“Culture drives behavior”: Group Black’s Bonin Bough on building brand love with diverse audiences
November 1, 2024 | Jenn Roberts Ma, senior content manager
Bonin Bough is the quintessential example of a business-minded creative. At age 12, he made his first foray into entrepreneurship as the founder of a teen magazine for New York City public-school students. He next ventured into professional graphic design work while also earning the title of junior partner at an accounting firm—and that was in ninth grade (yes, you read that right).
Bough’s career hasn’t slowed down since, with the entrepreneur-turned-executive going on to become one of the youngest C-suite leaders at a Fortune 50 company in his role as chief media and e-commerce officer at Mondelēz International (formerly Kraft Foods) at age 34. His marketing and media experience also includes leading growth for some of the world’s most beloved brands, such as PepsiCo, Oreo, Sour Patch Kids, Gatorade, and SheaMoisture; hosting a CNBC television series; and writing a book on digital communication. In recent years, Bough has returned to his entrepreneurial roots—launching the start-up accelerator Bonin Ventures, and co-founding Group Black, a Black-owned media collective where he serves as chief strategy officer.
We recently invited Bough to speak to our customers on how to cultivate brand love at the first-ever Amazon Ads Immersion Day, an entertainment-focused networking and educational event for advertisers in Culver City, California, and then sat down with him to delve deeper into his experiences at Group Black. As Bough shares, relevance—not reach—should be the primary focus for brands looking to foster stronger emotional ties with consumers.
Can you give us a general overview of what Group Black is, your mission and efforts to date, and what your role has been?
Group Black is a minority business enterprise (MBE)-certified media company dedicated to connecting brands with diverse audiences. Committed to fostering an inclusive media ecosystem, Group Black amplifies diverse storytelling and deepens the investment pipeline for diverse-owned businesses. Informed by marketing and creative expertise, Group Black crafts contextually relevant strategies that resonate with a multicultural generation. We have a saying here that Group Black is where culture calls home—and it’s been exciting to see how much we’ve been able to accomplish in just our first three years in operation.
What advice do you have for brands and agencies that are looking to strengthen their emotional connection with consumers? And how should they be thinking about these efforts in relation to the rise of streaming entertainment through platforms like streaming TV, livestream gaming, and interactive audio ads?
Success for brands and agencies will come as long as they put the customer at the center of all their campaigns, programs, and concepts. I think that only part of success is about leveraging streaming entertainment. More broadly, by tapping into a network with the scale of Amazon, you can go all the way from creating brand love to creating brand connectivity.
Recent research from Amazon Ads shows that 7 in 10 global consumers want to see more genuine,
real stories in the media that reflect different cultures.2
In what ways can brands better tell stories that represent more perspectives? What is the value for consumers?
Culture drives behavior. At the end of the day, as consumers, we really want to see cultures that reflect our own belief system and the cultures we identify with. If I can see people who look like me, I will connect with the brand, and the content will resonate. Most importantly, we must remember and focus on the importance of relevancy. We tend to think about reach as being the No. 1 driver of marketing success—but even if you were able to reach your entire core audience, you can’t and won’t deliver results if your message doesn’t resonate with them. On the other hand, if your content does resonate with them, you can drive brand love and brand connection.
Let’s dig into this topic more, but from a real-life perspective. Authenticity is a buzzword that is everywhere in our industry these days, especially in relation to building customer engagement and brand affinity. What advice do you have for brands that seek to be authentic?
Sometimes, I think that marketing leaders take for granted how important brands are to people. If you go back to legacy brands, they stood for something—for example, Levi’s stood for freedom, with timeless style; and Pepsi meant a new voice for a new generation. I think the most important thing is to convey your truth in a way that inspires people to connect with you.
What makes you most excited about the organization’s future? And what steps can other brands take to help ensure they’re also continuing to grow, evolve, and reach their highest potential?
What makes me most excited about Group Black today is the dedication of our people, which has led to the results we have delivered for our clients and the support that we’ve gained from the industry. If there’s anything I learned from this journey, it’s that making sure your north star is one that supports, inspires, enriches, and engages all aspects of the industry that you’re trying to transform. If you can accomplish that, you’ll be very, very happy about the way the industry and customers embrace you.
1 Press release, April 2024
2 Amazon Ads custom research with Crowd DNA. From Ads to Zeitgeist. Dec 2023–Feb 2024. BR, CA, DE, ES, FR, IT, JP, KSA, MX, UAE, UK, US. Total n=21,600. Per country n=1,800.