Black History Month has a place on most marketers’ content calendars, with campaigns and programming plans to mark the occasion. Oftentimes though, companies miss the mark and come off as performative rather than authentic. To that end, we heard from Thaly Germain, Managing Director, Transformation & Culture at BerlinRosen, on ideas for marketing the occasion in ways that advance your DEI strategy.

The takeaways:

• The mark of true inclusion: Black employees feel just as seen and valued in September as they do in February during Black History Month
• By celebrating Black staff and culture year-round, Black History Month efforts don’t come off as tokenistic or self-serving. To do this, consider two questions:
  • Do we reward different approaches to work? Do we reward excellent processes and relationship-building as much as we appreciate outcome and outputs?
• Include everyone. Consider the idea that Black History Month is as much about celebrating Black people, history, culture and achievement as it is about creating connection with people that don’t identify as Black
• Center your celebration around the DEI goals you already have in place. This is an opportunity to show transparency and build trust
• To build a culture of trust, solicit involvement from staff. Create inclusive processes that ask for strategic responses, feedback, pushback, experiences and opportunities
• Work on internal representation and on having many voices at the table, and not just one person responsible for DEI
• Have an inclusive and timely planning process. Waiting until the last minute to plan your Black History Month event or initiative makes it seem unimportant and performative
• It’s also up to non-Black staff to ‘carry the water’ – it can’t only be the job of people of color at a company to do all the DEI work
• Having a gut check is really important. We’ve seen brands get it wrong, and that’s from not having representation to determine if what a brand is putting out in the world resonates and is authentic to your audience

What Thaly's reading:

• Every week I read 'This Week in Charts' and especially anything McKinsey posts about racial equity and the experience of Black people. I often refer to the piece linked.
• Under the Skin, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, + Creative Hustle