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Brands: Come for the Haircut, Stay for the Screening… with Barbershop/Beauty Salon Activations by WPIM, Wil Power Integrated Marketing
Left: Equalizer 2 Activation: Sony Pictures tapped WPIM to outfit 1,000 salons and barbershops with customized shampoo capes, grooming kits and t-shirts to deliver the Equalizer movie brand message to the AA audience in 10 markets; Right: Wil Shelton, CEO Wil Power Integrated Marketing (WPIM)
Wil Power Integrated Marketing(WPIM)founded in 1996, is a full-service consumer engagement and experiential marketing company specializing in Urban Beauty Salon Marketing. Agency Founder Wil Shelton, a licensed hairstylist with a 25- year background in the beauty business, owned a hair salon for 10 years where he found that he could easily bring the worlds of entertainment and beauty together, harnessing the power of word of mouth in the African American market.
Now, WPIM is positioned in more than 40 urban markets nationwide (http://www.wilpowerent.net/markets.htm) with well-established business relationships in over 75,000 African American, Hispanic and general market beauty salons. The company provides a means to maximize a brand’s overall marketing through timely, strategic product placement and with lucrative sales results that follow. This network allows for a brand message to be displayed in store where these shops are excellent venues to distribute coupons, customized product placement, product sampling, window posters and merchandising opportunities as well as advertising optimization, social media outreach, target marketing research, in-venue merchandising and more.
In a May 2018 Adweek article “This Agency Connects With 100 Million Customers Through Hair: Salons and barbershops aren’t just for grooming” reporter Ann-Marie Alcántara writes “Salons and barbershops are “cultural touch points” and remain an “untapped venue” to reach African-American consumers, explained Wil Shelton, (WPIM)founder and CEO. These spaces are an essential element in communities and contain a “deep connection between the stylists and the patrons in [a] trusted environment,” Shelton said, adding that “African Americans have a heavy influence with entertainment and global brands.”
WPIM current clients include entertainment companies, book publishers, television studios, record labels and movie studios including Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Fox Studios, Lionsgate, NBC, ABC Television, Columbia Records, RCA Records as well as financial institutions such as Regions Bank who offered a scholarship program to black students via distributed materials in salons in 10 markets.
“We were the first agency in history to hold advance screenings of TV shows at the salons and barbershops,” said Shelton. “Attendees are provided food, drinks, free hairstyles, massages etc. We provide these same salon (takeover events) for new product launches.”
As he told readers in a recent interview in Sheen Magazine “Our mission is to show companies that the beauty shop is not just a place to go for grooming but it is also where consumers go to get the scoop on the latest trends and popular culture.” Continues Shelton, “This is how we can put global brands within arms’ reach of this target consumer with their 1.4 trillion dollar spending power and influence that they have.”
For current clients, typical activations include product sampling, product placement, screenings, celebrity talent (actors, recording artists) in-salon appearances and increasing album sales through streaming platforms forin-salon playlists promotion.
Left: Sony Pictures tapped WPIM to outfit 1,000 salons and barbershops with shampoo capes and t-shirts to deliver the Superfly movie’s brand message to the AA audience in the top 10 markets. Right: NBC tapped WPIM to help launch the Steve Harvey Show by distributing customized branded merchandise in over 800 key beauty shops in the top 10 markets to increase awareness and rating among the AA female audience.
Beyond the entertainment categories, a great opportunity exists for the Insurance, Financial, Food & Beverage, Fast food, Casual Dining, Travel and Automotive categories to reach this audience.
De Verges Jones COO of WPIM is a Cornell University MBA a veteran marketing executive from Fortune 500 companies including Kraft General Foods, Pepsi and Clairol. Jones says, “Being able to differentiate your brand in the salon and barber shop environment for an extended period is an effective way to create the ultimate customer experience.”
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