The More You Known: Cavel Khan–– On Transforming the Face of Media Ownership and Investment

Intro by Dominique Hill , Copywriter Digital & Social, Known

Since the 1940s, watching television has served as a primary American pastime. Television does not only entertain us; it also educates us and helps shape the way we see the world and those in it. Though television has almost always reflected a very narrow representation of non-White characters who served as caricatures and racist depictions in every way possible.

As a child, I noticed there were very specific types of Blackness that were shown on television. On one hand, you had (and still have) the Black criminal stereotype and all the negative tropes associated with Blackness. On the other hand, you had the "good," assimilating, respectable Black characters like those depicted in "The Cosby Show." As a Black woman growing up in Brooklyn, in one of North America's most diverse cities, I recall thinking that I didn't see myself or anyone in my community represented in television or movies. It’s no secret that the media, with its strong power to influence society, frequently perpetuates negative stereotypes of Black people. Because of this, I was often left feeling betrayed and hurt by the way Black Americans were portrayed. And I experienced firsthand how it influenced people's perceptions of us in the real world.

But as time went on, I started to see more Black characters, though they were still rigid in how they were willing to depict them, moving away from the stereotypes. With the new influx of mainstream networks and digital platforms, there are more opportunities for people to engage with different and more complex stories about the Black experience. There are also more opportunities for Black people to be able to narrate these stories and lead the media companies producing them.

Cavel Khan is one of the industry leaders working to change the landscape entirely. As the Chief Commerce Officer of Group Black , the Black-owned media collective, Cavel leads the organization’s business strategy efforts. Cavel, who has award-winning experience working in strategy and growth, has also held roles at Tumblr, Vice, Twitter, and Microsoft, where he experienced firsthand being the first and sometimes only person in his field who looked like him. He’s committed to creating space in the industry to eliminate the bias against Black people and Black-owned companies.

Ross Martin , President of Known , sat down with Cavel to discuss his plans to drive real economic transformation to help diversify the media landscape and increase investment in Black-owned media businesses. Below are Cavel's excerpts from their live interview in a recent episode of The More You Known.?

On looking at things from a different perspective

I grew up in Jamaica. I'm from modest means. I came here when I was in high school, and it was a huge culture shock. The economy and situation in Jamaica is just difficult.?It was a difficult time, and I had no clue what I was going to be in life. And when you're in Jamaica, you hear of golden streets in the United States. Not literally, but that's the picture in your mind. So a lot of people migrate for opportunity here, but once they get here they have no clue what to do.

The thing about Jamaica that is so interesting and that has shaped me, is that it's this country with 3 million people on the actual island, the diaspora is much bigger than that. Yet anywhere you go in the world, people know one of at least four things about the country. They either know our food, our music, our athletes, or they know the beaches and the locations that are amazing to be in. And so, the cultural impact of this tiny island has been so profound. If I go anywhere, they know Bob Marley, Usain Bolt, curry chicken, or whatever it may be. And it's because the country has this way about it––you see it on t-shirts, there’s this “no problem” attitude. It doesn't matter how bad things are, it doesn't matter what you have and don't have. There's an appreciation for being here and being alive, and we're grateful for that. We don't care how bad it is, we're going to find a way to achieve our goals and enjoy life.

That mentality has shaped me in how I've approached my career and how I've approached my life. Even coming here to the United States, it changed how I thought about things. I would sit in rooms and hear people's perspectives, and I'm just like, “Well, I think completely differently about that.” And that has been valuable in my career. I'm so lucky that was my background because it gave me a point of differentiation, otherwise I'd just be one of the same.?

On breaking into the industry?

In my MBA, I double majored in entrepreneurship and marketing. That's how I ended up in the industry. There was this course called E-business. I didn’t know what it was, but I needed to fill one more slot. It turned out to be the course that changed my life because really, it was a digital marketing course. Now background comes into play here. By the time I took that course, I think I was 23 or 24 and doing it part-time. I was working, and going to b-school, because I had to pay for it, and I didn’t want to take a lot of loans.??

It was my first introduction to this industry. Even during all of undergrad, no one ever talked about advertising or marketing as a path. They push you to be a consultant or doctor or get into finance. Marketing is the industry––and no one has proved me wrong on this statement yet––no matter what you're good at, as long as you're willing to put in the work, you can be successful. I'm talentless. The only talent I have is that I know how to talk, and I flipped that into a career. Turns out there's this thing called sales––if you love talking, you can go talk to people, and convince them to let you partner to solve their challenge.

Marketing is the industry––and no one has proved me wrong on this statement yet––no matter what you're good at, as long as you're willing to put in the work, you can be successful.

