Changing Culture.

How UniWorld is redefining urban reality

NEW YORK'S SUPPER CLUB IS PACKED. THE HUNDREDS of marketers and advertisers at the African American in Advertising's first annual Excellence in Advertising awards have come out not only to praise one of their favorite sons, but also to cajole him. At this awards ceremony and roast, luminaries such as Johnny Cochran, Isaac Hayes and the Rev. Al Sharpton paid witty homage to the, 68-year-old founder, chairman and CEO of the UniWorld Group Inc.--Byron Lewis. While they lovingly chide Lewis about his loquaciousness, tight-fisted business style and less-than-towering stature, no one leaves the stage without acknowledging his visionary leadership and the indelible mark he has made on the world of advertising.

"Bryon always says that he's been in the business so long that he's been `Negro,' `colored,' `black' and `African American,'" says Les Goodstien, president and COO of the New York Daily News. "Well now he's urban." The audience bursts into laughter, but all in attendance know that it's no joke. With the African American market such a hot commodity these days, Lewis and UniWorld could be no other way; it was a market day had long catered to--even before it became vogue.

"It was a long time coming, but companies are finally recognizing African American culture," note Lewis in an interview after the roast. "This newest variation of our culture not only dominates the urban youth, but youth in general, both in the U.S. and globally."

Whereas the general market refers to the mainstream, white population, the urban market, with its African American-influenced hip-hop youth culture, crosses all racial and ethnic lines. Though the term urban has evolved to encompass all groups, in some circles, it has largely become synonymous with black.

MANIFEST DESTINY 

It's no secret that Lewis is a trailblazer. He always wanted to be a writer, but after graduating from Long Island University with a B.A. in journalism, he found the field--much like general-market advertising--difficult to break into. So he did advertising and promotion for African American newspaper in Harlem. Over the years he developed a variety of targeted publishing, promotion, broadcast production and entertainment project. In 1969, while corporate America ignored the African American market, the former social worker and events promoter turned advertising maverick not only convinced companies to advertise, but helped create programs to accommodate their ads: the 1974 black radio soap opera, Sounds of the City, and the television news program, America's Black Forum, with which he became associated in 1985. Now, more than 30 years after the Queens, New York, native opened the doors to UniWorld's three-room office off New York's Times Square with $250,000 in seed money from two venture capital groups, the agency has grown tremendously.

Today, UniWorld boasts 140 employees, most of whom occupy the headquarters' three floors high above New York's trendy, fashion-forward Soho district. With billings of $230 million, 1999 was a banner year for the agency with an almost 50% increase over 1998 billings of $160 million. Over the past five years, UniWorld's average rate of increase has been more than 17%.

"African American agencies like UniWorld are truly the real general-market agencies in America," notes Walker Williams, president of Alternative Marketing Access, a Washington, D.C.-based strategic marketing firm and cofounder of America's Black Forum. "Their ads are not only seen by the African American audience, but the general-market audience as well and must appeal to both sides."

A premier full-service agency specializing in multicultural marketing communications, UniWorld has, since its inception, focused on the African American and Hispanic markets. With offices in New York, Long Beach, California and Washington, D.C., UniWorld covers the gamut from advertising, entertainment and film to media planning, event marketing, public relations and everything in between. Of the agency's current 18 accounts, most are with heavy-hitters such as AT&T, Bank of America, Burger King, Colgate-Palmolive, Ford, Kraft, Microsoft, Motorola and Pepsi.

UniWorld is the number one black-owned shop in the U.S., followed by Michigan's Don Coleman Agency and Chicago's Burrell Communications. The agency has consistently demonstrated an uncanny insight into and a keen ability to foresee trends and tastes in the African American market. The result: unwavering success. That, combined with Lewis' ability to consistently move not only the industry needle but also a client's product, has garnered the UniWorld Group the distinction of the BE Advertising Agency of the Year for 2000.

THE MIDAS TOUCH 

No doubt, UniWorld has had its share of successes. One of the breakthrough ads crafted by the agency last year was the "Velvet Rope" commercial that featured party-goers waiting on line to enter--not a club, but Ford's new Focus automobile. So unique was the urban-targeted campaign--winning plaudits from both white and black consumers--that it became the mainstream campaign for the automaker.

