Ad agencies band together to strengthen industry clout and leverage their power

By Tamara E. Holmes
BlackEnterprise.com
(June 7, 2007) Some of the country’s most successful black-owned advertising agencies have banded together to form a new association, hoping they can leverage their collective power to further their success in the advertising industry.
 
The Association of Black-Owned Advertising Agencies, composed of ten advertising agencies and marketing communication companies, was organized by Eugene Morris, chairman and CEO of E. Morris Communications Inc. (No. 13 on the Black Enterprise Advertising Agencies list with $28 million in billings) after a series of meetings late last year between agency owners.
 
"There are a number of problems in our industry and some that are peculiar to African American agencies," says Morris, the group’s interim chairman. "I think that it’s very important that we have a voice in which we can speak collectively as opposed to two or three individuals talking about it."
 
The stakes are high, as ABAA estimates that black-owned ad agencies and marketing firms have billings of more than $1 billion per year. Yet some members argue that this is only a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of advertising dollars the nation’s largest companies are spending annually.
 
"If you look at the top 200 advertisers as reported by Advertising Age, I would challenge you to find more than 50 of them that have a relationship with an African American agency," says ABAA founding member Al Anderson, chairman of Anderson Communications (No. 9 on the BE Advertising Agencies list with $40.7 million in billings).
 
ABAA’s formation comes at a time when diversity is being heralded across the industry. For example, late last year, the American Association of Advertising Agencies launched a major initiative called Operation Success to attract and retain minority employees to the nation’s advertising firms.
 
But despite a willingness to talk about the need for diversity throughout the industry, Anderson says many general market firms are mixing diversity marketing initiatives together with other minority groups and calling it multiculturalism. Additionally, they create their own African American divisions or agencies rather than looking to black-owned agencies to help them reach the African American market.

For that reason, "our focus is on independent [black-owned] agencies because life for us is very different than it is for other agencies," Anderson says.
 
In addition to promoting the interests of black-owned agencies, ABAA hopes to create opportunities for black students who want to enter the advertising field, and improve the business world’s understanding of the African American consumer.
 
"We should be looked upon as an enormous resource and as experts in a segment that heretofore was not looked upon as being important," says Eugene M. Faison Jr., chairman and CEO of Equals Three Communications Inc. (No. 7 on the BE Advertising Agencies list with $70 million in billings).
 
Other attempts to form an association to represent black agencies have failed in the past, but Morris says this effort is different because the founding members understand the bigger picture of how their collaboration more powerfully tackles the issues that affect their individual firms.
 
"I think most people in our industry have believed that there was a need for it but I think that one of the reasons why it hasn’t happened [before] is that we’ve been too focused on our own businesses," says Morris. "We need to be willing to make a little sacrifice for the good of the industry and for the good of those who come behind [us] and by working together instead of working individually, eventually we’ll all be better off for it." .  

Click here to go to the ABAA Web site

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