We recently connected with Andrew Martineau and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I’ve always been involved in the arts, both as an artist and a supporter. In 2017 I started Art Fort LAuderdale along with my business partner Evan Snow to fill the gap that Broward County had for an Art Fair, after a successful launch we expanded to produce Greater Fort Lauderdale Art Week, which the fair sits at the end of and started meeting a ton of artists all looking for affordable artist space to create.

With a background in Shopping Center Development and expertise in crafting vacancy management strategies we decided to reach out to property owners with vacant real estate and ask if they would be open to us turning them into affordable artist studios on a temporary basis (until the got a permanent tenant), we would provide a Certificate of Liability Insurance (COI) and pay all the utilities. We got our first space on the famous Las Olas Boulevard (I wasthe creator of their Logo many years ago) through a recommendation from the City of Fort Lauderdale’s Mayor Dean Trantalis, an art supporter and regular attendee to our Art Fair and the Art Week events we produce.

It provided a way for an otherwise vacant space to be activated and for artists to create, sell and get exposure in a place they would otherwise not be able to afford. We have since opened 25 artist studios and in February 2022 opened our first location out of the State of Florida in a former Burberry store, next to an Louis Vuitton, Tory Burch and Tiffany & Co. in Natick Mall, Massachusetts (lkargest mall in New England). We are now one of the largest entities of our kind in the country and have requested from cities all over the United States, London, and parts of Europe and Canada.

We have had over 200 artists pass through the program, many of which have seen an acceleration in the growth of their careers via sales, acquisitions and exposure.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am originally from Trinidad & Tobago, and migrated here in 1995 to attend the International Fine Arts College (now the Miami University of Art & Design), and worked in creative in the Advertising field for a number of local and multinational advertising agencies for a number of years. During that time I was president of the local chapters of the American Advertising federation (AAF) in Miami, Fort Lauderdale/Palm Beach and currently the Program Chair for the state of Florida & the Caribbean. I’ve also held board positions in a number of non-profits and Chamber’s of Commerce including Sunrise, Plantation and Greater Fort Lauderdale. In 2011, I got into the Shopping Center Development field as a Marketing Director and Regional Director with one of the largest Shopping Center developers in the world and sat on teams focused on Vacancy Management, Tourism, Airports, Creative and What’s Next in retail. Over the course of one year I generated over $2M in revenue for the company with strategies and executions outside of the KPI’s of my title and position and hosted, curated and produced several large scale events including Meet & Greets with Jennifer Lawrence and other actors launching the Hunger Games franchise, Meet & Greets with other celebrities including Dr. Oz, FloRida, Elvis Duran and the Morning Show to name a few.

I opened UniteUs Group in 2017 – as a Creative Solution Consultancy developed under a new model that unites various synergistic entities under one umbrella to deliver progressive creative that benefit clients and communities by ways of notoriety, innovation, and profit.

​Consulting services include market research, R&D, product and service design, prototyping, and the development of both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail brands.

​Creative services include brand strategy, brand design and identity, interactive marketing, creative direction, public and media relations, media planning and buying, event curation, and experiential marketing. UniteUs Group and partner agencies have experience across many verticals including travel & tourism, luxury, mass-market consumer brands, finance & insurance, retail & fashion, resorts & hotels, real estate, food & beverage, health & beauty, and the boomer market.

UniteUs Group is the parent company of Zero Empty Spaces, Choose954, Art Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale Art & Design Week, FemAle Brew Fest, Greater Fort Lauderdale Beer Week, and Mezcal Lauderdale.

We have been able to create Creative Solutions for a wide range of businesses, cities, startups and communities and are much more than a traditional ad agency or PR firm.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met my business partner Evan Snow at a TedX simulcast we both attended when I was a member of the Tower Club in Fort Lauderdale. He told me about an idea he had, to show people the many amazing things that were going on in Broward County and I was so intrigued by it and the fact that he reminded me of myself 10 years prior that we’ve been meeting every day since then, and I was able to turn his nugget of an idea into the premiere media channel for keeping abreast of things to do and places to visit in the Greater Fort Lauderdale area and make it part of UniteUs Group.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I am a graphic designer by trade, artist by birth and entrepreneur at heart. Many years ago I realized that offering just graphic design to clients, became so much of a commodity that everyone and their nephew was doing, that quality of work and experience no longer mattered and couldn’t sustain me in a career. I then decided to do pivot and offer clients an overall marketing strategy of which graphic design was just a component, that move was able to give me opportunities to grow exponentially and learn all aspects of marketing and promotion.

Contact Info:

• Website: Zero Empty Spaces
• Instagram: zeroemptyspaces
• Facebook: zeroemptyspaces
• Linkedin: zeroemptyspaces
• Twitter: uniteusgroup
• Youtube: zeroemptyspaces
• Other: uniteusgroup.com, choose954.com, zeroemptyspaces.com, gflbeerweek.com, femalebrewfest.com, ftladw.com, mezcallauderdale.com

Image Credits
Photo Credit: Carina Mask