As an agency, some of our areas of expertise – notably health care and finance – are in categories where the African-American experience poses particular challenges for marketers. Navigating this legacy is essential if your brand is to establish itself as a trustworthy part of their lives.
Sometimes it’s best to create a campaign specifically for the African-American market. Sometimes adapting an existing concept with culturally-specific executions is the right call. We’re comfortable either way. What’s more, we have plenty of experience working with partner agencies – in the past we’ve benefitted from ties with Carol H Williams, RLM Media, and Pepper Miller.
To determine the cultural context that helps us bring your brand to your target, it’s important to know the trends shaping it. Here are a couple of crucial importance to African-Americans in the 2020s:
Thanks to DNA testing, today’s African-Americans have unprecedented opportunities to discover their roots. The legacy of cultural erasure is being undone as a result, with individuals exploring ties to specific regions and traditions. Beyoncé’s incorporation of Yoruba themes and iconography into her work is a perfect example.
The greater incorporation of African elements in art hasn’t just affected African-Americans; it’s shifted the cultural mainstream as well. With an African-American writer/director and nearly entirely black cast, Black Panther was the first overtly Afro-centric mass-market phenomenon, topping a billion dollars at the box office and garnering numerous award nominations. It won’t be the last.
While the African-American experience in American society is singular, it is not always the dominant element in establishing cultural context at a given time. Generational, regional, and other contributors to identity can rise to the fore depending upon the circumstances, and the intersection of all of these elements is no less important to African-Americans than for any other group, particularly when they’re also part of other ethnocultural traditions as well.
