AW: Who were the biggest supporters of ensuring that it happened? 

PU: The biggest support Came from the Black at Cannes team/ members who saw the vision of creating opportunities for us. The first year was 2022 came to Cannes as a team. Pinterest and WPP were supportive of our initiative by making spaces available for us at their venues at Cannes to host our members. This was the first year we test-ran the idea.

We came back in 2023 with support from brands like Jordan (Nike), P&G, Unilever, Ebony Magazine, New UK, Linkedin, TBWA Chiat LA, among others. 

AW: What has year one achieved so far? It seemed to really cut through in terms of awareness at Cannes Lions—did you find that? 

PU: Year one achieved the following:

• Increase Black Juror representation,
• The first West African agency to win a Cannes Lion because of the diverse jurors in the room.
• Recognition for Black creativity with the award going to Spike Lee, more Black attendees to Cannes and connecting with each other from a B2B perspective. 
• Giving Africa its first major conversation on the main stage talking about growth in the continent.
• Creating a second home for Black creatives to feel welcomed at Cannes called The Black House with a variety of events this year like The Creatives at Sea, the Sneakers Ball, the CMO brunch and over 20 events organized by Black at Cannes

Next steps

AW: Assuming there will be a year two and beyond—where do you hope to take the initiative and deepen its ties within the ad sector? Where next for Black at Cannes?

PU: We are evolving as Cannes has become the start of a global movement to engage with each other and find out what opportunities lie within. Come Dec. 1, Black at Cannes will be evolving with an announcement that we are now known as “BLACK AT,” and while Cannes Lion will still be our home and focused on creativity, we are expanding our 1,000-strong senior Black executives with the introduction of an app-based platform.

This platform will connect global brands to small Black businesses and Black businesses to connect with each other, creating the first global Black marketplace for entrepreneurs in the creative space that is specifically engineered to the creative industry. This will be a hub for existing social platforms to plugin and create an emersed user experience for creators attending global events and finding a place they can connect with each other. 

We are looking to increase our partnerships for 2024 as we are returning to Cannes with new surprises and more Black creatives with the Launch of the Black At platform to discuss the future of Black culture on creativity. Our road to Cannes starts in January 2024 in cities like Davos, London, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Toronto, Nairobi, Lagos, Chicago, New York and Sao Paulo, with prospects like Dubai and Tokyo coming soon. We will also continue our pop-up at various events across the globe. So, we will be BLACK AT a city near you.