Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephen Rosa and Joel Velez.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
At (add)ventures, we always strive to help move our client partners forward while watching their backs along the journey. As brand culture builders and storytellers, we always make our client partner journeys enjoyable… and seriously, where else is more enjoyable than Miami?
In Miami, a world city with both the most diverse Hispanics population in the nation, we saw the future of the United States if we got things extremely right or terribly wrong. From both cross cultural and economic perspectives, we knew Miami would provide both (add)ventures and our client partner’s unique insights like nowhere else could.
One of the most important factors that make us branching out to Miami was having a former member of our office in New England, relocate from New England to Miami. She was the perfect person at the perfect time to plant the (add)ventures brand flag in the Magic City. Our brand culture and quality ethos is so unique in our industry that we needed someone who not only knew the lay of the land but would start building (add)ventures in Miami the proper, (add)ventures way. If we had hired traditional ad agency types to launch our culture up north would have rejected them.
We have always seen Miami as a long-term investment. With that in mind we knew we would lose money our first year when we opened the first office on Lincoln Road in South Beach. We knew it was not an ideal location for potential Miami client partners to get to, but we felt it equally important for our New England employees to experience Miami tourism during business trips and fall in love.
When we saw the building architect Hakki Köroglu built for himself on Green Street not far from the Coco Walk, we knew that would be our next Miami home. Even better, we were honored that our office would be the same incredible space Hakki had built and used for himself.
We loved the creative vibe inside the building and out. Being across the street from the iconic Green Street Café was sprinkles on the cupcake. We knew that the lessons Miami taught would help us serve client partners in every city we worked.
In year two (add)ventures was ready to cross the bridge into Miami proper. We loved the potential of the burgeoning Design District but client partner feedback strongly suggested a location in Coral Gables or Coconut Grove would be more convenient for them.
Eventually our team, strategic alliances and partner network in the Caribbean, Central and South America aligned. HBO Latin America became our first LATAM Client followed by Lexmark, Alcatel, Welch Allyn and AOC. We never dreamed we would get to work with such great, talented people from across the globe and that so many major brands would enter the (add)ventures Miami as their Latin American Gateway.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The largest obstacle we faced branching out to Miami was convincing the team in our Providence headquarters that we could succeed in a big, glamorous, International city like Miami. Having the right team was a major factor in taking this giant step. It certainly hasn’t always been easy… what is?! The Miami office opened in 2008, amidst the financial crisis, but through it all, (add)ventures has evolved into a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural strategic and creative firm trusted by multinationals companies and diverse smaller organizations with ambitions to lead their respective industries in unique ways.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with (add)ventures – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
(add)ventures is a multidisciplinary brand culture and communications firm. Some of our cores disciplines are branding, video, social media, digital, strategic marketing and public relations among others.
With offices in Miami, New York, New England and Argentina, we’ve been exceeding the branding goals of industry leading client partners for more than 25 years. They include CVS Health, Honeywell, Marriott and Timberland.
Our Miami hub was launched in 2008 to help our client partners succeed in the U.S. Hispanic market. As we became entrenched in the community, we discovered that Miami is truly the commerce capital of Latin America. (add)ventures Miami soon became a LATAM Gateway for companies looking to enter those markets in an insightful, and brand cultural way. Many think translation is marketing and treat the entire continent as a single market. Latin America is richly unique and markets should be explored country by country, region by region, island by island, and city by city. It is going global by going local.
What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart from others?
The answer to both questions may sound cliché but it truly is the people we have the honor of working with every day. Our Client Partners and colleagues are drawn to (add)ventures for how we work and what we believe as much as for what we do. Together we solve problems and make people happy which is a great way to spend your career.
It’s really rewarding, almost intoxicating, to spend time with great people doing good in the world. With such great and exciting work to boot. We all have to work to feed our families so we let our NICE Culture feed our souls too. Loving what you do as much as loving who do it with makes the work product so much better and our days a lot more fun.
Better still, we bring out the best in each other, inspiring our creativity, strategic thinking, and our work ethic. There are always people around who won’t just make your ideas happen, but make them better. That challenges you to make their ideas better, and so on. Before we know it, our ideas go to places we never dreamed of, evolving into client partners’ success outcomes they never imagined possible.
It is also rewarding that there is authentic humanity in everything we do, even in our digital solutions. We all must safeguard human kindness in a world driven by artificial intelligence and autonomous cars. So (add)ventures is, and will always be, all about people.
Our (add)ventures NICE Culture will always have our client partners’ backs as they move their organizations forward. As the world becomes less human with more multitasking, (add)ventures will still be helping our client partners – by captivating people in an ADD World.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We plan to keep on building on our brand culture of ‘nice’, but always staying one step ahead of trends. People often say we are the nicest people they have ever worked with. That is not a happy accident. Our team is nice because we hire NICE – Nurturers with Intelligence, Character and Energy. We plan to keep on doing just that in the foreseeable future. We’re going to keep on working diligently for our client partners’ needs. Our NICE culture has driven both (add)ventures’ and our client partners’ success over the years. We safeguard this culture with a philosophy to “keep it real.” By staying true to ourselves, honest with our client partners, and authentic in our actions, the quality of our relationships always keeps pace with the quality of our work.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3121 Commodore Plaza, Suite 306, Miami, FL, 33133
- Website: https://addventures.com/
- Phone: 3055697718
- Email: miami@addventures.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/addventurists/
- Twitter: @addventures
Image Credit:
Arturo Manuitt – Photographer
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