2022 Winner
GoldBest in Websites and Microsites
SilverBest in Travel and Tourism
BronzeBest in Data-Driven Marketing
BronzeBest in Branded Content
BronzeBest Cultural Insights
Black & Abroad
"The Black Elevation Map"
Initiative & Performance Art
"The Black Elevation Map"
Initiative & Performance Art
BLACK & ABROAD AT HOME
Black & Abroad is among the world’s most prominent niche-audience travel brands. Known for its international trips to Latin America, Europe and Africa – and its provocative “Go Back to Africa” campaign – global shifts in the travel industry created an opportunity to focus on domestic travel. With Black-owned businesses disproportionately affected by the pandemic , and the brand’s audience at the center of a retraumatizing conversation about systemic racism, it also saw an opportunity to provide uplifting ways for travellers to interact directly with America’s vast network of Black-owned businesses and cultural organizations.
WAYFINDING THROUGH BIAS
Maps are not ideologically neutral location guides. Mapmakers choose what to include and exclude, and how to display information to users. These decisions can have far-reaching consequences. The same could be said for the industry’s use of data. All data is biased. Our responsibility is to locate and understand data biases, establish more deliberate and inclusive biases, then connect with our brands’ audiences in ways that make fewer assumptions about who they are and what they need.
BRIEF
Activate Black & Abroad as an emerging domestic travel brand with an uplifting, tech-forward engagement platform.
MEDIA EXECUTION:
THE BLACK ELEVATION MAP
An uplifting domestic travel utility for Black & Abroad that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation. The greater the density of data, the higher the elevation. See the heights of the culture at BlackElevationMap.com.
THE ELEMENTS OF ELEVATION
Google My Business API
Yelp! API
2020 Decennial United States Census XML
Historical Markers Database API
NASADEM natural topography
VISUALIZING THE HEIGHTS
The project is a crafted patchwork of interwoven data and technologies:
NATURAL ELEVATION
A straight port of a global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) called NASADEM.
TOTAL & BLACK POPULATIONS
Derived from a custom choropleth monochromatic visualization that uses census tract polygonal data for geographical units. Densities computed and visualized using quantile (equal count) categorization.
BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES
Elevation generated using an ad hoc point density visualization.
HMDB
Data tagged “African-American” pulled from the Historical Marker Database. Visualization
generated as above.
POINTS OF INTEREST
CMS content and records from HMdb, combined with API data from Yelp! and Google, filtered for relevance to travel. Google Places ID used for standardization across sources. Rules for clustering and visibility by zoom level.
3D OVERLAY
Mapbox GL web library with a custom WebGL renderer, wrapped in a custom React web app.
SEARCH
Results from Mapbox service integrated to prioritize and differentiate project-specific records.
INNOVATION:
DYNAMIC DATA VISUALIZATION
A visualization of +330,000,000 points of data, which, through exploration, reveals insights about relative population distribution and where Black-owned businesses and cultural institutions are most likely to be present, absent and in what abundance.
TRAVEL UTILITY
Functionality includes the ability to geolocate, create “favorites” lists, “Add to map,” search, a freestyle explore mode, +30,000 discoverable points of interest, a Black-travel social feed and integrates with other mapping platforms to facilitate routing and directions.
PRIORITIZING SELF-IDENTIFICATION
The data gathering process considered scale, quality, accessibility across all 50 states, ethical sourcing and race-based bias. It prioritized data from sources where users self-report their own ethnicity.
SUPPORTING OTHER BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES
The brand has always engaged other Black-owned businesses. When the company leads a tour to Paris, for example, it brings its guests to Black-owned French restaurants. Creating a map populated by thousands of business peers is a continuation of that work.
CREATIVITY ON A CONTINUUM
This project sits on a historical continuum of Black-led design and “counter-mapping” – a map-making practice interested in charting Black geographies at times when barriers to owning your space (disappropriation) could be as elusive as barriers to owning your body (slavery, lynching, incarceration).
