The Black Elevation Map
Black & Abroad
Issue 62 | March 2022
Agency
Performance Art
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Ian Mackenzie Executive Creative Director Colin Craig Associate Creative Directors Pedro Izzo, Benson Ngo Copywriters Hemal Dhanjee, Tobi Adebowale, Paula Purdon, Jasmine Mans
Production Team
Experience Delivery Lead Nzegwhua Anderson Senior Experience Designer Joe Szabo Experience Designer Leon Mullings Studio Designer Emily Plewes Producer Sharon Nelson-Bailey Digital producer Darwin Garcia
Other Credits
SVP, Head of Strategy Priyanka Goswami VP Strategy Kirk Linkletter Strategists Leandra Legendre, Simran Kaur, Eli Ferrara, Cassandra Cervi Program Manager Kaylen Dillon SVP, Managing Director Jordan Dinning Account Supervisor Ricky Gunawan Account Director Jon Rae Media Initiative Canada Performance Marketing Reprise Canada PR Glossy Client Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder Eric Martin Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder Kent Johnson
Date
February 2022
Background
In 2019, travel company Black & Abroad rehashed the insult ‘Go back to Africa’ to encourage black Americans to visit the African continent.
Idea
In the pandemic, noting how black businesses were being impacted, founders Martin and Johnson wanted to support those companies that needed some extra push, some marketing and opportunity for discovery.
Their idea was a data-driven resource that took Black population data, historical markers, Black-owned businesses and social media activity and visualised the data to create points of interest on a dynamic, searchable elevation map of the USA for travellers. The greater the density of data, the higher the elevation.
The intention was to prioritise and celebrate the people and places that were of interest to Black people. The map included 12 curated city guides and 10 national guides to such places as Melanin Vines, a Blackowned winery, Civil Bites, a restaurant that fuelled civil rights and Black Silicon Valley.
The Black Elevation Map is launching with a 60-second film called ‘A Hymn Away from Home’, performed by Washington poet Jasmine Mans.
Results
28 million media impressions so far with notable coverage in Cond Nast ‘Traveller’, ‘Travel Noire’ and other travel outlets as well as coverage in the creative advertising media.
Our Thoughts
The best way to understand this idea is to explore it yourself at blackelevationmap.
com. It’s the detail that is awe-inspiring. So many Black businesses. And markers for people of note. One rabbit hole took me to Pittsburgh where there seem to have been a lot of jazz composers and musicians; Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstein, and, nearby, the National Negro Opera Company. One of the intentions of The Black Elevation Map was that it should be positive and uplifting and I can say, after at least 30 minutes wandering, it certainly is that. A celebration of both the vibrant Black past and the equally vibrant Black present.