photo by steed media service

Economic adversities, seismographic shifts in the marketplace and changes in business paradigms, can all wreak havoc on businesses, especially African American companies. Bob Dale, founder and president of R.J. Dale Advertising & Public Relations, also knows it presents unique and unforeseen opportunities. Therefore, in this age of uncertainty for black advertising agencies, Dale and others have counteracted the practice of company marketing execs channeling dollars earmarked for African American ad agencies to the Hispanic market.

The establishment of the Association of Black-Owned Advertising Agencies provides a forum for African American proprietors in this industry to collaborate around cultural unity. “For many years we did not have an association, so it was each man for himself. One of the things that we do is share information, share ideas and kind of help each other in any way that we can,” says Dale, who has owned R.J. Dale for nearly three decades.

Dale admonishes other black agencies for not being better disseminators of information about the industry to the urban market. “The other thing that we can do is better communicate to African American consumers. After all, since you are our target audience in many cases, we should do a better job of how things are going, so you can make informed decisions of whose products and services you buy. And if they don’t’ have a black ad agency doing their [promotions] work, then you shouldn’t buy their products.” - terry shropshire

Learn about R.J. Dale by logging onto www.rjdale.com.

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