Black Americans are more likely than other racial groups to feel they are misunderstood by the media industry and news organizations. Following the Black Lives Matter protests, this became even clearer, as publishers and tech companies came forward to share how keywords around Black lives were being disproportionally blocked, leading to demonetization and censorship of Black voices. Advertisers have hundreds to over a thousand words on keyword exclusion lists. These lists tell automated digital advertising models not to put a brand’s advertising alongside content that could be potentially non-brand safe, based on specific words/phrases. But in an effort to avoid their brand appearing alongside topics or content that could be potentially inflammatory, stories of hard news and underrepresented voices wind up unintentionally flagged and demonetized, despite consumer interest. Words like “dope” or “bomb” can be flagged as stories about drugs or violence, but they’re everyday language in Black culture.

We can't discuss inclusivity without understanding and acknowledging that the Black Community is uniquely diverse; Black people are not a monolith and the community is no longer willing to solely identify as the Advertising industry once labeled them: African Americans. This initiative is original because it curates and reaches voices across the Black Diaspora: descendants of West & Central Africa taken to various places in the Americas – meaning we’re reaching first generation African, Afro-LatinX, Caribbean American audiences and more. Though Americans in the Black Diaspora share the ‘Black experience’, culturally, there are nuances that are important to each group. Whether it’s tapping into an Afro-beats or Reggae playlist, or serving the ad on LatinX endemic sites like Mitu, U by Kotex wanted to truly be inclusive to the Black community.

The marketplace is a curated programmatic marketplace comprised of over 25+ digital media publications that are Black-first, Black-owned, or Black-centered, as well as partners who had a history of positively telling Black stories or who can financially uplift Black creators/artists.

The PMP features everything from partners such as Pod Digital (the first Black-owned and curated podcast network) to a deal with Zefr that brings in over 150+ Black YouTube creators, such as Jackie Aina (who advocates for people of color in the cosmetics industry) and Chescaleigh (activist and comedian). The offering is managed in-house with U by Kotex’s dedicated hands on keyboard programmatic trading team. The inventory suite is comprehensive, with Digital Display, Audio, Podcasts, Programmatic Sponsorship Opportunities, FEP and Video across the U.S available. All deals were negotiated on a 1:1 basis and unlike typical programmatic deals, these were negotiated with a 75% or better viewability goal.

At campaign launch, the Black Community PMP drove a 900x improvement (no, not a typo!) on clickthrough rates and a 1.34x improvement on video completion rates for U by Kotex —both versus previous benchmarks. Video Completion Rate outperformed viewability by 147%.

Brand awareness increased by 6% points, brand consideration by 3.2% points, and we saw a 5% points lift in brand favorability.

The campaign was also 22% more efficient than the planned CPM.

All of our media dollars went directly into the publishers were looking to support. Brand safe, viewable, and champion of underrepresented voices.