On June 3, the advertising industry was rattled by a game-changing announcement from the longest standing black-owned agency in the country.
UniWorld Group, one of the nation’s leading multicultural advertising firms, announced a re-branding initiative to ensure it remained a 21st century industry giant and in doing so magnified its  footprint in this digital age.
The makeover included an official name change, from UniWorld to UWG, a website overhaul and the introduction of the Culture Labs program.
UniWorld was founded by Byron Lewis back in 1969, when the lifestyles inside the Madison Avenue offices of many of the leading ad agencies still resembled the sets of AMC’s “Mad Men.” It was a time when the prevailing culture was unflinchingly sexist and discrimination a currency.
Today, the company is one of Black Enterprise’s BE 100s companies and an African American female powerhouse, Monique Nelson, is at the helm.
BlackEnterprise.com spoke with Nelson at the UWG headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Jay Street. Check out the interview:
BlackEnerprise.com: What do you see when you look outside your office window?
Monique Nelson: I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I actually went to Brooklyn Friends right across the street which is really quite scary. I look out the window and think this is unbelievable. It’s unreal. What an amazing boomerang journey.
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What’s your background?
My father is West Indian, my mother’s from Texas. I went to LaGuardia School for performing arts as a voice major then became a Posse scholar on a full leadership scholarship at Vanderbilt University. You can imagine a Brooklyn girl going out to Nashville Tennessee and under a diversity leadership scholarship? Quite the culture shock.
There is no mental. It was a choice, but also a dream that I’ve always had. I always knew that I wanted to own my own business. What I couldn’t tell you was what kind or when the opportunity would show up.
Find out more about the expansion of UniWorld on the next page …
When was the idea of buying the place first floated?
It first came up in 2010, that was when Byron and I talked and the “aha moment.”
Talk a little bit about the early part of your career.
I got a job at an international paper in Wisconsin – as a sales and marketing account executive. I was deemed the “throwaway” girl. I sold the brown part of the post-it notes, Reese’s peanut butter cups, paper that you put in the copiers, even the paper that adheres to plane fuselages, the stuff that people eventually chuck out. The positive part about that was it was a truly great foundation even though it wasn’t sexy.
Related: Massive Makeover at UniWorld: Changes Reposition Ad Agency for Digital Age
When did you know that this was the career for you?
My boss came up to me and asked how I was going to sell more paper. Mind you, I’m already selling two tons of paper to three million. So I brainstormed with my marketing executive and we started fleshing out ways to sell more paper and we came up with colors! How about selling them in different colors. That was the pivotal point for me in marketing. I could develop something no one else had thought about while delivering a solution to a client. At that point I was hooked.
I moved to Chicago where I met an amazing gentleman at an ACLU dinner and after a brief conversation he found out I was in marketing and offered me a job at Motorola. His name was David Gutman and he was starting a global brand strategy group for Motorola.
So you turned down the offer?
(Laughs) Oh yeah! No. I joined the global brand strategy group at Motorola working in Libertyville, Illinois and it was the ride of my life. I was there nine years and became truly global. Interestingly, one of my projects was ROKR E1. It was a phone that Motorola had that Apple put 100 songs in and this was actually when they launched the nano. An amazing campaign. It was with Madonna and other artists all shoved into a phone booth. That was me. It was a defining moment.
Find out more about Greenwood’s career journey on the next page …
How did you arrive at Uniworld?
In 2006 I moved back to New York. I wanted to come home. I began interviewing at agencies and then one day I came into Uniworld and I met Byron. He was the most beguiling, captivating, charismatic, witty person I had ever met and everything that I said to him that I wanted to do he said Ok! And I said ‘Really? I can do all these things here?’ And he said, ‘Why not?’ And I said, “Well Ok!’
What were you looking to change?
Having been global, I understood that targeting is very important. One of the things that gets overlooked here in the States is that they want us all to be the same. The global market is the opposite. There’s no way you’d do the same campaign in Venezuela that you would do in Brazil. It was mind-boggling to me coming down to the States and everyone is talking about the general market, the one-size-fits-all approach.
What part of the advertising market still needs conquering?
Everything still needs conquering. The pendulum keeps swinging in disconcerting arcs when looked at with the perspective of an African American. But I think we are going to get to this zone where people will really believe that there is no differentiation necessary. We’re still fighting that to remain relevant. We still need to be, still need to conquer. The markets are now more diverse and more competitive than ever. It includes Hispanics, Asian Americans, LGBT, women, millenials. They can’t be ignored.
Where is UWG going to be in a half decade?
(Laughs) I dream all the time. We will be the number one cultural agency across the board. We will be the premier agency for people to come to. We will be content providers, we will be thought provoking disruptors of everything that’s going on in society because our cultural insights and ability to connect is and will continue to be a part of the fabric of things that we do every day.
What are the differences between advertising today and yesterday?
There are times when I’m in rooms and it’s scary, because it looks like [the] 1950s which is disappointing, but the beautiful part is I’m in the room so there’s the difference. I don’t want to be the only one in the room, so I’m working hard to make sure there is a legacy, that there’s more of me and that we can be represented in more rooms.
True corporate diversity is an ongoing struggle. What’s your take?
By 2024, we are going to be looking at the peak of the white population and a period of social disruption in the U.S. No matter how you slice it, you are talking about a majority minority America and merely paying attention to one group is going to be detrimental. Listen, this is a business necessity, this isn’t about a choice. At some point if you’re doing any kind of long-term planning, if you don’t have a multicultural strategy, then shame on you, because that means you really don’t want to be in business long-term.
What are the challenges facing UWG that are peculiar to black companies?
I think there’s still a misnomer that we aren’t as good. We still fight to be at the right table. We are discounted from a conversation stand point. People think we can do the same work for less.
Any advice to other aspiring business leaders?
Dream big, stay curious, don’t be afraid to fail.