Stellantis Hires TKT & Associates to Reach Black Car Buyers

Stellantis North America, maker of auto brands including as Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Alfa Romeo and Fiat, has added TKT & Associates to its North America creative roster. The agency, through its TKT Collaborative division, takes the role of the first agency of record focusing on Black audiences across Stellantis’ North American brand portfolio. TKT Collaborative is the creative division of TKT & Associates, a full-service diversity firm and global talent connector. The announcement was made at the second annual Staand (Stellantis, African Ancestry Network Diaspora) Gala celebration this past weekend, with the agency being chosen after an extensive review. “Assigning TKT & Associates to our creative agency roster to lead our Black audience marketing efforts across our North America brand portfolio allows us to ensure that we are truly speaking to different audience groups to reach all consumers, while not only believing in diversity but practicing it every day,” said Marissa Hunter, svp of marketing, Stellantis North America, in a statement. Hyundai’s New EV Campaign Aims to Be the Choice for Black Customers TKT & Associates will report to Kim Adams House, head of merchandising, licensing and multicultural marketing. House, who previously held the role of head of Jeep brand advertising in North America, recently expanded her current role to assume multicultural marketing efforts for Stellantis North America. A Black and women-owned agency TKT & Associates was founded by Tierra Kavanaugh Wayne and is now run by CEO Sheila Kavanaugh and CEO/CSO of TKT Collaborative Kimberly Bunton in Louisville. The TKT Collaborative division began in 2020 and has worked with brands ranging from Jeep to Visa and Zoom, but the agency has a specific focus on helping companies connect with Black and brown individuals. Stellantis picked TKT because of the creative and strategic framework that it brought forth during the RFP, as well as having a rich understanding of Black social media communities and insights strategically aligned with Stellantis’ multicultural marketing plan, according to House. “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 House, adding that it chose TKT to focus exclusively on building more authentic and deeper audience connections with Black consumers across its North American brands. Before being chosen, TKT went through Stellantis’ collaborative growth initiative for designated MBEs, as well as the National Black Development Program, which Bunton said gave the agency an ability to hone its skills and show the company what it was capable of accomplishing as an agency partner. “It's a tremendous opportunity for us. It is not something that we take lightly, working with the fourth largest automotive company in the world. And we appreciate the opportunity to have the creative expression and energy to connect [Stellantis] with the Black community,” said Bunton. TKT joins a creative roster that also includes Highdive, which worked with Jeep and Ram on Super Bowl ads, plus GSD&M on Dodge, Doner on Chrysler, Migrante on Hispanic marketing, and various other agencies on a project basis. Working with multicultural communities The naming of TKT is part of Stellantis’ commitment to establish meaningful, long-standing relationships with diverse audiences, according to Hunter. She noted the company's integrated diversity marketing campaigns across Ram, Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge, along with product placement partnerships across music and film that featured diverse talents. Recently, Stellantis announced a multi-year partnership with Derek Jeter and his wife, Hannah. In addition, the Dodge brand is now the company’s youngest average age demographic and the most diverse brand in its North American portfolio, and the Jeep brand has had a longtime partnership with the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy. Stellantis was formed at the beginning of 2021 after a merger between FCA and Peugeot S.A. In its previous and current iterations, the company has worked with several Black and multicultural agencies. In the mid-2000s, Global Hue won the global Jeep account and was the multicultural agency for the Chrysler Group. It worked on, among other campaigns, the “I Live, I Ride, I Am” campaign for Jeep. In 2021, Stellantis added Ignition Media Group to its marketing roster as a consultant, serving as a sounding board and multicultural thought partner for its marketing strategies. Derek Jeter and His Family Drive Home Jeep’s Message The brand will continue its efforts to expand its multicultural representation in its marketing. “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 general market campaigns,” said House. TKT is considering opening up a Detroit office to work more closely with Stellantis on its efforts. A Jeep brand campaign will be the first project for TKT, though it is still in its formative phase. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the Stellantis media account, which was awarded to Publicis, was nearly $2.4 billion in 2020, according to COMvergence.

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'We want to ensure that we acknowledge, that we see these communities'

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