Lesson One - Plan ahead with your Black History Month campaign

From our conversation with Black history makers, it was clear that the first thing brands and businesses need to do in order to make powerful and authentic campaigns is to plan ahead; gauge the conversation, consider principles and think beyond October.

Without the right planning, essential voices are more likely to be left out and content runs the risk of being viewed as tokenistic.

WHAT BLACK HISTORY MAKERS SAY:

“Black History Month tends to be so rushed. Businesses rarely take the time to think about it with enough advance. No one seems to care until the last minute.” - Chanté Joseph

“Companies don’t think about how to engage the community year-round, be it their employees or customers. We see the same conversation, debates and panel events every year. No one really ever moves things forward.” - Khalia Ismain

“There’s a lot of recent history that is very rich and we should talk about it. If Black History Month is not used as a springboard to talk about things year round, it’s just pointless.” - Rhammel O’Dwyer-Afflick

“Set out your principles for Black History Month. Don’t let it all sit on Black employees. Make sure people running it have the right level of support and resources to make it happen. Don’t rely on passion alone to make it happen - people need money. Think about what other resources might help - data, for example, could be useful to charities and other organisations.” - Rhammel O’Dwyer-Afflick