Two advertising and marketing veterans have launched a fledgling multicultural-focused holding company they’re calling Culture+ Group. 

The executives, native Colombians Lili Gil Valletta and Enrique Arbelaez founded ad agency Cien+ in 2010 and now intend to expand their company via merger & acquisition and partnerships. They are talking with potential backers and looking for firms in the media, research, data, analytics and AI sectors.      

“By the year 2045 we will be a majority-minority nation and that reality calls for a new mindset in the way corporate leaders future-proof their business and marketing strategies,” says Gil Valletta, co-founder and CEO of Culture+ Group.   

“We are in the process of envisioning the future, aiming to establish a robust family of companies that possesses an expansive scope, allowing us to continuously enhance our capabilities” said Gil Valletta, who met Arbelaez 15+ years ago at Johnson & Johnson where they worked on multicultural initiatives for the company.   

In addition to Cien+, The Culture+ Group – now with about 100 employees – includes pharma and healthcare specialist Cien+ Health, shopper and experiential agency The Choice+, data and analytics firm Human Dot Plus. 

Headquartered in Dallas, the firm has satellite offices across the U.S., Latin America, and Europe.  

“As the market has evolved and our business has grown, so have our client needs and expectations,” explained Arbelaez.  

The agency group has worked with companies like GSK, J&J, UnitedHealthcare, Merck, Novartis, Google, Kellogg and others.