Blackweek Presents: Seven for Seven with Andre Gray

Seven for Seven is a new profile series hosted on Little Black Book with the founders of Blackweek, a new economic forum and marketing conference coming to NYC October 15-18.

Seven questions that dive into the minds behind the economic forum, and what’s in store. A little bit about them, a little bit about Blackweek, and a lot for everyone to think about.

The series continues with Andre Gray, CCO at Annex88.

1. What did you want to be when you were 7?

Andre> When I was seven I wanted to be an astronaut  or rocket scientist. I didn’t necessarily want to go to the moon, but I wanted to work with NASA. I also wanted to be the first person to play for the LA Galaxy and LA Lakers at the same time. Deion Sanders dreams ha. 

2. An example of someone throwing a line back to you in your career?

Andre> My 1st mentor in the industry was Karrelle Dixon. We met at Cannes around 2018. At the time he was running W+K pdx. I had been watching his career from real real far for a min. I just remember going to Inkwell in Cannes and realised, oh shit that’s Karrelle. I thought the transition of being a pro athlete to advertising was so interesting. He was a guy that was there for a few inflection points in my career. But the real is I didn’t have my first mentor in this industry that looked like me until about ten years in.

3. Words to live by?

Andre> “Presence is the revolution.” 

I think of that in the context of the 200% standard of a Barack Obama, and the need and standardisation of Black Excellence as the only way to survive. As underrepresented people, we go into situations with forced empathy - so we are not only making sure we survive but everyone else is too. The thing is we have already done the thing just already by being there. Every personal goal we set on top of that is icing on the cake. 

4. What made you get involved with Blackweek?

Andre> For the last couple years there have been conversations about black buying power, but I think they fall short on the breadth of impact of Black and Brown influence. We need to codify and quantify and build business around the fact that Black and Brown people make everything that people like. We move culture, since Elvis, since pop music, since mac and cheese, since light bulbs. 

So don’t just give me a conversation that makes you feel good about why you want to help Black and Brown people. There is no mainstream culture without Black and Brown people.

Blackweek is the chance for us to let them into the conversation. And for us to show them the way.

5. What aren’t people talking about? What aren’t they saying out loud?

Andre> We are back to regularly scheduled racism. 

That’s also what they mean when they say let’s make advertising fun again. Fun for who? When you say you want to go back to that - back to what?

6. Who can benefit most from attending Blackweek? Who needs to go?

Andre> The clients. If you have a budget and a brand. 

The work right now is forgettable, soft and justifiable. But it’s not memorable. 

So if you’re running a brand and playbook right now and not putting Black and Brown at the forefront of it and the center, you are just throwing money into a pile and lighting it on fire. Come to Blackweek to do good business and grow your brand. There is more pressure than ever on marketers, CMOs are being fired and having their positions elimiated. Come to the table with us and make a bet on what’s going to outperform all our KPIs.

7. Where’s your industry a year from now?

Andre> Shit hasn’t changed since the '60s. So if you don’t feel the urgency to make a year from now as drastically different as it can be, then you are not paying respect to the next generation, to your kids, that doesn’t want to inherit this mess.