Michael Steele Speaks at Mid-South Community College Graduation - Tells Students to Set Lofty Goals and Work with Conviction

We are so proud to share the following press release from Mid-South Community College, where out President and CEO, Michael Steele, spoke to graduates about hard work and paying it forward.  He also received an honorary Associate of the Arts degree from MSCC.

MAY 24, 2012, MEMPHIS, TN - MSCC Graduation Speaker Tells Students to Set Lofty Goals, Work with Conviction 

Setting challenging goals and working with conviction, when coupled with the “magic” of higher education, make personal and professional success possible, says advertising/marketing expert Michael Steele. 

Steele, speaking to the largest graduating class in the history of Mid-South Community College, encouraged students to work hard, dream big, and ignore critics. “I’m here to tell you, the world is yours as it is mine, but we have much work to do,” said Steele, president and chief executive officer of Advantage Communications, Inc., of Little Rock. “Let this be the beginning...a life-changing event. Set goals for yourself, and set them twice as high as the person sitting next to you. Don’t be denied.” 

“People can say what they want to say, but when you have the desire and that fire is in your belly, nobody can stop you. I urge you to work hard and dream big. If you take your job serious and start an hour before everybody else and stay an hour afterwards, eventually you’ll be running the place...and you’ll change your own destiny.” 

Steele, who grew up in a public housing project in North Little Rock, told graduates to be more concerned about where they are going than where they started.

“I grew up in the projects…and I knew nothing different,” he pointed out. “Many said I had no chance. Many said I would never finish high school. Many said I would not finish college, and when I left high school, my classmates, particular my basketball mates, were wagering if I would last a semester. Shame on them.” 

“There ain’t no limit because of where you’re from. If it happened with me and my family, it can happen to you. I am testimony. You can do whatever you want to do, but you have to believe in you.” 

Steele, who didn’t make it through the first day of tryouts for the ninth-grade basketball team, played the game every day for the next eight years to make sure that wouldn’t happen again. He went on to star in high school and college and even played a season in the NBA. 

“I take that attitude with me everywhere I go,” he said. “I will not be defeated; I will not stop. Everything I do, I do with conviction. 

While basketball opened some doors for him, it did not guarantee him success in the business world. Steele credited education and determination for propelling him to major corporate accomplishments with Coca-Cola and the business that he founded 10 years ago upon returning to Arkansas.

“Education is everything,” he said. “I learned at an early age that education was key…I did discover some magic. If you want to do something special, educate yourself.”

When Advantage Communications joined approximately 300 other firms in vying for the General Motors account, “My peers laughed at me,” Steele said. “They said, ‘Who would pick that agency?’ But we won here in Arkansas. Today we have the fastest growing advertising agency in the South.”

Steele encouraged students to be selective in their job searches.

“Don’t take the first job; take the best job,” he said. “And don’t take the job for money. Take the job for how it’s going to help you long term. Hold out; be patient; be disciplined, and you will be richly rewarded.”

The keynote speaker left the students with one final challenge.

“You need to pull someone along; you need to reach back and encourage someone else to graduate,” he said. “Each of you needs to go find a friend or a family member and bring them along this journey.”

Following the presentation, MSCC President Dr. Glen Fenter awarded Steele an honorary Associate of Arts degree from MSCC.

More than 245 students from 19 cities and towns in Arkansas and Tennessee earned MSCC degrees and/or certificates. For a full list of those graduates and their accomplishments, go to midsouthcc.edu.

- Press Release and photo courtesy of MSCC.

Advantage Communications, Inc. Selected as Strategic Partner to General Motors

LITTLE ROCK, AR – January 23, 2012 – Advantage Communications, Inc., Little Rock-based advertising, marketing and public relations agency, has been selected to execute creative services for General Motors (GM) in support of its Minority Dealer Development (MDD) Program. As a strategic partner, Advantage Communications, Inc. will work with GM representatives to develop the re-design, theme and content framework for the MDD INFORM communications platform.

Since 1972, GM has provided training opportunities to qualified minorities to help develop them to become future dealers. GM was the first US automaker to institute a formal minority dealer initiative in the industry. Through Minority Dealer Development, General Motors has created a program where potential minority dealer candidates can learn the business, and current minority dealers have access to resources to help them grow their businesses.

"Advantage Communications demonstrated that they understand what we are trying to accomplish through our program communications," commented Marina Shoemaker, Director of Dealer Development and the GM Minority Dealer Development Program. Their approach is refreshing, very creative and we look forward to developing this partnership with them."

