Keri Richardson connects brands to a multifaceted Black audience

All too often, marketers looking to connect with Black audiences regard the roughly 50 million Black consumers in the U.S. market as a monolith. As VP of brand activations at Essence Ventures, Keri Richardson is committed to correcting that outdated assumption by helping brands “talk to different facets of the Black audience” across the media company’s sweeping portfolio of publications and events. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here In two years at Essence Ventures, Richardson has overseen all print, digital and experiential ad campaigns run through Essence magazine, Afropunk, Refinery29 (which the media company acquired in April) and other publications under its umbrella, helping brands including Coca-Cola, AT&T, L’Oréal, Target, Walmart and Disney develop marketing strategies and messaging tailored to different segments of the Essence Ventures audience. “We really talk marketers through how to elevate Black culture and how to show up and really engage with [our] brands and understand this demographic,” said Richardson, 38. The Essence Festival of Culture, an annual celebration of Black culture and music organized by Essence Ventures, is a prime example. In July, the festival saw “the most brand partners that it’s ever had,” she said, with dozens of brands—including CeraVe, Target, Ford and AT&T—flocking to New Orleans to launch activations at the event. @cerave Join us at the CeraVe booth inside the L’Oreal’s House of Beauty at Essence Fest! #essencefest ♬ original sound - CeraVe An estimated 500,000 people attended in 2023, driving an economic impact of more than $316 million, the company said. And the number of Essence Festival attendees is steadily growing—attendance jumped 20% this year, Richardson said, and hundreds of thousands of people streamed panels and performances online. She also helmed the relaunch of Beautycon, an event that had gone dormant since Essence Ventures acquired it in 2019, opening a new avenue for hair care and cosmetics brands such as Shea Moisture and Summer Fridays to reach Black consumers. If you could have dinner with one person, alive or dead, who would it be and why? If I could have dinner with anyone, it would have to be my great-great-grandfather, Henry Reaves. He was born into slavery and was freed in his lifetime. He saved enough to purchase the land he worked on March 23, 1881, and my family still owns that land (plus more) today. We congregate there for reunions, holidays, etc., and many of my elder family members have retired and settled back there. I personally make it a point to go home and pick strawberries each May. I’d love to learn his story firsthand and for him to witness how the seed he planted has grown three generations later. What are the top two social media sites you use on a regular basis? TikTok and LinkedIn. TikTok feeds me both unmatched entertainment and practical daily life hacks. It’s also my video version of Yelp. I don’t buy a product or visit a place without looking it up on TikTok first. LinkedIn is where I find a lot of industry news and upcoming workshops, seminars, etc. I like to stimulate both sides of my brain, so these apps serve that purpose. What’s currently on your bedside reading list? “Trusting God Day by Day” by Joyce Meyer, “The Five Minute Journal” and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. What was the last show you binge-watched? While I’m on my 10,382,002th rewatch of the series “Sex and the City,” that’s more passive. The last show I truly binged was “The Bear.” Obsessed! At what age do you hope to retire? Is 40 too soon? Can I manifest that? See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here

Keri Richardson connects brands to a multifaceted Black audience

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