The maker of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and other vehicles is boosting its marketing efforts to reach Black customers and other multicultural communities.
Stellantis NV on Wednesday said it has added TKT Collab — a division of Kentucky-based TKT & Associates, a Black- and woman-owned business — to its North America creative roster. It is the automaker's first Black agency of record across Stellantis' North American brand portfolio that will oversee marketing efforts to a Black audience.
Stellantis has worked with Black-owned agencies and put forth campaigns focused on Black customers in the past, but the partnership with TKT, the financial details of which weren't shared, represents a strengthened commitment to those audiences and growing that consumer base, executives said.
"We are reminded as marketers that it is our responsibility to continue to embrace this ever-changing world with innovative thinking and to demonstrate our commitment not only to diversity, but to also being instruments of change," said Kim Adams House, who was announced to lead multicultural marketing efforts in addition to licensing and merchandising, replacing Juan Torres, who left the automaker in October. "And that is precisely why we went through the rigorous process to identify a Black agency to focus exclusively on building more authentic and deeper audience connections with Black consumers across all of our North American brands."
Stellantis has increased consistently its allocation of resources for multicultural marketing over the past few years, said Marissa Hunter, senior vice president of marketing in North America, though she didn't provide details. The announcement comes after a group of Black media executives in 2021 led by mogul Byron Allen — the owner of The Weather Channel plus 16 ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX network affiliate broadcast television stations and a founder of his own entertainment company — drew public attention to automakers like General Motors Co. for their lack of spending on Black-owned media companies.
"We do continue to work very closely with his team, a relationship that we started with him and his team about a year and a half ago," Hunter said. "The discussions that we've had with him and his team have been very productive, very insightful, and he's offered perspective on marketing and how we should be poised with a diverse roster of partners.
"That has been very beneficial to the team. I wouldn't necessarily say that it is a direct result of the partnership that we have with the Byron Allen Group that has led to this announcement today, but just an overall desire for us to make greater impact and more meaningful audience connections with these consumers is truly the reason for the formidable relationship with ... the team at TKT."
TKT created a video focused on Jeep that was shown during the second Stellantis African Ancestry Network Diaspora Gala held this week. Its first major campaign, though, will come later this year for Jeep and hit online, social media and TV channels. Other efforts also will include product placement in TV, film and music videos.
"We are beside ourselves with the opportunity to work with you guys particularly closely," said Kimberly Bunton, CEO and chief strategy officer of TKT Collab. "We appreciate your trust in us, and we look forward to the ability to make some amazing content that does resonate with a Black community in a very authentic and organic way."
The company employs roughly 200 people across divisions and subsidiaries. It previously has worked in marketing for transportation, health care and other consumer industries.
TKT was chosen from among several contenders over several months, House said. She emphasized that TKT's data-led approach to reaching Black audiences, creative strategy and ideas to approaching electric-vehicle adoption were key drivers of the company's selection. TKT also is a graduate of Stellantis' Black Supplier Development Program.
"Going through the program gave us the ability to have interfacing with a good number of divisions of Stellantis on behalf of TKT," Bunton said. "It definitely gave us an edge and being able to craft messaging and creative around the culture of the company and to connect it with the Black community collectively."
In the past year, Stellantis has run diversity marketing efforts for each of its American brands and participated in product placement partnerships for entertainment with diverse talents, Hunter said. Diversity also is represented in Stellantis' own campaigns such as Wagoneer's multi-year partnership with former New York Yankees star Derek Jeter and his wife, Hannah. Other marketing partners include Dennis Archer Jr.'s Ignition Media Group in Detroit around strategy consulting, and for content creation, California-based Migrante focused on Hispanic communities and Doner Partners LLC. Previously, the Jeep brand agency of record was the defunct Southfield, Michigan-based GlobalHue.
"While we've had a deep relationship and a consistent relationship with these audiences, we believe that it is important to ensure that we remain innovative in the way that we approach the business, and the way that we establish our relationships with these consumers," House said. "We can say that over time, the representation will increase, and we want to ensure that we acknowledge that we see these communities, and it's not just about ticking the box for us, it is about really understanding through cultural insights that we can develop our campaigns and creative executions that align with their experiences that are unique and oftentimes different than other market campaigns."