“We are simply humbled to be a partner to such a prestigious organization as General Motors,” said Michael Steele, President and CEO of Advantage Communications, Inc. “For years, our agency has advocated for the development and enhancement of career opportunities within minority communities. The GM Minority Dealer Development program is the epitome of diversity initiatives working at its best. We look forward to not only spearheading the redesign of the MDD communications platform but building an added-value partnership with the GM family.”

For more information, contact Advantage Communications at 501.374.2220.

Advantage Communications Receives International Recognition for Radio Advertising

Radio advertising for tobacco prevention and cessation raises the bar in public health communications

LITTLE ROCK, AR - Monday, January 9, 2012 – Advantage Communications, Inc. – a full service marketing, advertising, and public relations agency based in Little Rock, Arkansas – has received notification by The International Davey Awards that its work in public health communications will be honored by the organization, once again. 

The International Davey Awards recognizes the outstanding creative accomplishments of advertising agencies. In its seventh year, The International Davey Awards accepted international nominations and reviewed submissions by a team of creative experts. Advantage Communications, Inc.’s work for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s Stamp Out Smoking Program was recognized from a pool of thousands of entries.

Make a Little History, a Black History Month creative unit featuring a well-respected physician, was awarded an award in the radio category. Make a Little History is a sixty-second radio unit designed to promote the benefits of tobacco cessation and to encourage minorities (specifically men) to abstain from the use of tobacco products- primarily because of a proven correlation to erectile dysfunction.

“This recognition speaks to the commitment of Advantage Communications, Inc. to produce innovative creative that is assertive and encourages behavior change,” stated Michael Steele, President and CEO of Advantage Communications, Inc. “We are honored to have received recognition from the Davey Awards again this year, particularly for our work in support of Black History Month. We will continue our pursuit of excellence for our clients."

“The UAPB/ Stamp Out Smoking Initiative is one that has had a significant impact on lives across the State of Arkansas – particularly throughout minority communities,” stated Dr. Calvin Johnson, Program Director, Minority Initiative Sub-Recipient Grant Office. “It is a true honor to receive recognition of this caliber from such a prestigious organization. We will continue pressing forward aggressively to affect change against our target audience to secure healthier, smoke-free lives.”

Advantage Communications, Inc. is an award-winning advertising agency. Over the years, Advantage Communications, Inc. has received awards such as the W3 Award, Addy Award, Public Health Award, The Communicator Award and the Small Business of the Year Award.

“We appreciate advertising awards, but what really motivates our team is seeing our creative work change behavior and yield results for our clients. This Davey Award is a perfect combination of the two,” commented Steele.

To view the award winning creative referenced in this announcement and additional agency creative units, visit www.advantageci.com. For more information about Advantage Communications, Inc., please contact Whitney Albert at 501.244.4915.

One Step Forward ... Two Steps Back

By: Michael Steele, President and CEO 
Advantage Communications, Inc.

For years, I’ve been a proud innovator of multicultural marketing. In fact, I can remember when this discipline initially birthed itself upon the shoulders of consumer equality pioneers such as D. Parke Gibson, author of the legendary $30 Billion Negro and $70 Billion in the Black: America’s Black Consumers. Mr. Gibson was a revered pillar amongst African American and business communities as he was not shy about voicing his expertise on the need to diversify corporate America. As a result, he essentially revolutionized the art of marketing. 

Beyond Mr. Gibson, several advocates have spoken up on behalf of diverse audiences including Hispanics (now the largest ethnic consumer segment), Asians and the LGBT community – all in keeping with the need to adhere to diversity in the marketing arena. 

At its early inception, multicultural marketing was centered on speaking to the needs of diverse communities, which were at the time called “Special Markets” or “Market Development”. As time progressed, several organizations and corporations witnessed substantial growth within these consumer markets and began to realize that such growth could greatly affect their bottom line. 

Today, multicultural audiences represent billions of dollars in total consumer spending. According to The Buying Power of Black America, “In 2009, black households spent an estimated $507 Billion in 27 product and services categories.” (See chart to left.) 

As of 2010, black buying power equated to nearly $836 Billion. Hispanic consumers also hold significant spending power. According to a whitepaper published by Mercury Media entitled The Power of the Hispanic Consumer, “By 2017, the Hispanic consumer’s disposable income will have grown 76% to $1.83 trillion.” 

