UWG Inc.

UniWorld Group, Inc. branded as UWG, is a full-service advertising agency[4][5], headquartered in Brooklyn, New York with satellite offices in Atlanta, Detroit, Miami, and Los Angeles. It is the longest-standing multicultural ad agency in the United States, founded in 1969.[6][7][8] In 2014, the company rebranded itself as UWG.[9][10]

UWG Inc.
Formerly
UniWorld Group, Inc.
Private
IndustryAdvertising
Headquarters
New York
,
New York, USA
Key people
Monique L. Nelson (CEO)[1]
OwnerLori-Laine Holdings (51%)
WPP Group (49%)[2]
DivisionsUniWorld Group Advertising
UniWorld Group Healthcare
UniWorld Group Hispanic
UniWorld Films[3]
Websitewww.uwginc.com

Some of its current and past clients include Lincoln-Mercury, Ford Motor Co, CVS Pharmacy, Marriott International, U.S. Marine Corps, AT&T, and Burger King.[6][1][7]

History

UniWorld Group was founded in 1969 by Byron Lewis[11][12], who pioneered the concept of multicultural advertising before its potential was widely recognized.[13] One of the company's first achievements was the conception of the marketing campaign for the "Blaxploitation" film, Shaft in 1971. The company was credited for popularizing Shaft (1971 film) by using the rhetoric of black power.[14][15][16]

In 1974, the company created a radio soap opera that centered around the post Great Migration and African Americans settling in the north entitled Sounds of The City. The soap opera helped the company earn its first million dollars in gross sales.[17][18] The company started creating TV commercials in 1975. Its first television advertisements were for Avon, a cosmetic company.[19]

In 1997, the company launched UniWorld Entertainment, a production company that developed national TV specials. The company has also handled publicity for films such as A Bronx Tale (1993), Amistad (1997), Boyz 'N the Hood (1991), Glory (1989), Malcolm X (1992), Shaft (1971), Shaft's Big Score (1973), and Shaft in Africa (1973).[18]

UniWorld did Burger King's minority advertising in the '80s and '90s.[20][21] In 2000, WPP plc acquired a 49% stake in UniWorld Group for an undisclosed sum. [22][23]

In 2012, Monique Nelson and her family acquired the majority stake and was appointed Chair and CEO of the company.[24] In 2014, UniWorld Group changed its name to UWG.[9][10][25] Some of the notable clients that UWG served include CVS Pharmacy, Marriott International, U.S. Marine Corps, Gatorade, AT&T, Mars, Incorporated, Amtrak, Smirnoff Vodka, Colgate-Palmolive, Texaco[26], Lincoln-Mercury, and Ford Motor Co.[6][1][27][28][29][1][30][7]

Awards and recognition

UWG has been ranked multiple times in Black Enterprise magazine: #16 on their Industrial/Service 100 (1994),[27] Advertising Agency of the Year (2000);[23][31] #5 in Advertising Agencies (2011); [24] and #8 in black-owned ad companies in the United States (2014).[32]

The Association of National Advertisers) has also given the company mutlple Multicultural Excellence Awards in 2010, 2012, and 2017.[33][34][35]

The company's founder, Byron Lewis was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame by the American Advertising Federation (AAF) in 2013.[36][37]

Other awards and nominations include: Communications Excellence to Black Audiences (CEBA) awards (1983)[38] and the APAC Effie Awards Gold Award in United States Multicultural & Lifestyle Segments – the multimedia 'Real Talk' ad campaign produced for the United States Marine Corps (2010).[39][40][41]

