With the appointment of two new agency members in Costa Rica and Panama, ICOM, one of the world's leading global networks of independent advertising and marketing communications agencies, is strengthening its footprint across the Latin America region.
The two agencies are: Assemble Studio, a digital production studio based in Costa Rica with back-end operations in Philadelphia, serving some of the world’s largest brands, agencies, and media companies, and Panama-headquartered POPCORN LABS, specializing in performance marketing and strategy offering clients a series of services based on real-time data analysis, marketing automation for growing businesses, improving processes, and helping clients better understand their customers.
“These impressive agencies significantly enhance ICOM’s coverage and capabilities in LATAM. Furthermore, they bring important, cost-effective services and expertise to ICOM member agencies in all parts of the world,” said ICOM Board Chairman Bob Morrison, and chairman-Morrison, Atlanta, Ga., USA.
With a goal of becoming the top independent digital production studio in LATAM – and eventually worldwide – Assemble Studio began operating out of Philadelphia in 2017 and established an office in Costa Rica in 2020 where most of the 30-plus employees now work. Assemble is currently adding staff also in Colombia.
The agency works with numerous global brands in a wide variety of categories, including Adidas, Advil, BBC, Gilead, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Nike, QuickBooks among others.
Co-founded by CEO Scott Peters, who earlier launched and subsequently sold a digitally-focused agency that provided strategy, design, and execution, Peters previously worked in account management at agencies in Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C., where he managed brands such as American Express, AstraZeneca, The Guggenheim Museum, Rémy Martin, Charles Schwab, and T-Mobile.
When Assemble and its co-founder came to the attention of ICOM, José-Luis Alvarez Aarraiza, ICOM Latin American regional director and partner-COO, Puerto Rico-based Lopito, Ileana & Howie, said “We were so impressed with Assemble’s high quality production services using proprietary tools they built themselves to handle digital production work that we knew they would be an asset to ICOM.”
Also adding another important capability to ICOM especially across the Latin America region, POPCORN LABS, founded in 2013, has helped agencies transform their clients’ businesses across the region via a suite of services driven by real-time data analysis, marketing automation, and improving processes to help them better understand their clients.
In the decade since it was founded in Panama, POPCORN LABS, led by President-CEO Joel Díaz Llamas, has gained extensive knowledge of the region and now serves clients in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama, and is targeting Guatemala and Guadalajara, Mexico, as the next locations for additional offices. POPCORN’s ability to capture data that indicates the best way for brands to connect with audiences is central to the creative concepts it recommends that achieve clear results for clients.
Díaz Llamas earned his stripes as digital strategy VP at Cable & Wireless Panama, the largest telecommunications company in Panama, and earlier as digital strategy manager at Panama’s most popular television network TVN MEDIA.
Said Emma Keenan, ICOM executive director, “It’s exciting to see our LATAM membership grow. With Spanish being a common language for most LATAM countries, the valuable resources and skills each agency brings within the region will allow our members to share tools, services, and even clients efficiently and quickly. We plan to continue our expansion across the region and look forward to greater collaboration among our members there.”
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MEDIA CONTACTS
Emma Keenan, ICOM executive director, emma@icomagencies.com, +33 6 63 48 01 37
Nancy Giges, ICOM media relations director, nancy@icomagencies.com, 1-914-683-5108