EVOLUTION
May 28, 1996
Founded in 1996
Wil Power Entertainment (WPE), founded in 1996, is a full-service lifestyle marketing agency.
May 29, 2018
Agency Connects With 100 Million Customers Through Hair.
For its impressive brand activations, Wil Power Entertainment has an unexpected advantage: its vast network of over 100,000 independent salons and barbershops across the country. And this strategy seems to be paying off.
March 3, 2019
Media Capabilities
Today’s toughest marketing challenges lie in making a real connection with African American consumer. Wil Power Integrated Marketing (WPIM) makes that happen.
WHO
WE ARE
Founded in 1996, Will Power Integrated Marketing was founded by 25-year beauty industry and Salon owner Wil Shelton. Will Power Integrated Marketing is a full- service experimental, 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.
In an August 2021 article in Popsugar magazine Natasha Marsh writes "Shelton believes the Black salon can empower and reconnect women with who they want to be at the end of the day. It's high time for movie studios to recognize the power that African Americans have on culture. After all, Black women's spending power continues to grow every year, we watch more movies than any other race, and we watch television 40 percent more than any other group.Black people have an outside influence on the culture and the ability to redefine cultural norms," said Shelton. "It's a culture within a culture. [Hairstylists] don't just shape hair; they shape the culture one style at a time, and for too long that's been a blind spot. I want big companies to understand that when you promote movies and other products through [hairstylists], you're not just promoting to the stylists that work there; you're promoting through them as they are the tastemakers."
The fact of the matter is, Black hair salon owners and stylists have large — sometimes millions — of followers on social media, and if brands and movie studios tapped in, the reach could be huge.
"There's been no better time in history for movie studios to utilize the Black beauty salon to promote their movies. And the success of this rollout is proof that the Black salons and barbershops are still the incubators of culture, of Black culture, and most importantly that the women who work and gather there are more than worthy of the respect of these entertainment marketers," Shelton said.
GLOBAL NETWORK
West Palm Beach - Charlotte - Myrtle Beach - Norfolk - Phoenix/Flagstaff, AZ - Orlando, FL - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Miami, FL - Jacksonville, FL Detroit, MI - Jackson, MS - St. Louis, MS - Las Vegas, NV - Milwaukee - Philly - Pittsburgh - Memphis, TN - Nashville, TN - Houston , TX - Dalllas/Ft. Worth, TX - Austin, TX - San Antonio, TX - Beaumont - Columbus, OH - Atlanta, GA - Lafayette, LA - Baton Rouge, LA - New Orleans, LA - Shreveport - Monroe - Gary, IN - Indy, IN - Raleigh/Durham, NC - Charlotte - Columbus, SC - Burmingham, AL - New York, NY - Los Angeles, CA - Chicago, IL - San Francisco, CA - Oakland, CA - Washington, DC - Baltimore, MD
WHAT WE DO
EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
Tour Management, Event Planning
In-Market awareness, Street Teams
Screenings (TV Films)
CREATIVE
Creative Consulting
Advertising
Urban Salon Advertising
LIFESTYLE MARKETING
Faith-Based (Churches)
Black Colleges (HBCU)
Urban Professionals
IINTEGRATED MARKETING & PUBLICITY
Marketing Strategy
Brand Development
Outreach
OUR
PARTNERS
MEET THE PRINCIPAL
As President & CEO of Wil Power Integrated Marketing, Wil Shelton has grown the company into a global salon, stylists and barber marketing agency offering a full range of traditional and digital marketing services to the multi-cultural masses in the beauty and grooming industries. He is the driving force behind the company’s business development and creative strategy. Under his direction, the agency designs and executes targeted campaigns to connect global brands to the industry authentically to reach their multicultural consumer.
Prior to starting his company Wil started out being a salon owner and hairstylist and that is where 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.
With a network with over 100,000 African American salons and barbershop nationwide and the ability to reach over 100 million consumers annually, Shelton feels that it's important for brands to have multicultural divisions or arms because most brands are setting up multicultural departments. “Multi-Cultural marketing is becoming more and more an important part of the business for the hair industry," he said. "Brands are taking advantage of this and they are seeing it in their bottom line.”
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 a consummate professional – Wil Shelton is a passionate, ambitious and empathetic leader. He is a self-motivated risk-taker and workaholic. Wil believes that good is not good enough and that one should always strive for greatness.
Wil is especially strong as a visionary, in brand building, business sustainability and strategically growing revenue through value management.
Wil Shelton
President & CEO of Wil Power Integrated Marketing
AT&T CODES OF CULTURE
IT'S A (773) THING
Chicago Salon
IT'S A (347) THING
New York Barber
SALONS IN ACTION
Wil Power implements and manages advertisement and marketing campaigns for clients seeking to maximize brand loyalty and customer retention, reinforce brand awareness, specifically among potential clientele, enhance product satisfaction, and gather valuable market research information from niche market segments. Through these procedures,
Wil Power enables companies to expand market segmentation.
TESTIMONIALS
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