Q&A: Black at Cannes Founder on the Movement’s First Year and Future

Earlier this year, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) released its second global diversity, equity and inclusion census, which discovered that despite all of the pledges made across the industry in the two years since the previous census was run, little-to-no progress had been made within workplaces.

There has often been criticism of the accessibility of advertising’s premier annual event, the Cannes Lions of Creativity Festival. It’s been described over the years as being inaccessible to younger ad professionals and being largely white and middle class, which is the main demographic of the industry.

In an attempt to improve the representation of Black professionals, an initiative began this year, run by Peter Ukhurebor, a former managing director of multicultural marketing and advertising agency UniWorld Group. Black at Cannes was introduced with the aim of becoming a staple of the event moving forward.

With plans to expand the movement, Ukhurebor spoke about the need for the movement at the festival as well as the challenges faced in bringing it about and the achievements it has already delivered. He also revealed the plan for a new name and introducing a digital platform to help connect the Black creative community.

Making it happen

Adweek: Why was it necessary to introduce Black at Cannes for the ad sector in the first place? 

Peter Ukhurebor: In 2020, Black representation in advertising was at 6.6% in America, falling short of the 12% Black representation in the population, with leadership at some holding companies at 2.6% who identify as Black, while white executives were at 86%. This was our motivation.

With the passing of George Floyd, there was a call to action in the industry. Having conversations with leaders who wanted this change in the industry, like Mark Read, the CEO of WPP, we were focused on creating a pipeline system to infuse more senior executives by bringing them to the forefront of the industry. We created a road map of how to locate Black talent, get them hired and give opportunities to those already at agencies on the biggest stage in the industry, “Cannes Lion Festival.”

We approached the Cannes Lion Festival of Creativity to make suggestions of industry leaders who were Black to increase the representation of Black Jurors on the biggest stage of advertising. This was well received.

Some agencies are looking at diversity from their corporate social responsibility rather than sustainability or growth strategies. So, the need to continue this path is not sustainable.

Peter Ukhurebor, founder of Black at Cannes

AW: Can you outline the work that getting Black at Cannes underway and what it involved? 

PU: It was not easy as we had loads of push backs and there was a lack of support from the industry, which saw us as another diversity initiative and not an organization interested in bringing sustainability and equity into the industry for the brands and agencies with a progression of infusing a culture centered ideology.

Let me digress a little. If we take a critical look at diversity officers hired in the wake of 2020, most have been fired or deployed to other departments due to lack of inadequate funding or lack of a long-term strategic goal. This simply means some agencies are looking at diversity from their corporate social responsibility rather than sustainability or growth strategies. So, the need to continue this path is not sustainable. Yet we see that Africa’s predicted GDP will increase from $2 trillion today to $29 trillion by 2050, which would mean that Africa will produce more GDP than the U.S. and Eurozone combined.

Because of the lack of diversity, we are not projecting growth like the tech firms and the potential of what is ahead results in low investments within the Black community. So, it’s a matter of knowing diversity is not about a good feeling but structuring it as a way for potential growth.

Getting Black at Cannes underway was to make brands and agencies understand what our goals were, which has been a hassle to date.

AW: What were the roles of those directly involved in making it happen? 

PU: We tasked ourselves with finding the right Jurors, ensuring we had the right partnerships with brands and agencies whose goals were aligned with ours. Our roles were geared toward how we could achieve the change we needed in the industry.

AW: How involved did Cannes Lions actually get to support it? 

PU: Simon Cook [CEO of Cannes Lions], Philp Thomas [CEO of owner Ascential Futures] and the Cannes Lion team were very welcoming to the idea we pitched back in 2020 during the lockdown, and we projected this idea of creating change with the infusion of suggesting more Black jurors and they were very supportive. When we thought of how we could honor Spike Lee, they applauded it by creating a new category called the Creative Maker of the Year. Spike received the maiden edition of it. This was a welcomed change and a path the industry should emulate.

The response

AW: What was the response like to the initiative for the first year? 

PU: The response from the Black community was overwhelming as Black creatives had never seen so many of us at Cannes in our numbers. 

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.