Fran Ares – Glocally

In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, shrinking attention spans and rapid technological change, brands face a growing challenge: how to remain visible, relevant and chosen. For Fran Ares, CEO and founder of Glocally, brand growth is not about one single lever, but about staying close to the market, understanding how consumers behave, and making it easy for people to choose you.

As Glocally enters a new phase with a renewed identity and broader positioning, Fran reflects on the changing role of media agencies, the impact of AI, and why brands need to become more flexible, transparent and adaptive to keep growing.

From Local Specialist to Strategic Media Partner

Glocally was born as a media agency with a strong specialisation in geo-contextual and proximity marketing. Its roots are in helping brands understand local differences, because while many brands have national ambitions, their commercial performance often varies by region, city or even neighbourhood.

As Fran explains, “A brand can have national needs, which are obvious, but then it has differentiated commercial performance by region, and even by province.” This was the space Glocally was created to serve.

Over time, however, client needs have evolved. More brands are now asking for broader, more integrated solutions that connect local intelligence with national media strategy. This shift is also reflected in Glocally’s recent rebranding. After more than ten years, the company updated its identity, website and value proposition to better reflect what it had become.

“You dedicate yourself to growing brands and growing businesses, and you do not have much time to look inward,” Fran says. “The company’s own image had outgrown the materials with which we were presenting ourselves to the market.”

For Fran, the rebrand is not only a visual update, but a strategic repositioning. “It is a deep change,” he explains. “It is an update of the value proposition, and we evolve from that very geo, very local part, towards a slightly more integrated proposition.”

“A brand can have national needs, which are obvious, but then it has differentiated commercial performance by region, and even by province.”

Brand Growth is Business Growth

When asked which KPIs really matter for brand growth, Fran gives a pragmatic answer. Growth is not only measured in brand awareness or communication metrics, but in whether clients return because the work has contributed to their business.

“I see this from a very pragmatic point of view,” he says. “Quantitative business growth, clients who hire us again, because they have really invested with us and we have managed to grow their profit and loss account.”

That does not mean intermediate metrics are irrelevant. Store visits, for example, can be a valuable indicator, especially for brands with physical retail networks. “Sometimes that is a methodology clients feel very comfortable with, because in the end, we bring customers to the doors of their stores as a KPI.”

Still, Fran is clear that brand growth cannot be reduced to one factor. Brands grow through a combination of value proposition, pricing, accessibility, sustainability, emotional connection and visibility. If one of those elements is missing, growth becomes harder.

For him, accessibility is especially important. Whether through e-commerce, physical retail or another point of contact, brands need to make the consumer’s path as simple as possible. “What cannot happen is that getting hold of a brand becomes a yincana,” Fran says. “It has to be very simple for the consumer.”

This is why he also points to location as one of the most powerful growth levers. Even as a media agency leader, Fran acknowledges that media investment is not always the only answer. “Location is so important that it can even make you reanalyse what your advertising budget should be.”

“I see brand growth from a very pragmatic point of view; Quantitative business growth, clients who hire us again, because they have really invested with us and we have managed to grow their profit and loss account.”

AI, Attention and the New Rules of Visibility

Looking ahead, Fran sees artificial intelligence as one of the biggest forces reshaping marketing. The most important change, he argues, is not only how AI improves internal efficiency, but how it may change the way consumers discover and choose brands. “A brand has a very relevant challenge ahead of it,” he says. “To be chosen or selected through the conversations that consumers will increasingly have with their artificial intelligence models.”

For years, brands have optimised for search, visibility and media touchpoints. But if discovery increasingly happens through AI assistants and large language models, the rules of relevance may change. Brands will need to understand how to exist in those conversations and how to become part of the recommendations consumers receive.

AI will also change the work of agencies. Fran does not believe it will replace the strongest creative thinking. “In creativity, I do not think big ideas are going to be replaced,” he says. But he does see AI transforming adaptation, planning, efficiency and measurement.

“A brand has a very relevant challenge ahead of it; to be chosen or selected through the conversations that consumers will increasingly have with their artificial intelligence models.”

For media agencies, this could mean shifting the client conversation away from traditional media metrics and closer to business outcomes. “We will not be talking about 1,000 GRPs, or 50 prime-time spots,” Fran says. “We will be talking about how many barbecues we are going to sell to a client.”

Alongside AI, attention is another major challenge. The media ecosystem is more fragmented than ever, and consumers are harder to reach. “We have a very serious problem with attention,” Fran explains. This means brands need to understand where attention actually lives, whether that is in traditional media, social platforms, influencers or new digital environments.

“Sometimes an influencer captures more attention than a media outlet, even if that media outlet is highly reputable and has been one of the traditional media brands.” For Fran, this complexity makes strong media partners more important than ever.

Brands need partners who can read the market, interpret signals and make sharper choices in an environment where budgets are limited and attention is scarce.

“Sometimes an influencer captures more attention than a media outlet, even if that media outlet is highly reputable and has been one of the traditional media brands.”

Flexible Brands will be Easier to Choose

In this fragmented world, consistency still matters, but it cannot mean rigidity. Fran believes brands need to become more flexible and adaptive, especially when speaking to different audiences across different platforms. “What we cannot do is expect society to change and adapt to a brand,” he says. “It is the brand that has to become increasingly flexible.”

The same product may need one language for one target audience and another language for another. Younger consumers may be just as informed as older generations, but they are informed through very different channels, formats and cultural references. Brands need to understand those differences instead of assuming one message will work for everyone.

For Fran, the challenge is to protect the essence of the brand while adapting how that essence is expressed. A brand’s positioning should remain recognisable, but its language, media choices and execution need to reflect the audience and context. “If we try to make it something for everyone, mass media, and we think that is going to work, then we will have major failures.”

This flexibility also connects to a broader point about consumer relevance. Brands cannot grow if they are difficult to access, difficult to understand or disconnected from people’s needs. Growth depends on making the brand easy to find, easy to understand and easy to choose.

“What we cannot do is expect society to change and adapt to a brand; it is the brand that has to become increasingly flexible.”

Culture, Transparency and the Future Role of Marketing

For Fran, growth is not only driven by market opportunity. It is also driven by people. Glocally’s Great Place to Work certification reflects a deliberate effort to build a culture where employees feel heard, comfortable and motivated. “There is a slightly selfish point to this,” Fran says. “You do not build a company so that on Monday morning you arrive annoyed.”

The logic is simple: people who feel good at work become better ambassadors for the company. They serve clients better, contribute more actively and help shape the culture from within. “The people who work in a company are the true ambassadors.”

After working with Great Place to Work, Glocally used employee feedback to guide concrete decisions. According to Fran, around 85% of the team’s suggestions were implemented. “What you cannot do is ask people, have people tell you what worries them, what they would like to change, and then continue on your own path.”

This belief in listening also shapes Fran’s view of marketing more broadly. He sees marketing becoming increasingly central to business leadership, because it is the function that reads consumer, cultural and market signals. “I have always thought that companies will eventually be led by the marketing people,” he says. “And that is happening.”

For him, a strong CMO should operate close to senior leadership and help guide the direction of the business. “A good CMO of a company has to be very close to management,” Fran explains. “Today, a marketing director in a company is a very strategic function, much more strategic than a few years ago.”

When asked what advice he would give for sustainable brand growth, Fran keeps it simple: be transparent, listen to consumers and offer what people genuinely need. “A consumer allows a mistake, but does not allow deception,” he says. “You have to know how to listen to what the consumer is asking of you.”

“I have always thought that companies will eventually be led by the marketing people, and that is happening. The people who work in a company are the true ambassadors.”