Universal Toasts Resiliency of Black Culture With Candyman

Without a background in the film industry, New Yorker Fabian Castro made his way into Hollywood and now stands as the senior vice president of multicultural marketing at Universal Pictures. With his role comes initiatives that speak to diverse audiences in a relatable and authentic way, with the latest including working with producer Jordan Peele and activating Black artists across the country for Nia DaCosta's Candyman. Read our full Q&A on how purpose-driven marketing with Candyman included efforts with historically black colleges, their past work with marketing-savvy talent like Kevin Hart and why every marketer should understand multiculturalism. ADWEEK: How did you get to where you are today? Any noteworthy aha-moments along the way?It’s been a true journey, especially for someone that didn’t start out in the film industry. My family and friends have been an important support system to help me to where I am today. One of my biggest aha-moments came as interviewed for the job at Universal. I wanted my candidacy to stand out and I had landed on a unique way to marketing myself as “the ultimate insider and outsider.” An insider because I was an avid film lover, I understood and worked within a major entertainment corporation, I lived and breathed cultural marketing. I was an outsider though, having never worked specifically in film and being a New Yorker, not an Angeleno. I positioned all as strengths that would add a new and unique perspective to how we would approach future marketing challenges. The self-branding exercise allowed me to leverage my marketing muscles on positioning myself and reframed my approach. What's the most innovative thing you recently worked on? The multi-layered social impact project for Candyman. The project was the brainchild of Monkeypaw’s Director of Social Impact, Keisha Senter, and through our partnership, we were able to unite artists, activists, influencers, and students within the Black community to illuminate some of the social themes that the film touches and to go beyond trauma and really celebrate the resiliency of Black culture. We released a 20-minute special hosted by one of the film’s stars, Colman Domingo, along with a group of leading Black academics, activists, and thought leaders that beautifully captures a deep conversation on the social impact of the film. The special is one of many tactics within Candyman’s Social Impact Initiative, including outreach to HBCUs, activating Black artists, as well as screening events throughout the country attended by Lebron James, Lupita Nyong’o, Russel Westbrook, and Chance the Rapper among others. The initiative showed that we could create awareness and drive intent for a film and do it in tandem with cultural relevance and organic depth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VKtExlE_Ec&t What new or up-and-coming innovation(s) are you most excited about and how do you think it will change the future of marketing? Purpose-driven marketing. We’ve seen demand from consumers, especially those from younger generations, to have companies be transparent about their impact and contributions to society. Soon, the connection between product and purpose will become more and more inextricable and marketers will be challenged with developing new ways to be innovative and authentic while being intentional with their brand’s actions. What’s one piece of work from your career that you’re the proudest of? Working with talent who are willing to help execute any crazy idea you put in front of them has always been a fun element of the job. Kevin Hart is one of the most marketing-savvy talents that I’ve had the pleasure to work with. When we were promoting his film Night School, we wanted to blend a live comedic stunt to develop a unique and buzzworthy digital asset. We armed Kevin with a megaphone and a branded double-decker bus and asked him to ride around New York City promoting the film with cameras in tow. Little did we know that there would be a thunderstorm to add a dramatic button to the stunt. The result was an amazing social pickup from those New Yorkers that saw the stunt happen live in addition to amazing traction across all of our film and Kevin’s social platforms. https://twitter.com/KevinHart4real/status/1043189814735060992 Was there ever a time where you questioned your career path? How did you handle that? After working in marketing in the magazine publishing world in New York for eight years, I felt that my dream to be in Hollywood and work on film marketing was dissipating. I traveled to Los Angeles and networked like I never had before. I leveraged my contacts to help me make new ones. Each instance created an opportunity to sit with a different film executive and have conversations to learn about what they were looking for, and formulate what I could do to be in the room where it happens. What is one skill that you think is currently underdeveloped in Marketing? Understanding multiculturalism and how to develop effective marketing strategies that understand and respect a diverse audience—that speak directly to them in an authentic and relatable way. The recent ethnic statistics from the Census reaffirms this, with two out of five Americans now identifying as people of color. Developing the marketing skill of how to genuinely create culturally relevant invitations to cross-cultural consumers will continue to be a stronger and stronger business imperative. How do you pick and develop the talent on your team? I look for individuals that I see can bring something unique to the table and can be entrepreneurial, even within a corporate environment. And of course, I want to find someone that has a passion for the product we market: in my case, the movies. It’s extremely important to me that my team feels empowered to not just come up with a fantastic marketing idea, but also be resourceful to make that idea become a reality. What's a way that you predict marketing will change as more people begin traveling/going out again? I hope that more marketers will embrace out-of-home advertising and the creativity that digital displays can unleash. Consumers that have grown savvy and skip the ads on their devices may find a hard time avoiding a creative and unique out-of-home execution once they are out and about. I was impressed with the recent “Waterfall-NYC” art installation that took over One Times Square this summer as it showed how something so simple yet visually impactful, like cascading water, could leverage a space normally reserved for advertising to create both an event and art. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Times Square NYC (@timessquarenyc) What’s the first post to come to mind when you hear “best-in-class social”? Anything that has been produced exclusively for Will Smith’s social. He and the team at his company Westbrook have figured out how to effectively match him with content creators and distill his superstar charm into some of the best, engaging, clever, and curated social content. Through his posts, I’ve discovered and now follow so many fresh digital-native creators that entertain and inspire me. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? “You learn something new every day.” It’s amazing how much new knowledge is coming at us every day and how we have the power to develop that into something new to try, something new to teach or maybe something new to appreciate. What one question would you ask the marketing community and why? “What new marketing challenge keeps you up at night?” We may find we all have a similar challenge and if we can get enough marketing brainpower around it, we may find a path forward . . . or at least a start to getting better sleep. How DEI-Speak Can Become Business-Speak With Companywide Adoption

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Universal Pictures Celebrates the Resiliency of Black Culture With Candyman

Studio's svp of multicultural marketing Fabian Castro chats on working with Jordan Peele, Kevin Hart and other creators

Julian Gamboa

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Julian Gamboa