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GHOGH Podcast Guest Tony Effik Leaves NBCUniversal To Lead Global Display, Video And Creative Business At Google

GHOGH Podcast Guest Tony Effik Leaves NBCUniversal To Lead Global Display, Video And Creative Business At Google

Tony Effik
Tony Effik made a subtle announcement that he’d left NBCUniversal to lead Google’s Global Display, Video and Creative department on LinkedIn. Photo: Anita Martin/Moguldom

It’s no wonder GHOGH Podcast guest Tony Effik founded The Black and Brilliant Advocacy Network. He’s Black and brilliant himself. And now he’s using that brilliance to lead Google’s Global Display, Video and Creative department. Effik made the subtle announcement that he’d left NBCUniversal for the tech giant when he added his new role to his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to joining the team at Google, Effik was the senior vice president of client strategy at NBCUniversal. He is also an adjunct marketing professor at Columbia University.

He spoke with GHOGH host Jamarlin Martin about how he leveled up his career earlier this year. Among his tips for success: be disciplined, keep hustling, distinguish yourself with “objective difference” and never get too comfortable.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 38: Tony Effik

Jamarlin talks to Tony Effik, SVP of Client Strategy at NBCUniversal, about where the digital media business is going. Tony talks about directing strategy across the largest multi-billion dollar media portfolio, opportunities with subscriptions, and the business of podcasting.

“Funnily enough, the discipline, the thing that I do day to day hasn’t changed radically. It’s still the same skills I learned over the last 20, 25 years, but I just got a different toolbox right now,” Effik told Martin. “And also knowing that I ain’t got a safety net. I just got to keep hustling just to keep ahead and I’ve got to work a little bit harder than everybody else. And so yeah, I’m always reading. I’m always thinking about what’s next. Every time we meet we’re just chatting about where’s the world going and that kind of stuff. So I have that mindset, and it’s kind of a struggle mindset.”

Founded in June 2020, Black and Brilliant is committed to “creating a more diverse workforce.” It’s something Effik is very passionate about as someone of Nigerian descent who’s lived in London.

He elaborated on the importance of having objective difference, even if the journey is not easy.

“There’s a Frederick Douglas quote I like, ‘Without struggle, there’s no progress’. It is about the struggle but it’s also about the story, what story you’re telling yourself in your head about who you are, and about what you’re about. And so I brand myself, I talk to myself in the sense that I’m like, okay, my thing, my angle is I’m going to discover new ideas and push into the hardest spaces because not everyone wants to go into those spaces and that’s where I’m going to specialize in,” Effik said on GHOGH. “So when everyone was struggling with around the idea of data and digital coming together and people didn’t really know the answer to that, I dove into that. When everyone’s thinking about multi-screen and how you manage all of that, I dove into that which was what led me into NBCUniversal. I’m now thinking of other things beyond that.”