Founded in 1996 by 25-year beauty industry and Salon owner Wil Shelton, Wil Power Integrated Marketing is a full- service experiental, event activation agency specializing in the beauty/barber industry.
Wil’s vision for Wil Power Integrated Marketing was born of hard-won experience. He knew a different kind of agency was needed-a firm that takes a holistic and integrated approach towards promoting salons, stylists and barbers, while consistently over-delivering on value and responsiveness.
Shelton feels that it’s important for brands to have multicultural divisions or arms because most brands are setting up multicultural departments.
Wil Power Integrated Marketing is positioned in more than 40 urban markets nationwide (with well-established business relationships with over 100,000 African American salons and barbershop nationwide and the ability to reach over 100 million consumers annually.
The agency 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.
Wil Power Integrated marketing creates events that help global brands to help position brands into the consumers’ minds by attracting and emotionally engaging them in the salon or shop experience.
To learn more about Wil Power Integrated Marketing visit https://www.wilpowerent.net/
In a May 2018 Adweek article 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, Wil Power Experimental Marketing 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.” To read article click here.
“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.”
Wil specializes in aligning both new and familiar brands with his company’s core ability to produce creative campaigns that authentically speak to the multicultural consumer. One of his many successful partnerships includes pairing AT&T with top beauty salons and barbershops with branded premiums.
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.”
Typical activations include product sampling, product placement, advertising optimization, digital/social media outreach, target marketing research, in-venue merchandising and more.
Beyond the global brands and entertainment categories, a great opportunity exists for the Insurance, Financial, Food & Beverage, Fast food, Casual Dining, Travel and Automotive categories to reach this consumer.