Butchershop®, the global brand experience agency, has acquired Maniak™, a digital-first design and technology firm based in Guadalajara, Mexico. As a fast-growing independent agency, the move marks Butchershop’s continued investment in digital brand experience and innovation. Underscored by its most successful year to date in 2020 amidst the pandemic, Butchershop specializes in building brands in the new economy for B2B and B2C clients across health and wellness, hospitality, DTC and consumer products, fintech, crypto/blockchain, data + AI, SaaS and cybersecurity verticals. Past and current clients include BFA Industries, Okta, Databricks, Nike, Mountain Hardwear, and Real Chemistry. By combining proprietary brand discovery tactics, strategy, creative storytelling, brand design, digital experiences and solutions under one roof with Maniak, Butchershop will bring greater value to client partners and teams internationally.
Founded over a decade ago by entrepreneurs Christian and Carlos Dominguez, Maniak has evolved over time with focus points in hardware, SaaS, digital media and marketing, serving markets in the US, Europe and Latin America. As a Butchershop company, Maniak will operate under the helm of Hector Garcia, who will transition from CEO of Maniak to Chief Innovation Officer of Butchershop. The addition of Maniak’s 56-person digital team advances Butchershop’s level of technical sophistication to build impactful eCommerce experiences, softwares, native applications, and unique digital brand experiences.
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“Carlos, Christian and Hector have built an incredible team and practice. Maniak’s culture is something special which matters in this business. As an international agency, we are focusing our efforts to provide client partners with solutions for connecting their brand, business, and product to their customers and internal cultures,” says Trevor Hubbard, Global Butchershop CEO. “We’re continuing to invest heavily in the ‘digitization of brand’ to solve problems and create opportunities for our client partners. And Maniak is a key part of our collective growth.”
Founders Christian and Carlos will operate and lead a new joint venture created by the acquisition: ImaginedBy™, a smart incubator focused on building and launching digital SaaS products and platforms from the company’s braintrust and products partnerships with outside venture-backed founders. Leveraging the combined brand, business and product acumen of Butchershop and the technology capabilities of Maniak, several ImaginedBy™ funded projects are currently underway, including Priio™, a self-service SaaS platform that helps teams with prioritization, clarity and risk mitigation, launching in Spring 2021.
The acquisition of Maniak formalizes a longstanding working relationship between the two agencies. As part of Butchershop’s extended global partnership network, the US-, Europe– and Mexico-based teams are adept at decentralized collaboration. Most recently, the Maniak team has helped Butchershop win several innovative digital brand experience projects with companies like Exabeam, Snappy, BFA, ShapeTX, Voyo Adventures, and Okta.
“We are ready to build upon years of collaboration with Butchershop to open a new world of possibility as a united team, leveling up the existing digital know-how of Butchershop and scaling technological expertise and bandwidth,” said Chief Innovation Officer Hector Garcia. “Combining Maniak’s digital expertise with the renowned brand work that Butchershop is known for, we’ll be able to offer a wide-range of custom solutions for client partners ready to evolve their digital brand experiences, products and transformations.”
With their first major acquisition, Butchershop is better positioned for accelerated growth. The agency has grown its global footprint and resources, increasing headcount by 19% in the last three months in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco and opened an office in Graz, Austria to better serve evolving and emerging client needs in the DACH market with venture firms, startup founders, and multinational brands. The diversity in client partner verticals and industries has helped the agency build long-term sustainability, adapting to market swings and shifts in real time.
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