The Allen Lewis Agency

What The Allen Lewis Agency does

The Allen Lewis Agency (TALA) is a Detroit-headquartered, Black women-owned full-service marketing and communications agency founded in 2015 by Jocelyn (Allen) Coley and Chandra S. Lewis. The firm offers an integrated ten-service portfolio spanning brand strategy, multicultural/grassroots/DEI consulting, events management, communication planning, integrated marketing campaigns, social/digital/influencer services, advertising and media planning/buying, creative development, press relations, and issues and reputation management. It sells these capabilities primarily through project-based and retainer engagements to enterprise clients, including Fortune 500 brands such as Nissan North America, Ally Financial, Mars Petcare, and Disney Theatrical Group, alongside government and nonprofit accounts such as the City of Detroit, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, Detroit Public Schools Community District Foundation, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and Detroit Opera.

The firm's commercial differentiation rests on multicultural and grassroots engagement expertise targeting Black, Hispanic, Asian, LGBTQ, and military-veteran audiences, supported by certified MBE, WBE, WOSB, Detroit-Based Business, and ANA Diverse Supplier credentials that qualify it for corporate supplier-diversity procurement. TALA operates with a 1–10 person core and a distributed national team of senior practitioners, with the co-founders themselves providing 20+ years of corporate marketing experience from General Motors and Bosch respectively. There is no proprietary technology platform; delivery is service-led and the go-to-market motion is enterprise field sales targeting major brands and government entities.

Revenue mechanics are professional services fees billed on a project or retainer basis, with media-buy spend (e.g., the $870,000 City of Detroit Detroit for Life media buy) passed through on top of agency fees. Documented campaign outcomes include 200M+ hashtag impressions for the Nissan/Disney A Wrinkle in Time integration (2018), 155M hashtag impressions for the Nissan Bloggin' Mamas Safety Academy (2022), 800M impressions for the City of Detroit Detroit for Life campaign, and 2,000+ attendees across three events for the James H. Cole Home for Funerals centennial celebration.

Name

The Allen Lewis Agency

Legal name

The Allen Lewis Agency

Website

https://theallenlewisagency.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Allen Lewis Agency (TALA) is a Detroit-based, Black women-owned full-service marketing and communications agency founded in 2015, serving Fortune 500 enterprises, government entities, and nonprofits with multicultural, grassroots, DEI, PR, media planning/buying, and integrated campaign services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Marketing Communications Services

NAICS

Advertising Agencies (541810), Public Relations Agencies (54182)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)

akta.pro primary industry

Integrated Full-Service Creative Agencies (MPAAAAAA)

Keywords

• Marketing communications services
• Multicultural marketing agency
• Public relations services
• Brand strategy consulting
• DEI consulting services

Headquarters

HQ city

Farmington Hills

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Marketing and Communications Services: The agency generates revenue through professional services fees including strategic consulting, brand development, media planning and buying, public relations, social and digital marketing, event management, and grassroots engagement services. Revenue is project-based and retainer-based for ongoing clients.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Allen Lewis Agency (TALA) is a full-service marketing and communications agency that delivers strategic brand development, DEI consulting, multicultural and grassroots engagement, integrated marketing campaigns, events management, media planning and buying, public relations, social and digital marketing, speechwriting, and issues and reputation management to enterprise clients. Services are delivered on a project and retainer basis by a national team of senior practitioners to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and cultural institutions.

