Marissa Nance
Founder & CEO
NATIVE TONGUE
Marissa Nance has rightfully earned a reputation as a pioneering media expert, a fearless marketing executive, and a groundbreaking content producer during her nearly three decades in the marketing industry. Her experience spans multiple client industries, including CPG, Auto, Financial, Retail, QSR, Pharmaceuticals and Technology, and is highlighted by some of the most iconic content in recent years, including “Survivor”, “Top Chef”, “The Biggest Loser” and “Castaway”?
After 20-plus years at Omnicom, Marissa recognized a need to create authentic and empathetic media campaigns that were specifically made for people of color. Marissa set out to launch Native Tongue Communications (NTC), the first and only minority-and-female-certified media agency in the U.S. NTC brings to life innovative, thought provoking and culturally relevant ideas that authentically connect brands to diverse and growing populations. The team successfully accomplishes this by serving as a bridge between companies and consumers. By marrying its innate audience mindset with both qualitative and quantitative analytics and insights, NTC offers a full range of strategic and media-led services, including media, brand and campaign development, proprietary ad tech, cross-platform content production, and unique research.
Perhaps even more importantly, Marissa seeks to make advertising more meaningful, more just, more resonant and more humane for communities of color. It is in this spirit that her work reinforces the synergetic link between a brand’s marketing outreach and its diversity and inclusion efforts. It is Marissa’s firm belief that the organizations most successful at engaging diverse people are those whose workforces are equally diverse.
In addition to FedEx’s leading role in “Cast Away,” Marissa was instrumental in helping LeBron James and Nike create the HFRxLBJ 16, the brand’s first-ever shoe created by and for black women. She also worked alongside Mark Burnett to develop and launch “Survivor,” the longest running reality show to date, and partnered with Intel and President Obama to create the first- ever CES event to celebrate women in tech.
Shepherding tens of millions of dollars in media spending each year for some of the most recognizable consumer brands, the NTC team is able to leverage their unbeaten clout to create relatable, recognizable and one-of-a-kind campaigns. NTC currently counts Clorox, McDonald’s, Eli Lilly, Intel, Peanuts Worldwide, Amazon and California Utility among its clients, to name a few.
Marissa’s work and achievements have continuously been awarded by her peers and the advertising industry at large. Some of the more memorable events highlighting her resume include elections to GLAAD’s Board of Directors and The Harlem YMCA, being named one of the top Women Executives in Advertising by Black Enterprise in 2013 and 2016, serving on the Cannes Lion and Effie Juries in 2017, and as an ANA Multicultural Excellence Award judge in 2020. Marissa is a founding member of the Council of Urban Professionals’ Los Angeles chapter and was awarded the national organization’s prestigious Cup Catalyst Award in 2014.
A published writer, Marissa’s work appears in the anthologies “International Sponsorships,” “What I Know is Me,” “Digital Marketing Tactics” and “The Art of Branded Entertainment.” While still a Cleveland girl at heart, Marissa currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband Sean and their “fur child” T-Bone. They support several non-profit organizations including Autism Speaks and The National Humane Society, and Marissa is a proud supporter of her HBCU alma mater Howard University, HU … You Know!
