Despite the less-than-flattering reactions to its recent ad campaign for Jeep, GlobalHue nonetheless nabbed “Multicultural Agency of the Decade” honors from Adweek this morning (Goodby meanwhile won Agency of the Decade).
Kelli Coleman, the agency’s VP of business development, tells us that she is “extremely honored and humbled” by the win, which “validates years of hard work and study.” According to Coleman, the proof is in the financial statements as GlobalHue has increased billings from $560M to $825M between 2006 and 2008 via its business units like GlobalHue Africanic, GlobalHue Latino, GlobalHue Asian and GlobalHue Next. The continual revenue growth is perhaps the most noteworthy item to pluck from all this.
While the exec cites early Domino’s work, the launch of Neon for Chrysler, the Jeep Cherokee Classic work featuring Barry White, Verizon campaigns targeting Hispanic consumers and the initial campaign for Bermuda Tourism as efforts that led GlobalHue to the Adweek accolades, she says the significant projects still don’t translate into mainstream acceptance of MC agencies. “Multicultural consumers, as well as agencies have been marginalized,” Coleman states. “However, marketers can no longer ignore MC consumers’ exploding populations and buying power. We fully understand that our knowledge of these consumers and their effect on popular culture has prepared us for many other AOR assignments.”
With US census bureau predictions claiming that white America will become the minority by 2042, one can assume that agencies like GlobalHue (as well as Bromley, Conill, Vidal, Alma DDB, etc.) that are doing multicultural work now could better handle general market projects as the date approaches. Of course, it’s still too early to tell whether the Mad Men as we know them will take heed. And while GlobalHue has had its issues with clients like Bermuda Tourism, the Jeep win is obviously a major catalyst for the agency’s evolution according to Coleman. “The Jeep win allows for both increased staffing and revenue,” she says. “But more importantly, it helps fuel our evolution into what we call the ‘total market’ via GlobalHue Next. ‘Total market’ is a term coined by GlobalHue used to describe today’s highly complex, multidimensional society. GH Next is the division that connects brands to the total U.S. market.”
While the Jeep work as of late hasn’t necessarily reflected the agency’s growth and positive qualities, does GlobalHue’s Adweek nod deem a closer look at the impact of multicultural agencies today?