The One Show
The One Show is the world's most prestigious award show in advertising and design. For over 50 years, the Gold Pencil has been regarded as one of the top prizes in the creative industry. The One Show has a rich legacy of honoring some of the most groundbreaking ideas, created by some of the most remarkable minds in creativity.
About the Work
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 (McKinsey), and the brand’s audience at the center of a retraumatizing conversation about systemic racism, we 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.
OBJECTIVES
Build the brand’s domestic travel credentials.
Stimulate interest in Black-centered domestic travel.
Create a cultural counterpoint to Black pain narratives.
AUDIENCES
Modern Black travelers.
Black-owned businesses and institutions.
Allies.
INSIGHT
When marginalized communities navigate the world, they're asked to do so using tools that prioritize someone else’s worldview. Change the tools, and you could change the experience.
PRIORITIZING SELF-IDENTIFICATION
The data gathering process considered scale, quality, accessibility across all 50 states, ethical sourcing and race-based bias. We prioritized data from sources where users self-report their own ethnicity.
EXPERIENCE FIRST, UTILITY SECOND
The site experience starts with a fast-loading preview image, during which the site fully pre-loads in about three seconds. From there the WebGL-based environment is snappy and intuitive, with data available at many zoom levels, and using the UX tenet of progressive disclosure to move from abstract (wide-view data visualization and density mapping) to specific (editorial content and points of interest). During development, the team discussed the line between Utility and Experience, and decided to prioritize Experience foremost. So while the site is packed with utility, it's the story and experience of the idea that is both immediately compelling and unforgettable over time.
DATA PERFORMANCE
+330,000,000 total points of data
+47,000,000 Black population data
+28,000 Black-owned businesses listed
+6,500 cultural markers
+1,500 social sources across 53 embedded data feeds
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 (McKinsey), and the brand’s audience at the center of a retraumatizing conversation about systemic racism, we 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.
OBJECTIVES
Build the brand’s domestic travel credentials.
Stimulate interest in Black-centered domestic travel.
Create a cultural counterpoint to Black pain narratives.
AUDIENCES
Modern Black travelers.
Black-owned businesses and institutions.
Allies.
INSIGHT
When marginalized communities navigate the world, they're asked to do so using tools that prioritize someone else’s worldview. Change the tools, and you could change the experience.
PRIORITIZING SELF-IDENTIFICATION
The data gathering process considered scale, quality, accessibility across all 50 states, ethical sourcing and race-based bias. We prioritized data from sources where users self-report their own ethnicity.
EXPERIENCE FIRST, UTILITY SECOND
The site experience starts with a fast-loading preview image, during which the site fully pre-loads in about three seconds. From there the WebGL-based environment is snappy and intuitive, with data available at many zoom levels, and using the UX tenet of progressive disclosure to move from abstract (wide-view data visualization and density mapping) to specific (editorial content and points of interest). During development, the team discussed the line between Utility and Experience, and decided to prioritize Experience foremost. So while the site is packed with utility, it's the story and experience of the idea that is both immediately compelling and unforgettable over time.
DATA PERFORMANCE
+330,000,000 total points of data
+47,000,000 Black population data
+28,000 Black-owned businesses listed
+6,500 cultural markers
+1,500 social sources across 53 embedded data feeds
2023 Awards
Total Points: 21
Silver Pencil
Credits
Agency
Performance Art / Toronto
Initiative Media / Toronto
Design Firm
Vocal Type Co. / Washington D.C.
Digital Agency
Kinesso / New York
Reprise Canada / Toronto
Client
Eric Martin
Kent Johnson
Client / Brand
Black & Abroad / Atlanta
Production Company
Alfredo Films / Toronto
Music / Sound Production Company
TA2 Sound + Music / Toronto
Post Production Company
Alter Ego / Toronto
Chief Creative Officer
Ian Mackenzie
Designer
Emily Plewes
Director
Kelly Fyffe-Marshall
Director of Photography
Shivam Pandya
Editor
Michael Ofori-Attah
Executive Creative Director
Colin Craig
Account Director
Jon Rae
Account Supervisor
Ricky Gunawan
Associate Creative Director
Benson Ngo
Pedro Izzo
Chief Executive Officer
Andrea Cook
Program Manager
Kaylen Dillon
Agency Partner
Meta / New York
Analytics Analyst
Abdul Dau
Analytics Manager
Anil Iqbal
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Elizabeth Sellors
Consultant
Gigi Basanta
Digital Producer
Darwin Garcia
Experience Delivery Lead:
Nzegwhua Anderson
Experience Designer
Leon Mullings
Full Stack Developer
Cody Schreiber
Group Director, Product Developer
Arnaud Icard
Interface Developer
Heung Lee
Junior Analyst
Shaista Meghji
Lead Developer
John Iacoviello
PR
Glossy Inc. / Toronto
Quality Assurance Analyst
Nataliya Vislyanska
Quality Assurance Lead
Natalia Zadorozhna
Senior Experience Designer
Joe Szabo
Senior Technical Architect
Valerian Nasqidashvili
Solutions Consultant
Kaivalya Kashyap
SVP, Head of Strategy
Priyanka Goswami
SVP, Managing Director
Jordan Dinning
Technical Solutions Consultant
Suraj Patel
VP, Strategy
Kirk Linkletter
VP, Technology
Stuart Cheesmond
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