Launched on February 13, 2021, More Than That is a sonic journey across Black America, leveraging conversations between our host, Gia Peppers, and well-known guests about topics impacting and inspiring Black American listeners.
Created for Black audiences and produced and distributed exclusively by underrepresented businesses, the series aims to address the inequities in the advertising supply chain by providing a platform for advertisers to engage consumers through entertaining and informative content.
2020 was a turning point for brands and agencies. A convergence of health and social crises forced brands to reevaluate their position on how to respond to issues and use their influence for good. We sought to create a collaborative way for brands to equitably engage with the Black community across the country by celebrating new conversations on entertainment, wellness, and wealth.
In partnership with General Motors, Proctor & Gamble, and Kroger, we set out to disrupt and address the inequities in the advertising supply chain with a first-ever program exclusively created and distributed by Black-owned partners. The content effectively responded to the social crisis, supported racial equality, and influenced social change, while providing an opportunity for our clients to leverage a new consumer engagement model — one that avoids the intrusiveness of traditional advertising by co-creating and supporting entertaining and informative content people care about.
The National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) and several member CEOs lent their support and provided guidance to ensure that the series was authentic and meaningful for sustained impact. We re-programmed station content on Saturdays and Sundays, and all content ran consistently across stations owned or managed by different networks including Urban One, American Urban Radio Networks and Spotset, NABOB’s radio network. All of these networks saw the value in our content and agreed to carry the same show on their respective stations.
Additionally with over 95% of the creative team and the production team who worked on the show identifying as BIPOC, this initiative encapsulated a new model for inspiring storytelling, demonstrating how brands can innovate their engagement model in the attention era and showcase how marketers can both create good and drive brand growth.
The first season was a resounding success with sponsorship messages performing above radio industry norms and, at times, outperforming 90% of radio ads, +19 points in consideration and +18 points in differentiation (pre versus post exposure). However, more importantly, More Than That with Gia Peppers pioneered a collaborative way for brands to equitably engage with the Black community across the country by reimagining the supply chain in favor of Black owned businesses while celebrating new conversations on entertainment, wealth, wellness, art, family, women’s health and more. The series quickly became more than a show. It is a place where Black stories resonate to make listeners laugh, and even hear something that could change their life, or someone else’s. Additional results:
Positive shifts on key brand attributes for
(average across brand sponsors):
Content that matters: