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South American and Central American Digital Agencies - List
I was able to find a list of top 10 independent digital agencies based in Mexico, Central America, or South America with less than 150 employees. The list includes 2 Chilean agencies, 2 Mexican agencies, 2 Argentinean agencies, 1 Colombian agency, 1 Costa Rican agency, 1 Ecuadorian agency, and 1 Uruguayan agency. Please note that some of the sources included are in Spanish and, when available, I provided links in English.
In order to identify the top agencies, I used the Effie Effectiveness Index. It identifies and ranks "the most effective agencies, marketers, brands, networks, and holding companies by analyzing credited finalist and winner data from Effie Award competitions around the world." The global ranking can be filtered by region and includes an option for Latin America. I then reviewed the filtered ranking to identify independent agencies.
Since the request also established the list should include agencies from several countries, I only included 2 agencies per country. Therefore, the compiled list does not exactly match the list of the top 10 independent agencies as ranked by Effie (which has numerous agencies from Chile and Mexico). Instead, once 2 independent agencies from the same country were included in the list below, I proceeded to exclude other agencies from the same country in order to obtain a more representative list. Below I have included the list with some details about the agencies' services, a short list of clients, and links to social media pages.
LIST of lATIN aMERICAN iNDEPENDENT aGENCIES
Proximity is a Colombian agency founded in 2004. Currently led by Hernan Peña, the agency's philosophy relies on building ideas that provoke emotion and connection through any media, achieving relationships with consumers. Their personnel includes creatives, planners, producers, digital creatives, content managers, engineers, socializers, community managers, web masters and administrative experts.
Madre Buenos Aires was a successful digital agency that obtained the 18th position in the Effie Latin America ranking. According to its website, the agency was acquired by La América in December 2017. The entire creative team remained in La América and it also retained all Madre Buenos Aires's original clients.
Led by Sebastián Sonda and Luis Ribó, Flock is a creative agency located in Mexico City which focuses on developing ideas to create stories and experiences. They highlight the use of innovative technology tools to solve real issues and understand real people.
Ran by Erick Apuy and Néstor Villalobos, interaction is a Central American digital agency which focuses on social media, paid media, design, app development, SEO, and digital campaigns and strategy.
Located in Chile, the agency focuses on content production, data analytics, creativity, planning, and integrated digital services. Their style is irreverent, relevant, and innovative, aiming at developing unique experiences for customers.
The company aims to transform the way consumers relate to brands by developing strategies that combine creativity, data, and technology. Their areas of expertise are digital performance, branding, and customer service.
Ache is a digital ad agency that focuses on creative development, digital media, marketing, public relations, and social media.
The Peruvian agency recently merged with another independent local agency called Pragma. Currently, they are known as Independencia Grupo Parma. The agency has not yet released its new website and information is available through Facebook and LinkedIn.
Located in Uruguay, La Mayor is an agency that specializes in sound and video production. The company also has a division, La Mayor Cine, dedicated to sound design for movies, movie theaters, and documentaries.
Originally called Carlos y Dario, The Juju Agency focuses on developing marketing and digital campaigns. The founder, Dario Straschnoy, has also partnered with other independent agencies in New York, Colombia, and Brazil to integrate additional advertising services under an ecosystem called Untold_. These include data analysis, public opinion, and research (provided by Quiddity); branding and product development (provided by fogdog); public relations (provided by Agora); and digital strategy, digital content production, and social media services (provided by Juju).
CONCLUSION
Using the Effie Effectiveness global ranking I was able to identify the top 10 independent agencies in Latin America. As requested, the list is composed of agencies located in 7 different countries. It includes Proximity Colombia, La América, Flock linked by Isobar, Interaction, Raya, Digital Bond, Ache Producciones, Independencia, La Mayor, and The Juju.