• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 24, 2016

Last week, Russell Simmons launched a new in-house creative agency, part of his All Def Digital media company, called ADHD. The new entity will help marketers reach a growing and diverse hip hip audience segment.  

Simmons told AdWeek, "No one really understands this audience. It's multiracial, but singularly cultural. It started out 95 percent black, and now it's 45 percent non-black, and that's going to keep growing. The audience we speak to is overlooked and underserved. A lot of the content Hollywood creates doesn't serve this audience. We want to help brands frame their messaging in an honest way." 

Heading up ADHD will be former R/GA Managing Director Josh Mandel who makes note of hip hop's shifting appeal, saying, "We feel like brands haven't yet recognized the reality of hip-hop as the thread that unites this younger, multicultural audience. So many fans of hip-hop are white. Urban isn't just a racial identity, it's a cultural identity and it's three trillion dollars of buying power, and nobody's thinking of the market in this way."