"The urban market explosion has given us a role to play in the mainstream and clients are most certainly giving us much more challenging business," states Lewis. "But more importantly, we are getting the recognition, budget support and corresponding fees. When a client takes a black commercial and uses it in [the] general media, that is a remarkable endorsement and says that it can appeal to all markets."

Other memorable Ford commercials include "Playball," which pits an all-male softball team against a winning female team, and "Billy" where three women extol the virtues of what they think are the cars of three different men, only to find out that it's the same man.

AT&T, a client for 25 years, scored another win with UniWorld. The 1-800-COLLECT ads, featuring actor Marlon Wayans, were so successful that it is alleged that a top-level MCI official publicly alluded to the AT&T ads being partly responsible for the company's fourth-quarter decline in revenues in the collect-call business. "We were the only two competitors [running ads] in the collect business and the ads were the sole tools used to generate business," notes Elroy Cartwright, AT&T vice president of transaction services in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. "As we looked to target the African American youth market we thought, `Who best to execute the ads than UniWorld--an agency with a proven expertise in that area?'" While he would not quantify AT&T's growth in business as a result of the ads, he did say that the ads were very successful and met the company's expectation. UniWorld has also garnered kudos for last year's work for Pepsi with ads featuring hip-hop artists Master P and Mary J. Blige, and Busta Rhymes endorsing Mountain Dew.

"Byron Lewis is very astute in leveraging [his position as] the only remaining, 100% black-owned agency of the top three and companies pay attention to that," says Heide Gardner, vice president of diversity and strategic programs at the American Advertising Federation Foundation in Washington, D.C. "Their contemporary success with Ford and Pepsi show that [they have] the youth and insight to win in this competitive environment."

Ending the year out with a bang, UniWorld won the Microsoft ethnic marketing account that will target African Americans and Hispanics, and is estimated by AdAge.com to be worth between $10 and $15 million. This is also the first time the software giant has enlisted an ethnic agency of record. "Microsoft is a brand for everyone, but it never considered the economic impact of these markets," says Lewis, who won't discuss plans, but says that the account is a welcome challenge. "We discussed the digital, educational, economic, ethnic and healthcare divide between blacks, Hispanics and whites and together we will help them balance the playing field."

However, entrenched in the urban market, UniWorld tailors most of its creative for the general African American population. "We wanted to sell our banking and investment services to African American businesses with annual revenues of $10 million to $500 million and individuals with household incomes over $75,000," says Henry Givens, Bank of America senior vice president and national director of commercial business development in Charlotte, North Carolina. Givens is also president of Urban Financial Services (formerly the National Association of Urban Bankers). All told, $750 million in business was generated in over three years of the ads' run--though the growth cannot be attributed solely to the ads. "The market research and economic data that UniWorld provided helped us successfully make a business case for the development of a banking group targeting African Americans," Givens explains.

UniWorld has also been successful in the Hispanic market. "We saw a growth of approximately 17% in the Latino market in 1999, which is a very good return," says Mary Williams, ethnic marketing manager at Lincoln-Mercury in Irvine, California, of UniWorld's Hispanic-targeted ads for the car maker's Mountaineer, Villager, Grand Marquis and Sable vehicles. "We also got great exposure for the Lincoln Navigator and Lincoln LS in the African American market, through various print ads and special events."

WHAT MAKES A LEGEND?

One feather in the cap that has helped define UniWorld was its 1994 resuscitation of long-time client Burger King. That March, the fast-food giant fired its third general-market agency in 10 years and turned to UniWorld to handle their interim account as it searched for a general-market replacement. As a result of UniWorld's campaign--"We might not be the world's No. 1 fast-food place, but it just tastes that way"--Burger King's second-quarter sales soared 13% over the previous year to the chagrin of McDonald's and Wendy's. It also marked the greatest six-month sales increase in Burger King's history. Following the fast-food fight, UniWorld won Mars Inc.'s "Three Musketeers" candy bar general-market account in 1995. These triumphs mark the largest mainstream advertising assignments ever awarded to an ethnic agency.