THE RESULTS:
BRAND BUILDING
It saw a 116% brand lift,647% greater campaign awareness than benchmark and 45.4 MM impressions across paid and earned channels.
BUSINESS DRIVING
It drove 302% increase in traffic to BlackAndAbroad.com, 360% increase in unique visitors and971% increase in event sales and site merch.
AD PERFORMANCE
It performed 33% beyond Facebook and Insta category benchmark for campaign awareness and 293% exceeded benchmarks for key traffic clickthrough rate from digital media.
DATA PERFORMANCE
It saw +330,000,000 total points of data, +47,000,000 Black population data, +28,000 Black-owned businesses listed, +6,500 cultural markers and +1,500 social sources across 53 embedded data feeds.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
This project continues the brand’s industry leadership in connecting sophisticated cultural ideas with sophisticated technological execution.
Black & Abroad is among the world’s most prominent niche-audience travel brands. Known for its international trips to Latin America, Europe and Africa – and its provocative “Go Back to Africa” campaign – global shifts in the travel industry created an opportunity to focus on domestic travel. With Black-owned businesses disproportionately affected by the pandemic , and the brand’s audience at the center of a retraumatizing conversation about systemic racism, it also saw an opportunity to provide uplifting ways for travellers to interact directly with America’s vast network of Black-owned businesses and cultural organizations.
WAYFINDING THROUGH BIAS
Maps are not ideologically neutral location guides. Mapmakers choose what to include and exclude, and how to display information to users. These decisions can have far-reaching consequences. The same could be said for the industry’s use of data. All data is biased. Our responsibility is to locate and understand data biases, establish more deliberate and inclusive biases, then connect with our brands’ audiences in ways that make fewer assumptions about who they are and what they need.
BRIEF
Activate Black & Abroad as an emerging domestic travel brand with an uplifting, tech-forward engagement platform.
MEDIA EXECUTION:
THE BLACK ELEVATION MAP
An uplifting domestic travel utility for Black & Abroad that visualizes Black cultural data as elevation. The greater the density of data, the higher the elevation. See the heights of the culture at BlackElevationMap.com.
THE ELEMENTS OF ELEVATION
Google My Business API
Yelp! API
2020 Decennial United States Census XML
Historical Markers Database API
NASADEM natural topography
VISUALIZING THE HEIGHTS
The project is a crafted patchwork of interwoven data and technologies:
NATURAL ELEVATION
A straight port of a global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) called NASADEM.
TOTAL & BLACK POPULATIONS
Derived from a custom choropleth monochromatic visualization that uses census tract polygonal data for geographical units. Densities computed and visualized using quantile (equal count) categorization.
BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES
Elevation generated using an ad hoc point density visualization.
HMDB
Data tagged “African-American” pulled from the Historical Marker Database. Visualization
generated as above.
POINTS OF INTEREST
CMS content and records from HMdb, combined with API data from Yelp! and Google, filtered for relevance to travel. Google Places ID used for standardization across sources. Rules for clustering and visibility by zoom level.
3D OVERLAY
Mapbox GL web library with a custom WebGL renderer, wrapped in a custom React web app.
SEARCH
Results from Mapbox service integrated to prioritize and differentiate project-specific records.
INNOVATION:
DYNAMIC DATA VISUALIZATION
A visualization of +330,000,000 points of data, which, through exploration, reveals insights about relative population distribution and where Black-owned businesses and cultural institutions are most likely to be present, absent and in what abundance.
TRAVEL UTILITY
Functionality includes the ability to geolocate, create “favorites” lists, “Add to map,” search, a freestyle explore mode, +30,000 discoverable points of interest, a Black-travel social feed and integrates with other mapping platforms to facilitate routing and directions.
PRIORITIZING SELF-IDENTIFICATION
The data gathering process considered scale, quality, accessibility across all 50 states, ethical sourcing and race-based bias. It prioritized data from sources where users self-report their own ethnicity.
