U.S. HISPANIC
Gonzalo Figares, Newly Appointed Managing Director of EKN Spain, Unveils Strategic Vision Focused on Innovation, Differentiation, and Trust
19 de septiembre de 2025
Gonzalo Figares
Gonzalo Figares, the newly appointed Managing Director of EKN in Spain, has outlined a bold strategic vision for the company centered on business model innovation, differentiation in a highly competitive market, and building strong, trust-based relationships with key players in the advertising industry.
In his first two months in the role, Figares has prioritized a deep dive into the current business landscape. “My absolute priority is to understand how things were done before, so I can figure out what needs to change and how we can improve,” he stated. This immersion process has already led to a significant shift in EKN Spain’s commercial approach. “We’ve changed our pitch and commercial presentation quite a bit. Now, I’m focusing on making them more visual and straightforward, with clear, concise messaging that grabs the audience’s attention from the start.”
Key Focus Areas
Figares identifies differentiation as the cornerstone of EKN’s growth strategy in Spain—an “ultra-fragmented” market with an abundance of competitors. EKN’s value proposition hinges on offering cutting-edge technologies—many originating from the U.S.—that have yet to be explored in the Spanish market.
One of EKN’s major competitive advantages, according to Figares, is its technology-agnostic approach. As the company does not own any of the solutions it represents, it can recommend the best technology tailored to each client’s specific needs, covering the full marketing funnel from branding to conversion. This model enables advertisers to work with a single provider offering unified reporting, streamlining operations and eliminating the complexity of managing multiple platforms.
A central challenge Figares aims to address is earning the trust of independent local agencies, which control between 40% and 50% of Spain’s advertising spend. His goal is to position EKN as a strategic partner for these agencies by giving them access to diversified technologies that help level the playing field against global platforms. “My biggest challenge is to build trust in EKN. I need to channel that trust so advertisers and agencies say: ‘Okay, I’m going to work with them,’” he emphasized.
Figares also addressed the industry-wide uncertainty surrounding the delayed phase-out of third-party cookies. While EKN already offers cookieless solutions, the company’s strategy in Spain will be to roll out these technologies once the market is more familiar with—and confident in—their value. He estimates it could take another one to two years for widespread adoption.
Figares concluded with an optimistic outlook for EKN’s growth in Europe: “I’m convinced—and that’s why I joined this great project—that we can achieve incredible things in Europe and become a truly global holding. I’m genuinely excited about what’s ahead.”
