MDC Partners Inc. (NASDAQ: MDCA) has expanded its global affiliate network across Latin America with the addition of Anchor Worldwide, Grupo Garnier and The Lab. These recognized content and media agency networks consist of nine agency teams across Aruba, Costa Rica, Columbia, Curacao, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Spain and the U.S.
Through the new partnerships, MDC has expanded its deep network of talent across LATAM–over 1,300 experts in total–with expertise across content and media in the region. This represents a pivotal step in MDC’s strategic expansion in international markets, particularly in light of the substantial growth and influence of the Latin American market.
“The expansion into Latin America with these impressive like-minded affiliates broadens our reach to better serve global clients,” said Mark Penn, chairman and CEO of MDC Partners. “I personally worked across Latin America for decades and am thrilled to be establishing MDC across this growing and important region in such a significant way.”
The MDC affiliate program is meaningfully expanding the MDC network’s offerings, building a diverse team that can produce content at scale across digital channels, thereby connecting brands with consumers in precisely the ways and places that will drive results. These partnerships have also enabled MDC to build consistent and unified global teams with streamlined operations on behalf of clients.
“An efficient system to enable scaled global content delivery without compromising local market nuance is a critical necessity for every global marketer. Our newest partners across Central, South America, and Mexico are instrumental to our central content offering within Latin America,” said Julia Hammond, president, MDC Global.
“Our joint partnership with MDC will take the wide swath of network capabilities we’ve built across Latin America to even greater heights,” said Jose Mendoza, CEO of Buentipo Anchor in Colombia. “Latin America is a very exciting market at the moment and having an agency like us that knows the nuances, language, and cultural differences in the market coupled with MDC’s might is going to create an undeniable new force in the industry.”
To help drive collaboration across MDC and its larger affiliate network, the group will leverage Locate, a proprietary tool developed by the Stagwell Group. Locate is a SaaS platform that connects technologists, creatives and clients across the globe on a single, real-time platform.
“MDC and Stagwell are at the core a combination of technology and talent. Leveraging Stagwell’s technology platform Locate will remove proximity hurdles of working across teams and geographies and will enable smart, real-time connection and collaboration,” said Anas Ghazi, chief strategy officer at the Stagwell Group.
In addition to Latin America, to date, the MDC global affiliate program has established a presence in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, India and Russia, with the goal of 50 affiliates across the globe by the end of 2021. As part of the partnership, Anchor Worldwide, Grupo Garnier and The Lab will also have access to MDC and Stagwell’s full suite of capabilities and will establish co-located teams across the globe.
