in leisure, beauty and eating out in their home towns, with average discounts of over 70%. In total, our users have saved more than 9 million euros. In 2014, nearly one million coupons were sold, up 60% since the launch year.
In addition, Oferplan is also contributing to the growth of local businesses at a difficult time, thanks to services of sales support and to advice on marketing, customer loyalty and local branding. More than 7,000 businesses trusted Oferplan for these services last year.
In September 2013, Vocento launched Guapabox, an e-commerce subscription club project which allows subscribers to acquire the most exclusive products of high end cosmetics brands. When they subscribe, every month users will receive a box with mini versions of five exclusive products, each carefully selected by experts from the magazine. The box also contains a special Guapabox edition of Mujer Hoy, in pocket format, including advice, trends and exclusive content about cosmetics.
Guapabox also regularly produces exclusive limited edition boxes for one brand only, including the brand’s most innovative and exclusive products. After one year, Guapabox is an established business with over 4,000 subscribers and 16,000 registered users.
