* Fenning brings more than 15 years of digital experience, including with Americanas s.a. and Mercado Libre, to award-winning comms agency’s dedicated SEO department

* With a portfolio of independent start-ups and huge multinationals, Sherlock Communications’ investment in SEO promises to improve clients’ organic traffic and outperform paid-for ad models  


Sherlock Communications, the award-winning public relations and digital marketing agency with offices across Latin America, has appointed regional tech expert Richard Fenning as its new Director of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), starting immediately.

Born in Ireland, Fenning joins Sherlock Communications after spending three years working at Americanas s.a. in Rio de Janeiro as SEO Manager, where he led the SEO team of the largest e-commerce company in Brazil with revenue of US$1.6 billion. Responsible for the complete SEO strategy for e-commerce brands focusing on organic performance, he also led Americanas’ App Store Optimisation (ASO) strategy, increasing organic installs by 90 per cent year-on-year through improved keyword ranking.

In his new role, Fenning will develop Sherlock Communications’ dedicated SEO department, driving innovation, leading strategic vision, and providing increased value to the agency’s numerous international clients, such as Akamai, Getty Images, Maersk and Virufy. Sherlock Communications specialises in providing support to overseas companies eager to understand and engage with Latin American markets. The seven-year-old agency, named “Best in LATAM” for four successive years at the PRWeek Global Awards, boasts a client portfolio that spans sectors from fintech to travel, education to pharmaceuticals, blockchain to sport, and more.

“E-commerce has been growing exponentially in Latin America over the past decade and SEO has become an ever more important aspect of marketing for companies operating in the region as that digital ecosystem evolves,” said Fenning. “Increased insertion and growth in online sales means SEO is now an essential channel for companies keen to maximise their reach. Sherlock Communications is without doubt a future-facing agency, so I am excited to further develop its SEO strategy and maximise results for our clients.”

Fenning will lead the growth and expansion of a team of specialists across technical search, performance, content, and digital PR. While he will primarily be based at the company’s offices in Brazil, he will collaborate with Sherlock Communications’ staff across its operations in Latin America.

Patrick O’Neill, Sherlock Communications Managing Partner said: “Latin America is a region that has a large — and growing — active online population. However, typically SEO is a neglected part of the marketing mix as many brands prioritise shorter term wins from, for example, Google Ads. Having Richard on the team will be highly beneficial for our clients as we now have the ability to provide even higher quality and ROI on all our SEO projects, particularly in the areas of Technical SEO, ASO (App Store Optimisation), content optimisation and link outreach.”

Prior to his time at Americanas s.a., Fenning worked at Mercado Libre (NASDAQ: MELI) in Buenos Aires as SEO Team Leader. During his time at the largest e-commerce company in Latin America — revenue US$7bn in 2021 — he was responsible for the company’s organic position in all of LATAM, in both Spanish and Portuguese, where Mercado Libre is the dominant organic player with over 200 million monthly visits.

“Organic traffic provides digital companies with high quality users, who — based on key metrics such as Time on Site, Pages per Visit, Bounce Rate, and Purchase Frequency — outperform other traffic sources, while we believe that organic and paid traffic complement each other very well, by reaching users at different stages of the sales cycle,” Fenning concluded. “At Sherlock Communications, we have these bases covered, so the plan now is to further augment efficiency to the benefit of our clients and produce results that consistently beat expectations.”