How Group Black is planning for the next phase of the diverse-owned media marketplace

When Group Black debuted in 2021, at the height of marketers’ pledges to increase ad spend to Black-owned media, it positioned itself as a facilitator of deals for members of its media collective. After benefitting from an early wave of agency enthusiasm, the organization is now working to evolve its mission in an ad market that’s deemphasized such commitments. Three years in, the industry is looking to Group Black to continue its leading role in pushing advertisers to invest in Black-owned media. In interviews with Ad Age, at least six media company and agency executives say Group Black quickly became an influential industry voice but is still establishing a clear and effective model of support for the 450 members of its collective. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “While we’ve had success, I don’t think by any means I would say we are so successful and doing amazing,” said Cavel Khan, chief growth officer at Group Black. “Every day, my organization is still in hand-to-hand combat working with brands and agencies to help them understand the value of what we’re driving.” The organization is at this week’s Possible marketing conference in Miami to announce the next phase in its growth. Khan said there are two top areas of continued investment: growing its owned platforms and developing data technologies. Group Black has acquired Galore Media, a digital culture magazine that Group Black said reaches 15 million users on social media per month. Group Black will also grow its owned media platform through a partnership with digital outlet Everyday Health. “She’s Good [For Real],” a content series hosted on Everyday Health’s site and platforms, will highlight healthcare news and information for Black women and mothers. The series will feature social, editorial and video content monetized by Group Black through ad partnerships. These announcements join previous partnerships, such as one struck with NBCUniversal in 2023 to sell ad inventory exclusively for Peacock’s Black-led content, which are part of Group Black’s larger monetization strategy. The organization also works with advertisers to strategize spending across its collective of diverse-owned media companies, 60% of which are Black women-owned. In the third quarter of this year, Group Black will launch its data cloud with ad tech company Zeta Global, which aggregates first-party data from diverse-owned media companies to help advertisers better target Black and Hispanic audiences across its collective, as well as Group Black’s emerging set of owned platforms. A leading voice Since its debut, Group Black has been an advocate for the Black-owned media marketplace, said one agency executive who spoke to Ad Age on condition of anonymity. Previously, the space had been dominated by “fear-mongering,” the executive said, adding that Group Black has become a leader for many small media companies that hadn’t previously been able to break through with advertisers. A second media agency executive said they’ve “never seen a media partner like Group Black explode the way they have,” mentioning the company’s large presence at industry events including the Cannes Lions, Advertising Week New York and Possible. The hype around Group Black is strong, the second executive said, but the substance behind it is a work in progress. Last year’s partnership with Peacock was a meaningful moment in establishing Group Black’s business model because “that’s really where it started getting a bit more tangible” for clients, the executive said. Before that moment, the executive said, there were a lot of headlines about Group Black but there was confusion around what inventory the organization actually had to sell. Group Black’s acquisition of Galore is a step in the right direction for some advertisers, said a third media agency executive, since early excitement was its promise to create a larger amount of Black-owned media inventory for clients to invest in through acquisitions and platform launches. While there’s buzz around possible acquisitions—including rumored bids to acquire Vice Media and BET—client enthusiasm has been qualified, according to the executive. “We’d love to do more with them, but they’ve got to actually deliver on what they’ve been promising, which is to build a scaled Black-owned media business,” said the executive, adding that they still hope to see “a more significant, scaled acquisition” by Group Black in the future. To be sure, Group Black has seen consistent growth in its business. According to the company, 70% of Group Black’s advertisers in 2023 were first-time clients, and it retained 65% of its existing advertisers. While Group Black launched with backing from GroupM, other holding company media networks have joined as well, including Publicis, Omnicom Media Group and Dentsu. Transparency Transparency is a priority, said the second agency executive, noting a lack of clarity on the revenue share between Group Black and members of its collective. The sentiment was echoed by one Black-owned media executive, whose company isn’t part of the Group Black collective. “Group Black is probably best in Black-owned media when it comes to marketing themselves, promoting themselves and generating awareness about who they are and what they do,” said the media executive. “Where there’s opportunity is to be transparent about the amount of money and how it’s being shared.” A second Black-owned media executive, whose company is part of the collective, said Group Black has increased ad sales for many members, but that there needs to be a better structure around payment terms. A key component of Group Black’s mission is to grow Black-owned businesses by connecting them with ad dollars to invest in their infrastructures. The media executive said dollars from brand partnerships—paid to Group Black to then distribute to the participating collective members—often come later than typical 30- to 90-day payment terms. This has made it hard for some of the media companies in the collective, particularly the smaller ones, to invest in their own growth. The executive said it could be solved if Group Black were willing to develop a structure to pay out a portion of partnerships upfront. The media executive said that members of the collective receive a majority portion of the revenue from the inventory sold through Group Black, which varies by deal for members. The executive said there is also no revenue share established for Group Black’s media business developed through acquisitions and owned platforms. In response, Bonin Bough, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Group Black, said, “In many cases, we have net 60-day payment terms, but are getting paid on an average of 150 days. This situation has a cascading effect, resulting in delayed payments to our partners and added pressure on the industry as a whole.” Reach with resonance When it launched, Group Black was trying to be “everything to everybody—they came out trying to solve for every single problem” that agencies had listed as barriers to investing in Black-owned media, said the first agency executive. Now, the executive said, it has pivoted to be more judicious in its mission to build a media company that can handle more ad investment. And Group Black has made progress in addressing many of these barriers. Its data cloud tool will help advertisers reach 94% of U.S. audiences through its network of Black-owned media companies, according to Group Black, and its programmatic inventory spans more than 400 pieces of Black-owned digital media. As the company moves forward with its plans to grow its owned platforms, its emphasis is on finding resonance with Black audiences in addition to just reach. “No one has a problem with reach in the marketplace—if advertisers want to reach African Americans, they have millions of places they can go to reach African Americans, Hispanic, etc.,” said Group Black’s Khan. “Where the challenge lies is that there’s much higher opportunity when you can resonate, when there’s relevance of both the content and the advertising because it speaks authentically.”

How Group Black is planning for the next phase of the diverse-owned media marketplace

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