On paving the way for others

I had in mind people like me. I got in because people saw something in me that I didn't see in myself. I wasn’t like anybody that was already there. I think there's so many incredible people that just need an opportunity. Like the quote says, "Talent is evenly distributed. Opportunity isn't." My goal is to demonstrate in every way possible, that we should think wider about who can partner with us in the workplace, and in this industry to help us continue to do what this industry does so well. We can change the world. Maybe we’re not launching rocket ships, and we're not doctors, but we change how people think about things.

Advertising has such incredible power to move society. Now we're at a point where we’re asking which way are we going here? There’s incredible power if we allow different voices inside the industry. I think we can get a better product. In almost every single role I’ve had, I was either the first or only person that looked like me and that had my kind of background. I was always wondering why. Why in all these years hasn’t someone that looks similar to me had this opportunity? I feel it’s my responsibility outside of the day job to eliminate unconscious bias.?

We can change the world. Maybe we’re not launching rocket ships, and we're not doctors, but we change how people think about things.

On working towards change

Group Black has three co-founders. Two of the co-founders were having a conversation in mid-2020 about the racial reckoning that happened in the United States. Where people asked, “What's happening to Black people in this country?” And the fix wasn’t just to say, “I'm sorry.” It's to say, “Let's get to the root of why some of these things are happening.”?

Part of what we as a society did was acknowledge that we need to fix this. We need to stop this. African American consumers contribute $1.7 trillion to the economy, yet when you look at what is coming back to those communities, it's a fraction. Brands said, “Look, not only do we want to reach African Americans, we want to diversify our supply chain in the advertising industry.”?But when they looked, there wasn't that much being done. There was this desire and demand, but there was limited supply.

And so Group Black was formed to answer how we help the industry that now truly has a commitment to making this change, and understands the business impact of this change. Group Black was formed to be a media company that's an accelerator to help connect brands and agencies to Black-owned media companies. That includes Black-owned tech companies, Black-owned AdTech companies, Black-owned publishers, content publishers, creators, etc. And now we have a collective of about 300 and growing of Black-owned companies who we can reach. These companies haven’t been invested in for years at the same level as their peers. So we’re not just building a collective. We’re helping them with infrastructure. We created programmatic solutions and helped them with header bidding so that they can receive this money. We helped them improve their websites so they can get the advertising. We built measurement and brand strategy tools that can scale, and we can really start growing this ecosystem.

On experiencing bias?

This industry doesn't make decisions based on facts only. If it was fact-based decisions that were being made, you would see more diversity automatically happen. Again, I've been first and only in many roles, so I've experienced this and I understand it in my bones. Even now, I sit in rooms and I hear the unconscious bias coming out. And I'm not villainizing anyone, I'm just saying Black-owned media gets evaluated with less grace than what is given to other media at their early stages.?

How do you break that? I spent a lot of time thinking about how to break that cycle. If I show up to you with the impressions you say you want, the CPMs you say you want, a unique value proposition, and somehow I'm getting pennies compared to everyone else who has the same proposition,?then something else is at play here, and I'm going to fight against that. That's what I spend time trying to figure out.

On motivation?

If you go to Florida right now, you see five or six different cultures, and their history and language are being taught as elective AP courses. But African American history and language doesn’t seem to be valued equally. The very intelligent people who developed the course, like Harvard’s Prof Henry Gates, put tons of thought into selecting books that are incredibly important to help people understand our culture, our background, and our history. But yet the AP course was deemed not valuable for Florida. What does that say to me? What does that say to my two sons? Is there no value in the United States for our history?

That's what makes me get up and say, “Okay, that's why Group Black is where I need to be. We need to change this sh*t. I'm tired of it.” That's what motivates me. I believe more people care about this and want to do something about it. They just need to be given the opportunity to understand how powerful they are. Agencies are some of the most powerful entities that exist. If you add diverse owned companies to every plan, in a couple of years you'll be amazed by the change that you have made in this world. That's what it takes.

On figuring out next steps

I’m trying to learn how to address bias. How do I get people to see that there is something at play that is different in how decisions are being made based on how people look? I don't know why decisions are sometimes different for minority groups. I wake up every day trying to figure out how to demonstrate to an industry that you're actually hurting yourself and your business goal by doing this.

Agencies are some of the most powerful entities that exist. If you add diverse owned companies to every plan, in a couple of years you'll be amazed by the change that you have made in this world. That's what it takes.

Citibank did a study in 2020 that showed if Black-owned businesses received investments at the same pace of their peers in the last 20 years ––meaning they had access to lending, access to capital float, etc.––it would have added $16 trillion to the United States economy. There is no company that would not have benefited from a $16 trillion increase to the GDP of the United States. Yet for some reason, it didn’t happen. And I have the perspective, and I've seen the reaction I've gotten. I'm selling something, and based on who owns it, it's a very different evaluation. I would like the industry to evaluate Black-owned media the same way as when I was selling early stage Twitter or Bing, or Xbox ads. Buyers saw the opportunity and how it was a growth engine and made a bet. How do I get marketers to recognize the bias? That's what I need to figure out.