Product overview

The Allen Lewis Agency (TALA) is a full-service marketing and communications agency offering a unified portfolio of integrated services. The core offering consists of strategic services (Brand Strategy, Communication Planning, Issues and Reputation Management), multicultural and engagement services (Multicultural/Grassroots/DEI Services, Social/Web/Digital/Influencer Services), creative and production services (Creative Development, Events Management), and media services (Advertising and Media Planning, Press Relations). All services are delivered through Integrated Marketing Campaigns that tie together the various components. The agency serves major brands including Nissan, Ally Financial, Mars Petcare, Disney Theatrical Group, City of Detroit, and various Detroit-based organizations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Brand Strategy Strategic consulting service covering research, market and competitor assessment, audience definition, segmentation and journeys, brand vision, values, identity, positioning and architecture, and ROI metrics and reporting for enterprise clients.
• Multicultural, Grassroots and DEI Services Diversity, equity and inclusion consulting and implementation covering research, strategy, audience assessment, integrated planning, and sustainability plans for multicultural and grassroots engagement reaching Black, Hispanic, Asian, LGBTQ, and military audiences.
• Events Management Full-service event management including creative development and production, integrated activation planning, and full-scale project management for corporate, government, and cultural clients.
• Communication Planning Strategic communication planning covering strategy and consulting, messaging and messengers, audience and market assessment, timing, tools and formats, execution, culmination and maintenance.
• Integrated Marketing Campaigns End-to-end campaign management including brand and culture strategy, audience targeting, channel management, creative content planning across all mediums, and expert implementation for enterprise clients.
• Social, Web, Digital and Influencer Services Digital marketing services including social media strategy and engagement, website planning, digital, mobile, email and programmatic strategy and creative, and influencer strategy and engagement.
• Advertising and Media Planning Media planning and buying services covering audience and market assessment, strategy, media planning and buying across broadcast, cable, OTT, out-of-home, digital, and print channels.
• Creative Development Creative content production across broadcast, print, social, web, digital, photo, and video, including ideation strategy, audience experience, concept development, storytelling, design visualization, content planning, production, and post-production management.
• Press Relations Media relations services including assessment, strategy and consulting, messaging and materials development, media training, interviews, and follow-up.
• Issues and Reputation Management Reputation and crisis management covering risk and impact assessment, stakeholder and market assessment, contingencies and scenario planning, and response and resolution.

Quantifiable outcome

• 200+ million hashtag impressions generated for Nissan Disney A Wrinkle in Time campaign
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and notable.

• NAACPminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2024NAACP sponsored the family festival component of James H. Cole Home for Funerals centennial celebration, which included a musical stage, health fair, and petting zoo for children.
• Bloggin' MamasnotableGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2022TALA teamed with Nissan and Bloggin' Mamas to create the Nissan Presents the Bloggin' Mamas Safety Academy program. The initiative leveraged Nissan's safety engineers and reached Hispanic mothers with child safety information.
• Black Girls CodenotableStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018TALA partnered with Black Girls Code for Nissan's collaboration with Disney's A Wrinkle in Time movie integration. The partnership included a hackathon collaboration and Nissan has continued its support of Black Girls Code because of this activation.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Burrell Communications Group: Chicago-based Black-owned full-service multicultural advertising agency founded in 1971. Directly comparable as a legacy diverse-owned integrated agency serving Fortune 500 brands across multicultural audiences — TALA's most natural public benchmark.
• GlobalHue: Southfield, Michigan-based independently owned multicultural advertising agency. Highly comparable as a Michigan-headquartered multicultural agency serving major brands, including automotive, with similar geographic and capability overlap.
• Uniworld Group: New York-based Black-owned full-service multicultural advertising agency. Comparable as a diverse-owned integrated agency with similar multicultural marketing focus and Fortune 500 client mix.
• IW Group: Los Angeles-based Asian-American focused multicultural advertising agency. Comparable as a niche multicultural agency with deep cultural-segment expertise analogous to TALA's audience-specific capabilities.
• Muse Communications: Los Angeles-based multicultural advertising agency specializing in Asian-American and diverse consumer markets. Comparable as a mid-sized multicultural shop targeting similar Fortune 500 brand budgets.
• Walton Isaacson: California-based independently owned multicultural and integrated marketing agency. Closely comparable as a mid-sized full-service agency with similar multicultural capabilities and Fortune 500 client roster.
• Carol H. Williams Advertising: Oakland-based Black-owned full-service advertising agency. Directly comparable as another African-American women-founded multicultural agency pursuing Fortune 500 multicultural mandates.
• Lopez Negrete Communications: Houston-based Hispanic-focused full-service multicultural advertising agency. Comparable as an independently owned multicultural agency with deep cultural-segment specialization serving Fortune 500 brands.

Broad incumbents

• VMLY&R: Global WPP-owned creative, brand, and customer-experience agency network with significant multicultural capabilities. Represents the holding-company incumbent that competes against TALA for the same Fortune 500 multicultural and DEI mandates at vastly greater scale.
• McCann Worldgroup: IPG-owned global advertising network with established multicultural and DEI practices. Represents the large incumbent benchmark for integrated multicultural campaign execution that TALA competes against for AOR assignments.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/trytala
• Facebookfacebook.com/theallenlewisagency
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/theallenlewisagency

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles17 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Allen Lewis Agency