SUPPORTING OTHER BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES
The brand has always engaged other Black-owned businesses. When the company leads a tour to Paris, for example, it brings its guests to Black-owned French restaurants. Creating a map populated by thousands of business peers is a continuation of that work.
CREATIVITY ON A CONTINUUM
This project sits on a historical continuum of Black-led design and “counter-mapping” – a map-making practice interested in charting Black geographies at times when barriers to owning your space (disappropriation) could be as elusive as barriers to owning your body (slavery, lynching, incarceration).
THE RESULTS:
BRAND BUILDING
It saw a 116% brand lift,647% greater campaign awareness than benchmark and 45.4 MM impressions across paid and earned channels.
BUSINESS DRIVING
It drove 302% increase in traffic to BlackAndAbroad.com, 360% increase in unique visitors and971% increase in event sales and site merch.
AD PERFORMANCE
It performed 33% beyond Facebook and Insta category benchmark for campaign awareness and 293% exceeded benchmarks for key traffic clickthrough rate from digital media.
DATA PERFORMANCE
It saw +330,000,000 total points of data, +47,000,000 Black population data, +28,000 Black-owned businesses listed, +6,500 cultural markers and +1,500 social sources across 53 embedded data feeds.
INDUSTRY IMPACT
This project continues the brand’s industry leadership in connecting sophisticated cultural ideas with sophisticated technological execution.
Credits
Black & Abroad:Co-Founders: Eric Martin & Kent Johnson
Performance Art:
CCO: Ian Mackenzie
ACDs: Pedro Izzo, Benson Ngo
Copy: Hemal Dhanjee, Tobi Adebowale, Paula Purdon, Jasmine Mans,
Experience Delivery Lead: Nzegwhua Anderson
Sr Experience Designer: Joe Szabo
Experience Designer: Leon Mullings
Designer: Emily Plewes
ECD: Colin Craig
Producer: Sharon Nelson-Bailey
VP Strategy: Kirk Linkletter
Strategists: Leandra Legendre, Simran Kaur, Eli Ferrara, Cassandra Cervi
SVP Head of Strategy: Priyanka Goswami
Program Manager: Kaylen Dillon
Digital Producer: Darwin Garcia
SVP Managing Director: Jordan Dinning
Account Supervisor: Ricky Gunawan
Account Director: Jon Rae
VP Tech: Stuart Cheesmond
Technical Solutions Consultant: Suraj Patel
Group Director, Product Development: Arnaud Icard
Lead Dev: John Iacoviello
Dev: Cody Schreiber
Solutions Consultants: Kaivalya Kashyap
Analytics Manager: Anil Iqbal
Jr Analyst: Shaista Meghji
Analytics Analyst: Abdul Dau
Consultant: Gigi Basanta
CEO: Andrea Cook
COO: Elizabeth Sellors
Initiative Media:
CSO: Nish Shah
Strategy Director: Christian Kern
Director Comms Design: Lara Senbanjo
Reprise:
Sr Director, Head of Social & Strategy: Tyler Dmytrow
Associate Director, Strategy: Jessica Singh
Associate Performance Strategist: Jacob Ziegler
Mediabrands Content Studio:
President: Cynthia Steele
Creative Strategist: Alisha Dayaram
Kinesso:
SVP Global Client Solutions: Wendi Dunlap
Director, Audience Solutions: Mandy Wong
Manager, Audience Solutions: Rory Materson
VP Audience & Identity: Whitney Chamberlain
Sr Associate Marketing Data Operations: Bridgette O’Connor
VP Analytics: Yerddy Lanfranco
Matterkind:
Managing Director: Michelle Primrose
Sr Associate: Bree Monture
Alfredo Films:
Director: Kelly Fyffe-Marshall
DOP: Shivam Pandya
Producers: Alex Henry, Holly Rowden
Editor: Michael Ofori-Attah
Meta
Glossy Inc
Vocal Type Co
Alter Ego
TA2 Sound+Music