Wilson Binkley merges with NMCO Studio of Las Cruces

LAS CRUCES – Christina Ballew had just made a leap of faith in committing to operating her own business full-time when her computer, the indispensable tool for her design work, died. That mishap opened the door to a durable partnership.

Last week, her marketing, design and video production firm, NMCO Studio, announced a new chapter in the form of a merger with legacy advertising firm Wilson Binkley Advertising and Marketing.

NMCO’s origin story springs from Ballew’s computer emergency in 2014. Ballew co-founded Blue Zia Creative Group in Las Cruces that year, offering marketing services and graphic design. In an interview with the Journal, she said that her computer went bust about a week after throwing herself into business ownership.

She brought her computer to another Las Cruces business, MDC Computers, where she recognized owner Lucky Gonzalez as her high school classmate back in Alamogordo. At the time, Gonzalez was venturing into video production himself, working with a team of young filmmakers in town who were producing commercials and original movies.

Ballew and Gonzalez began collaborating. In 2016, they joined forces to establish NMCO, which today occupies a commercial building on a vital commercial strip with indoor and outdoor creative spaces.

“I didn’t expect it to keep going,” Ballew said. “I didn’t expect the community to believe in the work that we do, sometimes more than we believe in it. The biggest compliment that a lot of our clients have is that we’re all kind people. I think this industry can be kind of intimidating.”

Their work encompasses branding and marketing strategy, advertising, video production and photography, and web development and design. A major client is Visit Las Cruces, the city’s tourism and marketing bureau. They have also executed projects for the town of Mesilla, Virgin Galactic, local nonprofits, regional events and promotional campaigns as well as the Las Cruces International Film Festival.

Ballew said she was unaware that Wilson Binkley paid them any attention, even though NMCO was effectively their only competitor in town. Still, NMCO was new and had a slightly different focus. Wilson Binkley had been a leader in New Mexico advertising since 1993, “before Google, before social media, even before web pages,” as it says on its website.

When they reached out this fall to discuss a merger opportunity, it caught Ballew by surprise.

“They liked our values as a business, they liked what we were putting out there within our own brand and they felt like that would be a great fit for their clients as well as their team members,” she said.

Wilson-Binkley partner Ken Binkley said his firm, co-founded with David Wilson, had emphasized groundbreaking creative work “informed by data-driven research” in an announcement of the merger. 

“We know that our team will not only continue to deliver amazing client service at NMCO, but also capitalize on working with an even larger, exceptionally creative group,” Binkley said.

Wilson announced his retirement in 2022. 

Ballew said there would be no staffing cuts in the merger, and Wilson-Binkley staff would report to NMCO full-time at the start of the new year, expanding NMCO’s full-time staff from nine to 14 as it offers clients a broader spectrum of services while maintaining familiar account representatives. Wilson and his partner, Rob Sharp, will step back from daily operations.

Some of the incoming staff have already gotten acclimated. Lynn Cole, an account executive at Wilson Binkley, said she was looking forward to mixing more often with design teams, facilitated by NMCO’s open-studio design that eschews cubicles and silos.

In mid-January, NMCO plans to hold an open house welcoming clients of both firms as they become one.

“Bestowing this legacy to us, it just feels like a gift,” Ballew said. “It’s a lot of work, of course, but we have the energy to do it and the imagination to do it.”

Algernon D'Ammassa is the Albuquerque Journal's southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.