Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. is bringing on board a national advertising agency to better reach its black audience.

Carol H. Williams Advertising will replace Matlock Advertising and Public Relations as Nationwide’s agency of record for the demographic. Columbus-based Nationwide has directed ad campaigns at black consumers for about nine years, said Steven Schreibman, vice president of advertising and brand marketing for the company.

“There’s a need to be visible at the ground level in ethnic communities,” he said, adding that the decision to market to black audiences came from a need to raise the company’s awareness and understanding of the demographic.

Schreibman said the effort isn’t nice-to-have initiative for Nationwide; it’s a huge strategic opportunity.

Nationwide assesses the strength of its black-oriented marketing campaigns through third-party research assessments, which interview customers by race, gender and primary language, he said.

Schreibman did not disclose figures but said quantitatively, Nationwide’s black audience responds better to the race-specific ads than the general market. The company has a strong and secure relationship with blacks, he said.

The insurance company does not break down sales or policy figures by race, he said, and would not be able to track campaign success through that measure.

Campaigns through Carol H. Williams will include print, broadcast and online advertising and are set to launch in early 2009. The ads will target markets with heavy black audiences as well as general consumer markets across the country.

Schreibman didn’t elaborate on the terms of the agreement.

Carol Williams, the agency’s namesake with corporate offices in Oakland, Calif. and Chicago, runs the largest independently black-owned advertising and marketing agency in the country, according to the publication Advertising Age. The agency recorded 2007 revenue of more than $25 million.

The partnership is Nationwide’s third initiative this year to reach a black demographic.

The company in February signed a deal with New York-based movie-screen advertiser Screenvision to run 30-second spots and slides in its network of metropolitan areas with large black populations. In April, Nationwide April signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Tavis Smiley Group Inc., the holding company whose namesake is the radio and television host.

Nationwide has also begun targeting its Latino consumer base through a separate agency, airing Spanish-language commercials in two Texas test markets, Schreibman said.

The insurer this month also plans to launch ads targeting Southeast Asian and Indian populations, marking another move to market Nationwide through ethnocentric campaigns.

Nationwide Mutual holds two-thirds equity ownership in Nationwide Financial Services Inc. (NYSE:NFS),which in 2007 recorded a $626.8 million profit on $4.53 billion in revenue.

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