‘Massive need’: Inside a new venture to attract ad dollars to diverse-owned media companies

By Julian Cannon

Joe Anthony sees Hero Media, a new media company he founded earlier this June, as one that’s akin to Condé Nast or Vice. With a growing portfolio of brands, they’re not there yet, of course, but one day.

“We saw a massive need to help diverse-owned media companies get exposed to dollars that they historically didn’t have access to,” said Anthony of the venture. “Hero Media’s mission is bringing greater to parity in the investment in diverse-owned media platforms and for diverse creators.”

Anthony’s game has so far been acquiring companies that are independent and owned by non-white executives, including the non-profit striving to make changes in their community.M.A.D.E BKLYN, The film studio that makes independent and commercial films Goodlook, the luxury lifestyle and influential magazine Uptown Magazine, and the content and communications hub MyCoop. Aside from creating content, it will also provide the mechanics for advertisers to establish advertising on these channels and develop an online presence.

Multicultural-owned media companies, like multicultural ad agencies, both suffer from a significant lack of investment. While that’s something brands have publicly stated they are working to commit more ad dollars to with pledges made over the last two years to do more and do better it’s still a problem that needs long-term commitment. This is also despite multiple agencies, such as GroupM and Havas, creating programs in the last two years to attract ad dollars to non-white-owned media companies.

The plan is for Hero Media to help better monetize content with revenue-sharing mechanisms, ads and subscription services across its portfolio of brands.

Hero Media also produces social content for advertisers to reach Gen Z, millennials and multicultural audiences. Aside from the acquired media properties, Hero Media also works with a curated group of more than 300 BIPOC influencers and works to connect them with brands.

It likely helps that he’s already working with advertisers through his agency, Hero Collective. The agency and the media company function as separate companies with the same founder — much like Vayner Media and Vayner Talent, per Anthony.

Since its 2015 founding, Hero Collective has grown to nearly 100 employees and over 60 clients, such as Mattel, American Express, and BGK. And Anthony has already worked to convince brands like Shell, Twitter, Jordan Brand, and Hewlett-Packard to increase their investment in diverse-owned media properties.

“What was clear is that I needed to be very entrepreneurial, industrious, and I needed to figure out how to own my audience, how to utilize my understanding of culture to develop intellectual property and invest in IP that was going to give me another bite at the apple,” said Anthony, as he wanted to break down the barriers facing minorities running big agencies. “Or at least a better chance of providing value that helped separate me from the competition.”

Through his passionate advocacy for multiculturalism as the new mainstream, Anthony aims to disrupt an industry that has historically been polarized into silos by showing multiculturalism can …read more

Source:: Digiday