Further reading
  • Jessie Smith (2017). Encyclopedia of African American Business: Updated and Revised (Ed. 2, Vol.2 ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 495, 496, 497, 498, 499. ISBN 9781440850288.
  • Derek T. Dingle (1999). Black Enterprise Titans of The B.E. 100s: Black CEOs Who Redefined and Conquered American Business. John Wiley & Sons. p. 112. ISBN 9780471318538.
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References
  1. Baskin, Anna (May 2, 2012). "PEOPLE ON THE MOVE: MONIQUE L. NELSON TO TAKE OVER FOR BYRON LEWIS SR. AT UNIWORLD GROUP". Ad Age.
  2. "UniWorld Group advertising & marketing assignments". Adbrands.net. 9 January 2020.
  3. "UniWorld Film's New President". Upscale: 28. 1999.
  4. TARQUINIO, J. ALEX (November 4, 2008). "Office Tenants Flee Manhattan Rents for Brooklyn". The New York Times.
  5. Dougherty, Philip H. (July 30, 1982). "Uniworld Starts Unit To Create Hispanic Ads". The New York Times.
  6. "Top Black Ad Men and Women You Won't See on Mad Men". The Root. November 4, 2014.
  7. Rittenhouse, Lindsay (August 2, 2019). "Toasting UWG's 50th year". AdAge.
  8. "UniWorld: Changing of the guard". New York Amsterdam News. March 5, 2012.
  9. Aditham, Kiran (June 3, 2014). "UniWorld Group Rebrands as UWG". Adweek.
  10. Spiropoulos, Richard (June 3, 2014). "Changes at UniWorld repositions agency for digital age". Black Enterprise.
  11. Byron, Ellen (March 3, 2004). "Questions for… Byron Lewis". The Wall Street Journal.
  12. "Leader of the pack". Manhattan Times. May 8, 2013.
  13. [Jet; 07/26/99, Vol. 96 Issue 8, p24, 2p, 5 bw.]
  14. Eric Lichtenfeld (2017). Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie. Wesleyan University Press. pp. 14, 15. ISBN 9780819568014.
  15. Reid, Mark. Redefining Black Film. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
  16. Robert E. Weems; Robert E. Weems, Jr. (1998). Desegregating the Dollar: African American Consumerism in the Twentieth Century. NYU Press. p. 97, 98, 192. ISBN 9780814793275.
  17. Campbell, Barbara (April 8, 1974). "SOUNDS OF CITY, Black Soap Opera, to Cut the Jive". The New York Times.
  18. Jessie Carney Smith; Millicent Lownes Jackson; Linda T. Wynn (2006). Encyclopedia of African American Business: K-Z. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 446. ISBN 9780313331114.
  19. Laura Warren Hill; Julia Rabig (2012). The Business of Black Power: Community Development, Capitalism, and Corporate Responsibility in Postwar America. University Rochester Press. p. 126, 127, 128. ISBN 9781580464031.
  20. Dougherty, Philip H. (April 14, 1983). "Uniworld Group Gets A Burger King Account". The New York Times.
  21. Elliott, Stuart (December 20, 1993). "Burger King Widens Role for Uniworld". The New York Times.
  22. Sampey, Kathleen (June 19, 2019). "WPP Takes Piece of Uniworld Pie". AdWeek.
  23. Alexander, George. "A matter of survival". Black Enterprise (September 2000): 23.
  24. Edmond, Jr., Alfred (May 30, 2012). "UniWorld Group's New CEO Monique Nelson". Black Enterprise.
  25. Willoughby, Sergie (May 4, 2012). "UniWorld Group CEO Byron Lewis Retires". The Network Journal.
  26. Beatty, Sally Goll (November 21, 1996). "Black-Owned Agency Retained By Texaco to Bolster Its Image". The Wall Street Journal.
  27. "Uniworld Group Inc. celebrates its silver anniversary in the advertising business by targeting international markets". Black Enterprise. January 1995. p. 95.
  28. "WPP announces joint venture with Uniworld". WPP.com. June 16, 2000.
  29. Dingle, Derek T. (July 24, 2017). "No. 37: Black Ad Agency Slays A Madison Avenue Giant". Black Enterprise.
  30. "UniWorld Group wins Amtrak Account". Portada Online. October 12, 2012.
  31. "How UniWorld redefining urban reality". Black Enterprise (June 2000): 189, 190, 192, 194, 195.
  32. "Minority Owned Advertising Agencies Shut Out on Game Day". NBC News. February 2, 2015.
  33. "Burrell and UniWorld Win Top Honors at ANA". Rolling Out. November 11, 2010.
  34. Wentz, Laurel (November 1, 2012). "Ford, GM, Xoom, Rosetta Stone Win ANA Multicultural Ad Awards". Ad Age.
  35. "ANA Announces 2017 Multicultural Excellence Award Grand Prize Winners". Ana.net. November 6, 2017.
  36. "UniWorld founder Byron Lewis' Hall of Fame induction to be celebrated at Schomburg". Targetmarketnews. April 8, 2013. Archived from the original on August 17, 2013.
  37. Caslin, Yvette (April 29, 2013). "Advertising maverick Byron Lewis inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame". Rollingout.com.
  38. Dougherty, Philip H. (October 28, 1983). "Uniworld and J.W.T. Tie for CEBA Awards". The New York Times.
  39. "2010 Effie Winners" (pdf). 2010. p. 1, 9.
  40. 2010 United States Multicultural & Lifestyle Segments
  41. https://www.effie.org/search?utf8=✓&search_form%5Bfilter_type%5D=1&search_form%5Bsort_order%5D=0&search_form%5Bkeyword%5D=UniWorld&search_form%5Bpublished_case%5D=0&commit=Search
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