Advertising Week LATAM 2025 - Key Takeaways for Strategic Public Relations in the Digital Age

In November 2025, Advertising Week LATAM convened hundreds of leaders across Latin America’s marketing, media, and communications ecosystem in Mexico City, one of the region’s key hubs for media, innovation, and business. The event offered a unique opportunity to gain firsthand insights into emerging trends, cutting-edge technologies, and evolving audience behaviors that are reshaping the communications landscape. For a communications firm like Mercury, this gathering reaffirmed that Public Relations now sits at the strategic crossroads of marketing, media, technology, and corporate purpose, a discipline that must adapt to a world increasingly driven by data, AI, and integrated stakeholder engagement.

Through this article, we want to share the four most relevant insights we took away from Advertising Week LATAM regarding the growth and strategic importance of public relations across the communications industry.

1. From “output” to “outcome” measurement

At Advertising Week LATAM 2025, one of the recurring discussions among PR leaders focused on the shift from measuring sheer output, such as press mentions or impressions, to demonstrating real business impact. This conversation reflected findings from the 2025 State of PR Measurement report by Muck Rack, which indicates that while 81 % of PR professionals track their work, 61 % still do not follow formal frameworks like the AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework or the Barcelona Principles. Additionally, only half of practitioners trust impressions and reach metrics, despite their widespread use (stories placed 86 %, reach/impressions 79 %). Linking Public Relations activity to business goals also remains challenging: although 75 % of professionals report doing so, many struggle to map coverage to leads, conversions, or measurable brand lift.

The combination of industry data and discussions at AdWeek LATAM highlighted that modern PR must go beyond counting media hits. Success now depends on connecting communications directly to tangible outcomes, brand lift, stakeholder engagement, and business growth, positioning PR as a strategic function rather than a purely visibility-driven effort.

With this context, Mercury demonstrates a fundamental shift in approach: moving the conversation from “we got X media hits” to showing how communications generate meaningful business outcomes, whether through brand lift, stakeholder engagement, or measurable leads. By integrating PR metrics into broader marketing dashboards that encompass earned, owned, and paid media, and leveraging advanced analytics, AI-powered tools, and cross-channel measurement, Mercury illuminates not only attribution and sentiment but also stakeholder actions and long-term business impact. This methodology positions public relations as a strategic driver of value, delivering clients a clear, data-backed view of ROI while reinforcing the central role of communications in achieving sustainable business growth.

2. AI, large language models & the evolving visibility landscape

Public Relations leaders discussed the growing impact of artificial intelligence on media and communications. The conversation highlighted that PR now needs to consider not only traditional channels such as press coverage and blogs, but also AI-generated content and algorithm-driven outputs, including large language models (LLMs), which are increasingly shaping how stakeholders discover and engage with information. Data from the 2025 State of PR Measurement report by Muck Rack shows that 61 % of PR professionals are tracking or planning to track AI-generated mentions, and 93 % believe AI will have a significant impact on PR measurement. Two-thirds (67 %) expect visibility within LLMs to soon become a core part of standard PR evaluation.

These insights from AdWeek LATAM, combined with the data, make it clear that earned media is evolving beyond traditional coverage. Mercury addresses this shift by adopting tools that track both conventional and AI-generated outputs, ensuring that clients’ narratives remain discoverable, authoritative, and trusted. The firm also supports teams and clients in understanding the evolving media ecosystem, including AI as a publisher, algorithmic content, and emerging stakeholder channels.

By taking this approach, Mercury helps clients maintain visibility and credibility while positioning PR as a strategic, measurable function in an increasingly AI-driven communications landscape.

3. Integration of Public Relations with marketing, media and creative

Several sessions highlighted the blurring boundaries among paid, owned, and earned media and the growing need for fully integrated campaigns. Speakers emphasized that PR can no longer operate in isolation; instead, it must function as a strategic partner across the full marketing funnel, contributing to brand building, activation, and conversion.

In Latin America, digital ad spend in Colombia reached US $1.08 billion in 2025, representing 49 % of total ad spend and showing an 11 % year-over-year growth. Across the LATAM region, social media advertising spend is projected to reach US $8.58 billion in 2025, with a CAGR of 12.7 % through 2030. These trends underscore the need for PR to operate at the intersection of media, marketing, and creativity. Mercury approaches this by positioning PR not as a silo but as a core component of integrated campaigns. By participating early in the campaign process, including the creative brief stage, PR can shape the narrative, amplify reach, and ensure authenticity.

By integrating PR, marketing, and cultural expertise, Mercury ensures that campaigns not only reach audiences effectively but also connect meaningfully, building trust, engagement, and long-term brand equity across the region.

4. Public Relations strategies enhanced by cultural marketing

A clear theme emerged among PR and communications professionals: success in Latin America is no longer defined solely by visibility, it’s defined by the ability to connect leadership, purpose and culture in ways that resonate. Sessions at the conference highlighted how brands and agencies are increasingly asked to reflect local identity, cultural values and regional diversity in their narratives, as much as they focus on business metrics.

The data supports this shift. For example, Gen Z in Latin America now represents roughly 25 % of the population (~169 million) and is driving major consumer‑behavior change: 39 % of Latin American Gen Z consumers refuse to buy from brands that are not sustainable or don’t reflect their values.In addition, the very structure of AW LATAM underscores culture’s role: one preview article describes the event as “a convergence of brand, agency, platform, media and culture in Latin America.” What does this mean for PR and cultural marketing? It means narratives around leadership and purpose must be anchored in local context,culture, values, traditions,while also delivering business impact. For instance, a CEO narrative solely focused on global strategy may land flat unless it references regional touchpoints, authentic voices and culturally relevant storytelling.

Advertising Week LATAM 2025 reaffirmed that Public Relations in Latin America is no longer just about visibility, it is a strategic, measurable, and culturally intelligent function that drives business outcomes, stakeholder engagement, and brand trust. From the shift toward outcome-based measurement to the integration of AI and LLMs, and from fully integrated marketing campaigns to culturally grounded leadership narratives, PR has evolved into a central driver of value for organizations. For Mercury and its clients, these insights underscore the importance of combining data, technology, and cultural intelligence to craft communications that resonate, inspire, and deliver measurable impact. As the region continues to embrace digital transformation, the firms that lead with purpose, cultural relevance, and strategic PR thinking will set the standard for what it means to communicate effectively in the modern Latin American landscape.

Strategic considerations for readers: 

1. Think beyond media hits: Shift the focus from press mentions and impressions to measurable outcomes such as brand lift, stakeholder engagement, and business growth.
   
   

2. Embrace AI and emerging channels: Incorporate AI-generated content, LLMs, and algorithm-driven outputs into PR strategies to maintain discoverability and credibility.
   
   

3. Integrate PR across the marketing funnel: Ensure PR is involved from the creative brief stage to influence narrative, amplify campaigns, and reinforce authenticity.
   
   

4. Leverage cultural marketing: Anchor leadership and corporate purpose narratives in local culture, social values, and regional diversity to enhance resonance and trust.
   
   

5. Measure strategic impact: Go beyond coverage metrics to track brand trust, stakeholder sentiment, engagement, and long-term business outcomes.
   
   

6. Lead with purpose: Position PR as a driver of corporate purpose and social relevance, showcasing authentic leadership and commitment to stakeholder value.