Looking back, it’s been a hell of a
ride. Despite 5 economically challenging years (the specter of the global
economic crisis, the disastrous effects of the narco-state overshadowing Mexico’s
once-vibrant tourism sector and the menace of the invisible swine flu
pandemic), Mijo! Brands has established itself as a respected and capable
creative agency with a roster of national and global clients, that offers
strategic brand development and digital communications solutions.
Our anniversary has ushered in a
renewed commitment to nurturing a creative, results-based culture and the
strategic hiring of experts to supplement our
capabilities in key areas. This shift is showing an improvement of processes
and increased innovation in general. Our decision to join the Aria Alliance was
made to extend our reach, enhance our strategic capabilities, share knowledge
and take a hands-on approach on every project developed and, of course, a
commitment to proving ROI.
In today’s social-web design may
reign, but the user experience and rate of conversion are the dogmas of the
day. In tourism, there is an increasing movement to improve delivery of
services to ensure positive and unforgettable user experiences. This bohemian
like philosophy seems at once at odds with relentless creation of newer, bigger
and more impersonal mega resorts as evidenced by the soulless developments that
now clutter Mexico’s coastlines.
Despite the mega resorts, Mexico is
once again a globally-recognized hotbed for design innovation at least where digital
and product design are concerned, while Cancun and the Riviera Maya are
becoming e-based travel solutions powerhouses, fuelled in part by their ever increasing
demand for innovative e-commerce solutions that are redefining how we select
where, when and how we take and share our travel experiences.
Thankfully, the social web has
stopped being a popularity contest based on the number of followers and likes,
and morphed into real-time, user-led, metrics-based, phenomenon that cultivate
advocates while simultaneously confirming and debunking once irrefutable
theories of marketing and psychology with cold statistics.
For businesses and destinations this
means giving into an insatiable need to listen to consumers, gently leading the
conversation around your brand, without being seen to manipulate or distort. It
means innovating improvements though not for innovation’s sake. It requires
doing your homework and carefully analyzing the promises made by some of the
cowboys riding in for the Gold Rush of the social web.
We’re all connected. If we’ve
learned something in 5 years, it’s that everything is possible in the digital
world: That a moth in Africa can actually cause a hurricane in the Pacific and
that to define oneself by a single success, or failure, may be symptomatic of
an obstructed view of a very rich and expansive world.
Recognizing that our brand is the
sum of the knowledge and creativity our culture stimulates, we have been
working to place the “work-life balance” at the heart of our HR policy. It’s both
challenging and expensive and can go unrecognized, but we believe that a happy
team is a more loyal and productive one. A recent internal team-building
campaign will culminate with a little less than half of our team competing in the
Riviera Nayarit 10K run later this month after an often-grueling, 3-month
training regimen.
To reflect a new shift in our
business strategy, we have been redeveloping our website and our social media
channels to reflect a more focused point of view and experience across a varied
portfolio of successful projects where we deployed specific skill sets in
response to unique challenges faced by our clients.
To end the year on a high note in December,
we will officially launch Xinka Systems, our digital subsidiary offering a
suite of cloud-based, turn-key solutions targeted at both destination brands
and related travel service providers. The sister agencies will work in tandem
to deliver specialized services in response to the client brief. Mijo! Brands
will develop brand strategy and digital based campaigns while Xinka Systems
will leverage our proprietary framework to allow us to easily and efficiently
execute campaigns in the digital sphere and develop other key-turn solutions
and offshore services.
Where will we be in another 5 or 5.5
years? Of all the future scenarios that we’ve bandied about, we’ve never really
discussed an exit strategy. It seems that we’re in this for the long haul. We
have our vision set on expanding our presence in Mexico City and perhaps a
satellite office in Miami or São Paulo.
