Meet Three Box Partner: Minerva Rodriguez
As a team of communicators, Three Box knows how valuable collaboration and trusted partnerships are to creating meaningful results. That’s why we’re proud to partner with agencies like MRR & Associates, founded and led by Minerva Rodriguez, on integrated campaigns that pack a punch.
We recently caught up with Minerva to talk about agency leadership, the importance of inclusive communications and the secret sauce to collaborative partnerships between professionals. Check out our conversation below!
First, tell us about MRR & Associates. What motivated you to start an agency?
MR: I have always been active in my community, whether in the business community as chair of the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce or on boards of organizations that serve the growing Latino population in Dallas, in Texas and the country. This work made me realize that there was a definite need for a team that would specialize in public relations and community outreach to diverse communities in a way that would help businesses and organizations reach out and engage these communities more effectively and at a deeper level. I was excited to leverage my personal expertise and experience to lead a team that has decades of experience in the business of engaging our community and giving it a voice.
Your team works with everything from national brands to local nonprofits. Can you share some of those brands and how MRR serves them?
MR: We serve governmental, corporate and nonprofit clients by leveraging the decades of experience our team has in communicating with diverse communities to ensure that that their message will reach the target audiences effectively. We work with clients from the start, not just to craft a message, but to advise on how that message might best be conveyed. Not all channels work the same in all communities, and we have the experience to know which ones best fit to deliver our clients’ goals. We don’t approach outreach and messaging with a template.
MRR specializes in multicultural communications, particularly to LatinX audiences. Why is it important for brands to tailor their communications to multicultural audiences?
MR: We have often found that companies or brands first come to us, they feel that a simple translation of a concept or message is enough for effective communication with Spanish-dominant or bilingual audiences. It is not. We work with clients and partners to make sure that the message we are trying to communicate resonates not just at a language level but in a way that is culturally relevant.
That’s why it’s important to tailor communications with that culture in mind. There are concepts that don’t make sense in translation, but having a team that really understands cultural sensitivities, we can find a similar concept that might not have the same words in translation, but will be better understood within the conceptual language of the audience we are trying to reach. That cultural context is not only crucial to get the message across, but it also tells multicultural audiences that your company, your brand, cares enough about them to find the best way to speak to them and understands them in a way that a lasting and loyal relationship can develop and be maintained.
Three Box and MRR have teamed up on client work several times over nearly a decade. What do you think makes an agency collaboration successful?
MR: The best partnerships are those where the agencies have the same values and approach to the work that we do. MRR has been fortunate to find that synergy with Three Box. We pride ourselves in providing unique and customized services, always guiding our work based on our clients’ goals and expectations, whether it’s a national campaign for a large corporation or grassroots outreach and communications for a local nonprofit. It is that shared commitment to excellent customer service, not only to the client but also to the target audience, that makes our partnership successful.
We all have a role to play in diversifying our industry. How can professionals of all levels be advocates for and allies to communicators of color?
MR: Diversity can be complicated in its simplicity. Of course, inclusion is always the first step to ensuring that our industry is diversified in a way that it represents our ethnic and cultural communities. However, having those who come from diverse backgrounds at the table is not enough. There must be a commitment to include their voices and perspectives in the work that takes place every day and not only when it comes to outreach for those specific communities. Outreach is often a tapestry, and when some threads are missing, the final product cannot be complete or successful.
If we want to increase diversity in our industry, we must also commit to hiring or partnering with communicators who represent the diversity of the community. As professionals, we should always first be mentors to students, even at the high school level. We must participate in and support programs that eliminate obstacles for passionate communicators to be part of our industry—such as contributing to college scholarships and providing paid internships! We also need to be there to show them the ropes, to make sure that they feel valued and welcomed, and to encourage others to take their perspectives into consideration when crafting plans and messaging.
Three Box is a proud member of the Public Relations Society of America and the Public Relations Global Network. Learn more about our partnerships.