Multicultural Ad Agency Scores Big With Mainstream American Television Audience.

Multicultural advertising agency UniWorld Group Inc. scores big with the general American television audience with 5 commercials placed in the likeability and brand recall rankings, more than any other agency measured, according to the Intermedia Advertising Group Report and Ad Age. The five commercials were for UniWorld’s clients Burger King, Lincoln, Ford and Pepsi.

“I expect that our work will be popular as long as people laugh, work, marry and dance, because, although our commercials are culturally targeted, they are universally human,” said Valerie Graves, Chief Creative Officer, UniWorld Group Inc.

Byron Lewis, Chairman and CEO of UniWorld Group Inc. adds “Black consumers represent the cultural engine of American contemporary culture – from urban hip hop music, to the NBA and NFL, to the Williams sisters and popular comedians. UniWorld’s creative success builds from the agency’s business foundation, diverse staff and our unique understanding of the culture of this new America.”

UniWorld’s spots that were ranked in the top 20 most likeable spots of 2002 were for clients Lincoln and Pepsi. The Lincoln commercial, “Ring,” where the best man can’t find the ring, was ranked 11th and the Pepsi commercial, “Dance” where different dance demos were performed in front of the Pepsi logo, was ranked number 18.

This success has continued in the first quarter of 2003, with Burger King’s “.99 Croissanwich” commercial featuring popular African American comedian Steve Harvey ranking as the third most likeable spot and the Ford Explorer commercial, “So So Clean” where car wash employees admire a black SUV, came in at number six during this period.

Intermedia Advertising Group also announced the Burger King “.99 Whopper” spot, again featuring Steve Harvey, as the number 10 most recalled spot and the Ford Explorer “So So Clean” spot as the eighth most likeable spot for the weeks of January 6 through January 19 of 2003.

These five commercials were all designed for the African American market using African American cultural insights, celebrities and urban music. Their immense popularity with the national audience reflects the growing diversity of the American population and demonstrates the shift in market preferences. Most importantly, it also reflects UniWorld’s ability to speak to this diverse audience.

The Recall Score is the percentage of TV viewers who can recall within 24 hours the brand of ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing TV. These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all new ads in the category during the time period (Recall index).

The Likeability Score is the percentage of viewers who claim to like an ad “a lot” (among those who can recall the ad and its associated brand). These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all new ads during the time period (Likeability Index).

All ads under consideration for the first quarter of 2003 must meet a minimum survey sample size of 200. The Overall Top 20 ad ranking is based on over 2.6 million surveys of TV viewers conducted between Jan 2 and April 1.Total survey sample size varies across individual product category rankings.

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