For the past 20 years, Lewis has been the executive producer of the nationally syndicated news program America's Black Forum. Available in more than 70 markets, and reaching more than 85% of U.S. households, the show grosses more than $1 million annually and is headed by Byron Lewis Jr., son of the show's founder.

With a penchant for film that stems back to his work on the 1971 cult classic, Shaft, to promotions and public relations for films such as Amistad and X, Lewis launched the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1996. At an annual cost of $1 million, the festival, mounted in conjunction with the Black Filmmakers Foundation, showcases the cinematic work of black filmmakers and artists and has infused millions of dollars into the Mexican city's economy. Due to the overwhelming reception of the festival, where attendance has doubled each year, reaching 2,000 in 1999, Lewis recently launched the Reel Harlem Film Foundation. The event will offer a year-round "film laboratory" for all people of color.

It's this track record that has had advertising conglomerates hovering over the agency in recent years. Despite the recent mergers of Publicis with Burrell Communications (No. 3 on the BE ADVERTISING AGENCY list) and True North with Don Coleman (No. 2 on the BE ADVERTISING AGENCY list), nothing has come from the much-rumored talks between Lewis and an unnamed advertising giant. "I have been courted, but nothing has come out of it," says Lewis. "However, these global Goliaths have changed the landscape and made things difficult, putting us up against extreme competition with mainstream agencies, especially in broadcast. We don't have the billions of media dollars to compete, which makes it hard to stay independent." Add to that the fact that agencies like UniWorld pay, on average, 20% more than mainstream agencies to attract and keep good talent.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, ALL GREAT

Lewis believes very strongly in maintaining the talent pool. Throughout the years, he's found and honed that talent and attributes much of his success to his current management team. "It is the most dynamic team around," says Lewis of Gregory Walker, Valerie Graves and Chuck Morrison who, collectively, bring the full-breadth of advertising to the agency. "These are the people who will succeed me," states Lewis.

Walker, UniWorld president and COO, returned to UniWorld in October 1999 after more than 10 years on the client-side of the business, having most recently served as general manager of marketing communications and support services for Kodak's North America Consumer Imaging Division. From 1986 to 1988, Walker was UniWorld vice president and group advertising director and prior to that he was an account supervisor and vice president at ad agency D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles.

Valerie Graves, who joined the firm in 1985 and served as UniWorld senior vice president and senior creative director before her departure in 1996, returned last September after two years as senior vice president of creative services at Motown Records and a one-year sabbatical. She now serves as senior vice president and chief creative officer with some 39 creative, production and traffic personnel under her charge. "I think this was a fabulous time to come back. The whole millennial approach to advertising is going to be much more of a total media experience and UniWorld, in this age of multiculturalism, is really poised to be part of that experience," says Graves. She also heads up Urban Force, UniWorld's agency within an agency, designed exclusively to address the youth market. "We have comedy and music writers on our team who bring a different perspective to our creative," says Graves. "We are quite innovative in our approach and it's paying off."

In January, Lewis brought on Chuck Morrison, formerly executive vice president at the Don Coleman Agency (DCA). Much speculation surrounds Morrison's exodus from DCA, with industry insiders saying that it was Coleman's merger with True North that prompted the move. Nevertheless, neither Morrison nor Coleman would comment besides saying that the separation was amicable, and, says Morrison, "just business."

With more than 20 years of marketing and agency experience gleaned at Coca-Cola and Schlitz Brewing Co., Morrison, who is senior vice president and director of account services, is said to have written the book on ethnic marketing and he, too, has high expectations for the agency. "We can double this business within the next five or six years," states Morrison. "It's a great time in the business for those of ebony hues. If we understood what we're worth to corporate America, we'd be blown away. African Americans need to rediscover their value."

Even with his succession team in place, Lewis still bristles at the mention of retirement--and who can blame him? On tap are several new accounts, that Lewis will not yet name, which are close to being landed. Lewis also plans to compete with mainstream agencies of the same size as Uni-World for general market accounts. He sees the dotcom business as another new frontier to conquer.

"Finally, what `Uni-World' stands for has become a reality," says Lewis, referring to the agency's name and multicultural focus. "I'm as young as the people I work with, and I see the road ahead and it's much wider than it has ever been. This is the most exciting time of my life. I don't plan to retire just yet--this is still a work in progress."