Maira Taimo and Micaella Tiago, founders of Just People Agency, spoke to Xonguila, presenting the project:
As two women driven by a passion for the world of marketing, we recognised the emerging needs in a fast-growing market and decided to go ahead. Just People Agency exists to simplify life for influencers and clients, creating synergy and mutual understanding. Our role goes beyond merely managing influencers. We work at every stage of the process: from finding the ideal profile to hiring the influencer, including meetings with clients, campaign conceptualisation, defining briefs, content planning, monitoring, through to producing reports. In addition to the in-house management of influencers, we do outsourcing, looking for non-affiliated influencers who suit our clients' needs.
Our professional journey is rooted in previous experiences. We both worked in marketing and, coincidentally, studied at the same university, at different times. I, Maira, worked in Maputo at Ogilvy, while Micaella was in South Africa, at the agency FCB Cape Town, where we both worked with influencers and models. Understanding the discrepancies between a more developed market, such as South Africa's, and an emerging market, such as Mozambique's, we saw an opportunity.
Two and a half years ago, we began our adventure, in the era of Covid-19, with a team of three people working remotely. Two of us divide our time between managing clients, influencers and campaigns, and administration and finance. The third is our talented designer, photographer and videographer, George Swanepoel, responsible for our visual image and content. Along this journey, we have managed to represent approximately 20 influencers whom we clearly regard as part of our team. Our work goes beyond managing campaigns and influencers. We accompany our influencers in everything, from the creative process to the conceptualisation of content. We value proactivity and the creation of group experiences, encouraging the sharing of opinions and experiences.
Our clients are varied. In Mozambique, where the influencer market is still flourishing, we encourage small businesses to adopt this means of promoting their brands and products. As for large companies, we believe that using influencers is imperative to their success.
Strange as it may seem, the pandemic benefited us. Despite the initial budget cuts, over time budgets have been increasing, allowing us to grow. And we are proud of our positive impact on the influencer marketing market in Mozambique. We face some challenges, such as brands' valuing of influencers and of content-creation work, in addition to the discrepancy between the fees charged by different influencers. These factors destabilise the market, often without brands understanding the effort involved in creating quality content.
We live in a digital world. Besides managing digital campaigns, we keep an eye on international influencer marketing trends. Our goal is to expand our network of influencers and to continue fighting for the regulation of the market in Mozambique, promoting a better valuing of influencers.
