GroupM Targets $75 Million Investment in Black-Owned Media

Media investment company GroupM is targeting a spend of $75 million to support media collective Group Black, a new initiative aimed at supporting Black-owned media and creators by connecting them with agencies and brands. This infusion of funding is just the first allotment to help bolster this newly formed organization. The "first-of-its-kind" initiative is designed around three pillars: members, brands and creators, along with Group Black Ventures, an accelerator that funnels capital and expertise to jumpstart emerging Black-owned media channels. GroupM’s initial participation is part of Group Black’s broader effort to deploy at least $500 million in Black-owned media by the end of 2022. Group Black is "confident" they can meet this goal. For its part, this partnership bolsters GroupM’s pledge under its recently launched Media Inclusion Initiative, an initial consortium of 20 industry-leading clients, to spend at least 2% of its annual media budgets in Black-owned media. GroupM client Target also serves as an initial launch partner for Group Black. As part of the company’s plans to spend $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025, Target has committed to increase its spend with Black-owned media companies to 5% annually by 2022, while also increasing its engagement with Black content creators. Solving the pipeline problem Co-founder Travis Montaque, serving as CEO, and co-founder Richelieu Dennis, named as chairman, decided to partner to tackle what they see as the “pipeline” problem. Both saw the same mad rush to invest in Black-owned media and Black-owned business over the past year, but there seemed there should be a better way, or a more strategic way to do so, and that's also when the question of the pipeline also became more urgent. “We have the expertise to know what solutions will work, entrenched allies to support us, and a dogged belief that we must build a self-sustaining platform of Black media ownership for the industry to evolve,” Montaque told Adweek. “Our approach and allies have put us in a unique position to deploy significantly more dollars into existing and emerging Black-owned media companies than ever before.” Both founders admit their major challenge is simply that “we know there is a ton of work to be done,” Montaque said. “There is a massive opportunity here, but this is just the first step. We are also aware that there is a good amount of core foundational work that needs to be done, and that will take time.” First up, Group Black creators will kick off with a partnership with video sharing network Triller to promote and showcase talent and content across social media platforms, streaming services and pay-per-view, all spearheaded by Triller’s chief growth officer, Bonin Bough. Other founding members receiving investments and support from Group Black include Essence, Afropunk, The Shade Room and esports platform Play VS among others. Montaque said additional members will be joining over the coming months. Focusing on the entire pie “The thinking is if you create an arm of Group Black that fosters growth, giving people what they need to invest in innovation, and scale businesses—and you have one arm that is about investment—you’re enriching the whole funnel, top to bottom, rather than just focusing on a piece of the pie,” Montaque said. Group Black is strategic about its network partners. Member groups are selected under a two-part process that includes a thorough vetting to be able to deliver quality ad inventory and the metrics brands need to ensure they meet their requirements. The second part requires the organizations to be Black-owned or Black-founded and led. There is no fee attached to their involvement. Instead, partners commit to supporting each other and the pipeline of other Black-owned companies. In addition, a percentage of the media spend they receive is reinvested in the group to be used for the acceleration of the member companies, to make general equity investments in emerging Black-owned media brands and for operating costs for Group Black. “The idea is not just that advertisers need to spend more with Black-owned media, but that the industry also needs a stronger pipeline to fulfill the demand,” Montaque said. He first saw this demand up close at his job at messaging platform Holler, especially last year, when the murder of George Floyd and the reignited Black Lives Matter movement encouraged global companies to recognize the vast inequality amongst their media allocations and the need for change. “The demand was skyrocketing and people were reaching out constantly, but there needed to be a vehicle to convert the activism and promises into action, impact and change,” he said. Undertone Launches Diversity Platform