I would be remiss to not mention that the Asian market is also growing at a rapid pace in its current and forecasted purchasing power. According to a 2009 Selig Center report, “Asians’ buying power will reach nearly $700 billion in 2014, when their percentage of the population will only spill a little over 5 percent.” (See chart to right.)

Understanding this power of multicultural consumer spending, today’s marketers are more comfortable in the multicultural marketing space. I even applaud modern-age CEOs/CMOs as they appear to understand the importance of multicultural marketing to their respective businesses and brands. However, what they fail to understand and remain confused about is how to manage multicultural marketing as a successful, functional group within their organizations.

This confusion was further uncovered by a recent survey conducted by AdAge amongst chief marketing officers, senior VPs of marketing and other manager/directors from a variety of consumer-based disciplines. The high-level results were discussed in an article entitled “Marketers: We Don’t Get How to do Diversity.” And by the way, I can’t think of a more appropriate title!

The article noted, “While 84% of the marketers believe multicultural marketing is ‘critical to my business,’ almost 40% said they don’t know the financial value of multicultural groups to their companies.”

Wow…

I interpret this statement to be a transparent void in understanding how to establish and maintain Return-On-Investments (ROIs). But, is this not the basic measurement for success for any and all marketers? Of course it is, and this responsibility lies with the CMOs. It’s nowhere near realistic to invest if executive leadership doesn’t understand ROIs. Herein lies a significant portion of the problem with multicultural marketing. While CEOs/CMOs may understand the percent of volume attributed to diverse consumers, they do not understand the ROI potential nor can they quantify the impact of targeted marketing campaigns.

During my career with The Coca-Cola Company, I oversaw the multicultural marketing group and worked on a series of consumer categories that held a disproportionate share of ethnic consumption. I took pride in establishing my department to the same level of value as the other departments. By this I mean we set measurable objectives, quantifiable strategies as well as ethnic profit & loss statements (P&Ls) – all of which were put in place to hold our department accountable for results. The same process that worked for me several years ago can work for today’s multicultural marketers.

Another significant portion of the problem with multicultural marketing is the fact that CEOs/CMOs struggle in understanding how to structure the multicultural marketing department to be most effective and generate optimum profits.

A recent demonstration of this struggle was the announcement that certain multinational organizations have pushed the responsibility of multicultural marketing down to the brand level in an attempt to force accountability or quantify the business. In reality, however, what this process has done is deemed multicultural marketing a lower priority– internally (particularly amongst executive leadership) and externally. This may not have been an intentional effect, but the truth is that these segments are now at risk of serious stalling or even complete demise.

These CEOs/CMOs have failed the multicultural community and their own companies in not understanding the economic impact these consumers have on shareholder equity. At my agency, Advantage Communications, we live and breathe the disciplines of successful multicultural marketing management.

Here are five “musts” we’ve coined for managing multicultural marketing for our clients: 

 

• Multicultural marketing must require 100% commitment, 100% of the time. The same level of commitment that is dedicated to other disciplines within an organization should be exhibited for multicultural marketing. 
• Multicultural marketing must be managed via executive leadership – not junior personnel. Let’s remember… key business decisions should be made from the top down, not the bottom up! 
• Executive leadership must understand that relegating multicultural marketing is abdicating their responsibility for capturing every consumer dollar available for their respective businesses and brands. 
• Multicultural marketing must not be viewed as a percent of a brand marketer’s compensation plan but rather a business segment. 
• Multicultural marketing must be treated like profitable, consumer segments such as the youth, aging or gender-based markets. Just as business forecasting and analytical teams support these business segments, such should be the case for multicultural marketing. This is the avenue to demonstrate results. 

With all this said, I’m sure many of us have heard that one of the reasons these companies lack structure in multicultural marketing is because they cannot find qualified human capital to manage this discipline. Over the years, large corporations have hired highly assimilated minorities that have not done their due-diligence for these markets.

The minorities that are fortunate to enter into corporate America via multicultural marketing or similar ethnic disciplines only do so with the intention of moving up the corporate ladder. In other words, their “brown” positions are simply conduits for general market opportunities they seek to reach. As a result, no one is truly taking ownership of multicultural marketing.

What they fail to realize is that qualified talent can often be found right in the backyard of their own corporations or within their multicultural agency relationships. They must simply put forth the effort to secure talent and not wait for it to knock at their front door.

