One Venture Group is Madison Avenue’s new Black ad agency

Rolling out spoke with Troy Brown, Jason Carter and Steve Canal, the three co-founders of One Venture Group, about their new venture.

As a brand manager, what are some of the innovative tools you use to get ahead and stay ahead?

Troy Brown: I won’t detail the specific names of all the tools in our stack. However, we have invested an inordinate amount of funding into tools that assist us with everything from consumer audience intelligence, social listening analytics, and attribution throughout the entire marketing funnel to PR attribution, influencer identification, and audience analysis, dynamic content optimization across organic and paid media channels.

We feel confident that by making an ongoing investment in innovation and the appropriate tools, then overlaying our innate ability to drive and program culture, we’ll always stay a few steps ahead of our competitors.

How do you use collaboration as a marketing strategy?

Steve Canal: Collaboration is an essential key component to an effective, efficient marketing strategy when done right. A good mix of a diversity of thought, succinct vision, masterful execution, and engaging audience ultimately will birth results and innovation that can carry your brand through the best and worst times of an economy.  There are many ways to leverage collaboration but here are five questions you need to answer before moving forward:

1. What are my company goals and does this potential collaboration align with our overall vision?

2. Does the potential partner belief system align with our core values?

3. Through our digital technology how can we capture the voice and authentic feelings of our target audience?

4. How can we leverage collaboration to strengthen a potential weakness for a particular campaign launch?

5. What are some effective metrics we can use to measure success and results for our brand partners and organization?

We believe OVG is uniquely positioned when it comes to the idea of collaborations given our collective experience in both the corporate and agency world. We have developed and worked on global campaigns in addition to owning impactful intellectual properties of our own utilizing collaborations. Our capabilities have flourished in many different industries such as information technology, alcohol industry, financial, health care, communication services, consumer staples, professional sports, and others. We pride ourselves on being able to bring worlds together while effectively garnering results leaving an impression on our target audience.

How important are diversity and cultural authenticity to your marketing, branding and community relations strategies?

Jason Carter: It is placed at the top of the list. Far too many times brands throw money at a problem and/or a community and think that is enough. It’s not. Cultural authenticity cannot be manufactured. If you truly want to connect with a community, you not only have to invest your money but also your time while committing to understanding their ethos. As for diversity, it goes hand in hand with our brand strategies. Our culture is not vanilla. Our culture is not solely hip hop. Our culture isn’t he or she … it’s we, us, them, and they. Our power is based on collective action, so whatever we build, present and promote it must reflect the entire soul of our community.https://09c01278a48f7e339414d262d3d3c8e1.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

How does your brand use influencers, and what role do they play in your marketing strategy?

SC: Influencers are very important to the growth of our brands; however … picking the right influencers is even more important. At OVG, we leverage unique technology for influencer identification and making sure their audiences align with the brand and consumers we’re trying to reach. Followers do not always equal influence. The big question is, do your followers believe you? Do they believe in you? Would they buy something from you? Do they engage with your content? Do they share your content? Picking the right influencers is extremely important in rolling out new ideas, concepts, products and services. We use influencers to be our voice when addressing their specific audience, we use influencers for more than just top-of-the-funnel reach and engagement. They help create an intimate and familiar space for new adopters to get to know our brands. People trust people. Brands have to earn your trust.

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