With the goal of better understanding the current profile of media professionals and their “pain points,” the study was conducted in partnership with IBOPE.
April 2026 – The São Paulo Media Group (GMSP), in partnership with IBOPE, conducted a quantitative study titled “What Kind of Media Professional Am I?” aimed at better understanding the profile of today’s media professionals, their education, and career perspectives.
The release of the study’s results—offering an updated snapshot of the category and identifying gaps in the development of their activities—coincides with the announcement of the new board, which will lead the organization’s activities for the 2026/2027 term. These insights will guide GMSP’s actions during this period.
New Board
Guilherme Cavalcante (W+K) is the new president of the Media Group, and Aline Velha (Nubank) is the vice president. The board also includes Cesar Toledo (Suno), Renata Valio (Lolas\TBWA), Dante Menichelli (TikTok), Nathália Oliveira (Africa), Tiago Santos (Euphoria), Fábio Freitas (BSOP), Heloísa Lima (Baila), Antônio Rodrigues (IESSI Music Entertainment), Vanessa Gregoraci (CNN Brasil), and André Gramorelli (WB).
The Advisory Board includes Daniela Pereira (Unilever), Antônio Toledano (Alma Lab), Gláucia Montana (Artplan), Marco Bebiano (Google), Rafaela Queiroz (Leo), Cláudio Paim (TV Globo), Maurício Almeida (We), and Marcelo Pacheco (Eletromidia).
Luciana Schwatz remains in charge of Mídia Dados Brasil, which provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of media and its channels of contact with consumers. Created 39 years ago and continuously updated, the report is essential to Brazil’s communications industry.
Refocused Priorities
Education is the main pillar of the new GMSP administration, and the study’s data will play a key role in guiding initiatives in this area. In its qualitative phase, the research mapped the detailed profile of media professionals to help design courses and qualification opportunities aligned with market needs. Professionals from agencies, media companies, and advertisers across Brazil were consulted.
In the quantitative phase, in-depth interviews lasting about one hour each were conducted with professionals from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The goal was to identify the main development gaps and determine the attributes required for courses in the field to be considered relevant and attractive.
According to the study, strategic knowledge and technical expertise are the most important skills for media professionals today. However, regardless of the skill analyzed, the lack of high-quality courses was identified as the main gap.
The qualitative findings also reveal paradigms that need to be overcome. Particularly among entry-level professionals, there is a perception that while many courses are available across different platforms, they are often not seen as sufficient—or foundational—for career progression. One reason is the fragmentation of platforms. Given this diversity, the market calls for unified information and standardized benchmarks.
The study also found that younger professionals are adopting new behaviors that are reshaping the field: they tend to place less emphasis on foundational concepts, which are often overlooked even at more advanced career stages. As a result, a strong trend toward “juniorization” has been identified in the sector, directly impacting the quality of deliverables and client relationships.
GMSP Relaunches Training Programs
The São Paulo Media Group aims to make the profession more attractive within the advertising industry, positioning media as more than just a technical and operational discipline often associated with heavy workloads and low returns. The organization seeks to emphasize the importance of credible, clear, and reliable data sources, helping professionals understand which data to use and reducing the overload of disconnected information that affects decision-making quality.
As part of this effort, the new board is relaunching its training programs, led by top industry professionals, focusing on attracting the media community through high-quality content, strong faculty reputation, and networking opportunities. The Education Directorate will be led by Tiago Santos, co-founder of Euphoria.
“The Media Group has always played a leading role in developing the professionals who drive the Brazilian market. Over the years, initiatives such as technical trips, Mídia Dados, and proprietary courses have helped shape generations and raise the level of the discipline in the country—this commitment is part of GMSP’s DNA.
Now, with the relaunch of courses guided by the IBOPE study, the Group resumes this legacy with even greater strength, reaffirming its role as a benchmark in talent development and market evolution,” says Guilherme Cavalcante, the organization’s new president.
Planned courses include:
- Basic Media Concepts: Introductory course focused on leveling foundational knowledge, aimed at assistants, coordinators, and professionals from other fields.
- Negotiation: Focused on data-driven negotiation techniques for supervisors, managers, directors, and finance professionals.
- Comms Planning: Designed to develop channel planning capabilities for supervisors, managers, and planning professionals.
- Media Applied to Business: Connects media metrics to business metrics, aimed at managers and directors across media, account management, and finance.
Additionally, the Martech Academy bootcamps—developed in partnership with SoulCode—will resume. This initiative is the first education, diversity, digital inclusion, and ESG program for Brazil’s communications industry, offering training in martech and advertising fundamentals. The project will bring 60 new talents into the media market through full scholarships, distributed across two cohorts (2026 and 2027).
These programs cover both traditional media techniques and emerging areas such as AI applications in media, influencer ecosystems, cross-media planning and evaluation, and Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), including methodological understanding and practical application.
The goal is to move media professionals beyond an operational role, fostering strategic thinkers who recognize media as a critical driver of business outcomes for agencies, advertisers, and media companies.