Over the years, my associates have had the opportunity to assist several of our clients in effectively structuring their multicultural marketing groups to optimize value, including the use of P&L statements by segments. We keenly understand that multicultural marketing is a discipline that can be applied not only across the country but internationally as well.

On this note, I must say I find it amazing that some CMOs appear to better understand multicultural marketing internationally but fail us domestically. Throughout my tenure with The Coca-Cola Company, I had the privilege of traveling to many countries. In these markets, CMOs spearheaded efforts to adopt culturally-relevant product offerings to meet the needs of diverse consumers. Why not do this in the states? The same basic philosophies apply no matter where you are! Marketing is marketing in the United States and abroad.

So, here’s a fact: Multicultural marketing is a complex discipline. However, knowledge is power. If you’re interested in learning how you may better structure your multicultural marketing group for success, we are the solution.

Advantage Communications, Inc. Selected as Communications Partner for Doyne Construction Company

Advantage Communications, Inc. has been selected as a strategic communications partner for Doyne Construction Company, Inc. Advantage Communications, located in Little Rock, will be charged with ultimately raising consumer awareness and appreciation of Doyne Construction Company’s unique services.

Doyne Construction Company, Inc., a commercial building contractor headquartered in North Little Rock, AR, was established in 1983 by Dexter Doyne. Doyne Construction Company, Inc. prides itself in its competitive edge… being a “one stop shop”.  Doyne Construction Company, Inc. customers are provided services in:

•           Design Build

•           Budgets and Estimating

•           Technical Proposals

•           Project Management and Construction Management

“We have been fortunate to have been around since the 80’s,” stated Dexter Doyne, President of Doyne Construction Company, Inc. “However, we have also come to realize that our market - as well as our customers - is constantly evolving. As a result, we must evolve as well and begin to communicate why our company is unique amongst others.  We take a “one stop shop” approach which is not the standard for the construction business. Our customers know that as soon as they engage with Doyne Construction Company, they need not go anywhere else!”

“Our agency has been a long supporter of Doyne Construction Company and we now have the opportunity to grow our partnership and deliver results – which is what we stand for,” explained Michael Steele, President of Advantage Communications, Inc. “Doyne Construction, represents the epitome of where the industry is going, and we look forward to helping the company achieve its goals.”   

Ronnie Brewer "I Can't Imagine" Commercial Advertising for Stamp Out Smoking

Advantage Communications, Inc. Selected as Agency of Record for Arkansas Department of Health HIV/STD/Hepatitis C Section

LITTLE ROCK, AR – September 29, 2011 – Advantage Communications, Inc. has been selected as “Agency of Record” for the Arkansas Department of Health HIV/STD Hepatitis C Section. As agency of record, Advantage Communications, Inc. will work with the Section to develop and execute a statewide public education campaign encouraging Arkansans to understand the risks of HIV/AIDS, prevent the spread of the disease and seek regular testing. 

According to the Arkansas Department of Health as of December 2009, 5,793 people were living with HIV/AIDS in Arkansas. The number of new diagnoses of HIV infection reported to the Arkansas Department of Health in 2009 was 338. Of these new cases, 79% were male and 57% were between the ages of 30 and 49 years. HIV/AIDS has also disproportionately affected minorities – specifically African Americans and Hispanic Americans – on both a national and state level. As of 2009, 49% of new HIV infections were among African Americans (42%) and Hispanic Americans (7%). 

“We have come to a cross-road in our HIV/AIDS communications efforts in the State of Arkansas,” explained Tina Long, Section Chief of the Arkansas Department of Health HIV/STD Hepatitis C Section. “There is no better time than the present to be more aggressive with Arkansans about understanding EVERYTHING there is to know about HIV/AIDS and how it may be prevented. We must work together as one unit to combat this disease to substantially improve the health of Arkansans within and outside of our communities. It is an uphill battle but with our new partner, Advantage Communications, we expect to move forward.” 

“We are simply humbled to be a partner to the Arkansas Department of Health HIV/STD Hepatitis C Section,” said Michael Steele, President and CEO of Advantage Communications, Inc. “This is no new territory for our agency as we have been engaged in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS for several years now, including our work with Sheryl Lee Ralph, national AIDS activist and others. We look forward to decreasing the spread of HIV/AIDS and increasing the number of supporters across our State.” 

For more information about this statewide HIV/AIDS campaign, contact Advantage Communications at 501.374.2220.