Majority Launches With Commitment to Diversity—and an Assist from Shaquille O'Neal

As the ad industry's establishment players struggle to address deeply-rooted systemic racism, creative agency Majority is launching in Atlanta with diversity at its core—and the backing of NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal. Started by industry veteran Omid Farhang, along with founding partners Asmirh Davis and Jorge Hernandez, Majority aims to flip the agency diversity ratio on its head, with a goal of maintaining a talent pool that is 75% diverse, which the agency defines as employees of color, women and LGBTQ individuals. Majority's commitment to diversity won't be limited to that benchmark and it plans to ensure diversity across those categories and others as well. "As we talk about shifting the diversity ratio, I don't want to think about it as mathematical equation," Farhang said. "I want clients to look at our team and see very clearly broad representation." While O'Neal won't play a part in the agency's day-to-day operations, the agency will utilize the founding partner as a resource to bring into conversations when it has ideas for projects, leveraging his marketing know-how and ability to make connections that generate opportunities. Everyone involved in the founding of the agency is quick to point out that this is not a case of an agency propped up by a celebrity spokesperson, including the star himself. "I obviously didn’t need to help start an agency to partner with brands," O'Neal said in a statement. "I’m doing this because I believe in the mission, and I believe in the team led by Omid." That mission is driven by a belief in diversity as a differentiator, as well as a frustration with the slow progress of agencies to address systemic racism, and is deeply rooted in Atlanta. Farhang, who leads creative for Majority, most recently served as CCO for IPG experiential agency Momentum. His prior agency experience also includes stints at CPB and Creative Artists Agency. Over the course of his career, he has crafted work for such notable clients as American Express, Best Buy, Burger King, Chipotle, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Domino's, Verizon, Volkswagen, Gap, Mattel and Unilever. Farhang said they he realized early on in his career that his experience as a son of Iranian immigrants gave him a valuable perspective that fueled creativity. Davis, who will act as the agency's CSO, previously held a role as group director, planning for Huge, where she helped bring to life the agency's recent "Defund to Refund" initiative reframing the conversation around police defunding. Hernandez will act as CMO and also arrives from Momentum, where he was vp, group director for the Coca-Cola account. Atlanta roots, new routes After moving to Atlanta around three years ago, Farhang fell in love with the city almost instantly. He also recognized a tremendous missed opportunity. "I could feel this palpable diverse creative energy, tapped into in music, film and content production but strangely untapped in marketing," he told Adweek. "Agencies are supposed to be tapped into culture," he added, "but look at the agencies in Atlanta and you won't find leadership that reflects what makes Atlanta different than almost any other city." While admittedly not an entrepreneur by nature, Farhang said that once he had the idea for the agency, he couldn't let it go. He explained that his first inclination was to find a holding company partner but arrived at the conclusion that such a partnership wouldn't be conducive to building the type of agency he envisioned, as a friend within a holding company told him such entities are "better at harvesting than at cultivating." "Holding companies are fundamentally financial institutions," Farhang explained, and he realized that "in the beginning I shouldn't be spending time on protecting a creative institution from a financial institution." The agency views its independence as key to achieving its goals of driving true progress for diversity in advertising by taking a different approach, capitalizing on the missed opportunities of larger shops to tap into Atlanta as a center for culture and diverse talent more broadly. That's what led me to realize that I needed to remove myself from that ecosystem to show what it could look like.—Asmirh Davis, founding partner and CSO, Majority For Davis, who has spent her entire advertising career in Atlanta, the disconnect between her home city and agency culture was a continual source of frustration. "It is really maddening as a Black woman in this space for my entire career to live in an city as progressive as Atlanta," she said "[and] to work every day and have to muddle through this industry where we're continuously fighting this status quo of a white male dominated culture." "It's all personal to us but it's also an obvious misstep of the industry as a whole. What we know as veteran marketers is that diversity is the thing that is disruptive. Tt is a competitive advantage if you take advantage of it and nobody is looking at it from that standpoint," Davis said. "Everyone is looking to play catchup. The majority of the hires that I see on LinkedIn are new heads of DEI," she added. "They're aggressively trying to fix a system that was never meant to be the thing they're trying to make it and do it through the confines of a system that is broken." After years of seeing the same dynamics play out, Davis came to the conclusion that true change could only happen from outside that establishment. "Until the industry and the system that was made to keep us out is dismantled I will never see the change within my lifetime," she said. "That's what led me to realize that I needed to remove myself from that ecosystem to show what it could look like." "Agencies are making the moves that they can without disrupting the system. You see a lot of hiring going on but the important thing to remember and what I always look for is where are those hirings happening," she said. "If they’re not in the decision-making process than what are you doing other than changing the faces that are showing up to the same systems that were made to not include them?'" GoPuff and building from a diverse foundation The agency opens with expanding on-demand delivery app goPuff as a launch client, as well as relationships with clients it can't yet disclose. "As an agency partner, Majority reflects the diverse audiences goPuff serves all across our 200+ markets, which allows us to forge more meaningful and authentic relationships with our customers, local partners and communities long-term," Brian Schultz, vp for goPuff's creative studio, said in a statement. While fully remote for the foreseeable future, Majority plans to open an office in the heart of Atlanta and Farhang said it intends to research what will go into a space beneficial for an agency in a hybrid work environment. While utilizing freelancers to extend its core team, Majority intends to prioritize full-time employees going forward, with a focus on the Atlanta area. Davis said the agency intends to allow for flexibility in whether employees work remotely, which can expand opportunities for employees with disabilities or family obligations, as part of its commitment to to diversity. "Everyone else’s missed opportunity is our opportunity right now, to be based in Atlanta and be inspired by Atlanta to help redefine the industry as a whole," Davis said. "Outside of the diversity principles that we're founded on, there’s a lot more behind that in terms of the culture that we’re creating." "It’s very much centered in people, taking that people-centered approach the talent model is based on inspires everything else," she added, including the types of client partnerships the agency will pursue.