Behind Latin America's $90 Billion Marketing Success with Sean Summers (Mercado Libre)

**Jim Stengel** (0:01)
If you were a chief marketing officer in Consumer Products, I want you to think about something for a moment. You have creative that works. You have campaigns that capture attention. But somewhere between that moment and the register, the signal gets lost. You cannot see what actually drove the sale. You are making optimization decisions on inference, not truth. Well, that changed in February. Infillion acquired Catalina. Four decades of deterministic purchase intelligence. 130 million US households, 70 retail banners, $600 billion in verified annual consumer spending. And here is what really matters. Over 90% of consumable purchases still happen in store. Infillion and Catalina together can close the dupe from digital advertising to in-lane purchase and incentivize the next one. This is not a measurement tool you consult after the campaign. This is a live signal that runs through your media while the campaign is in flight. You can now optimize from attention to action in real time against people whose actual purchase behavior you know. A consumer product's brand needs return on ad spending. It needs foot traffic. Infillion now delivers all of it. Not as separate vendors you reconcile later as one connected platform. That is what closing the gap looks like.
Sean, as you think about your childhood, what's the first brand you remember making an impact on you?

**Sean Summers** (1:20)
Two brands. Actually, childhood Fisher Price. Obviously, my parents, they were very generous. But as a teenager and at the beginning of this process, I told you when my dad went bankrupt, the one brand, the product that I remember, Levi's 501
That first Levi's 501 that I got gave me so much social confidence at the time where maybe I wasn't. So Levi's 501, definitely.

**Jim Stengel** (1:46)
Hi, I'm Jim Stengel. I've helped hundreds of major brands discover and activate their purpose. Because when a brand's purpose is clear, compelling and authentic, profit naturally follows. Each week, I welcome the CMOs, the chief marketing officers of your favorite brands, to speak to how their job is so much more than marketing. These leaders share their inspiration and challenges, along with how they try to build a full, healthy and happy life in and out of the office. And it's that energy that reaches everyone they touch. And we're glad you're here to feel that energy and to learn from these remarkable leaders. So here we go.
A few weeks ago in Cannes, I found myself overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean Sea from Mercado Libre's Cannes Lions meeting space. And I was surrounded by some of Latin America's most influential marketing leaders. We spent the lovely afternoon talking about where marketing is headed from AI and creativity to leadership growth and the evolving role of the modern CMO. Today, I'm excited to continue that conversation with an executive in Latin America helping lead it all. Sean Summers is executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Mercado Libre, Latin America's largest e-commerce and fintech ecosystem. Some describe the company as a blend of Amazon, eBay, PayPal and Shopify.
Founded just 27 years ago in Argentina, Mercado Libre operates in 18 countries, generates nearly $29 billion in annual revenue and has grown into one of the region's most valuable publicly traded companies with a market cap north of $90 billion.
Since joining Mercado Libre in 2012, Sean has helped the company grow far beyond an online marketplace into a platform connecting millions of consumers, merchants and businesses through commerce, payments, logistics, lending and advertising. And before joining the company, Sean earned his MBA at Stanford and held leadership roles at PepsiCo and the Twinings Tea Company in the UK. We'll talk all about his amazing career path. This is my conversation with a remarkable leader who had a great time at the World Cup this year and at Cam Lyons. Here's Sean.
Sean, welcome to The CMO Podcast. We are recording this show about a week after the World Cup ended. Your home country of Argentina had a great run. How are you feeling this week?

**Sean Summers** (4:00)
I'm feeling actually really, really good about the World Cup. Actually, it's a fun. I wasn't that excited coming into the tournament, maybe because of the new format. But the moment that the ball started rolling, wow, I went crazy. Then as an official partner for FIFA, which is something we had been talking with FIFA for a while, but trying to find a way of working together in the region. We at the last minute, like three minutes or three days after the beginning of the World Cup, we found an agreement and we were able to execute on this great sponsorship.
It was interesting to leave this World Cup as a fun, as a very engaged fun, but also as a sponsor.