Every February in the U.S., and October in the UK, some companies continue to get it wrong when it comes to Black History Month (BHM). This happens because the focus is forced instead of informed, and it shows. But there’s a fast fix. With billions of data points available to guide the best path forward, companies can analyze target audience insight to plan out their strategy before launching specific initiatives. Here’s how.
Good intentions alone won’t cut it.
Brands often navigate a delicate balance when addressing sensitive cultural moments, as highlighted by Forbes in two contrasting Black History Month campaigns—one from Target that resonated successfully and another from Barnes & Noble that faced criticism, underscoring the persistent need for companies to strike the right balance of tone and authenticity.
B&N promoted what has been called a tone-deaf campaign to re-launch classic books with redesigned covers featuring black characters. According to Forbes, “Backlash for the initiative was swift once news of it became public. The overwhelming sentiment was that if you want to celebrate the history and achievements of black culture, you don’t do it by promoting works of white authors with ‘reimagined covers’ featuring black faces.”
Target spotlighted “the heritage, legacy, and impact of the black community” by showcasing black business owners, services, fashions, and toys—and continues to do so. It’s a consistent theme augmented each year by consumer conversation.
How did they do this? Where are they finding insights into consumer conversation beyond the anecdotal (and inherently biased) intel consumers post on brand pages?
Capturing an aggregated view of the Black History Month conversation starts with the sources.
The data companies capture must be extensive, but more importantly, accurate and reliable. Quid not only has access to vast cross-platform datasets but also ensures nearly 90% accuracy when analyzing consumer opinions, emotions, and behaviors expressed online. Thanks to advanced AI-powered natural language processing (NLP) technology and ongoing, scientifically supported accuracy tests, Quid far outperforms the accepted industry average of around 80%.
Quid aggregates structured and unstructured data spanning the social web. Sources include blogs, forums (such as Reddit), consumer, employee, and professional reviews, news sites, and social media posts and comments from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X, as well as corporate, government, and number of miscellaneous and premium sources.
In addition to aggregating data, Quid also generates impactful visualizations of conversations pinpointing emerging trends and how they connect to each other in short, text-optimized thematic clusters.
In an age where BHM efforts are often viewed as performative and limited in scope, half-hearted efforts can prove harmful, acting as an accelerant for unwanted behaviors:
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Let’s explore what the data revealed in 2023 and 2024, with fresh insights to amplify your brand’s 2025 efforts using a templated Brand Perception view. With it, we can explore the conversations around Black History Month, measured by influence and sentiment, to see overarching insights for this year and spot potential opportunities to capitalize on before they pass you by.
The official theme for BHM in 2023 was Black Resistance. With publicized protests by high-profile athletes as a backdrop, the word “Game” stands out in social conversations with substantial engagement and mixed consumer sentiment. People primarily discussed player statistics, improvements over time, and the impact of racial dynamics on their sports experiences. Social media posts and news comprising this cluster in our data visualizations also touch on the intersection of sports and social issues, such as racism and public perception.
Top themes by influence and sentiment from 10/14/22-1/14/23
For Apple, this presented an opportunity to connect with a passionate, active lifestyle audience, resulting in the creation of their Black Unity Collection.
This celebratory collection included a special-edition Apple Watch Black Unity Sport Loop, that “featured the word ‘Unity’ woven abstractly into the band using red, green, and black yarns that pay homage to the Pan-African flag.”
While many sports organizations showcase black players on their teams as their sole showing of support, others are taking it a step further by forming meaningful partnerships with grassroots organizations. Kick It Out, an organization dedicated to ending discrimination in sports, offered a ready outlet for clubs to commit to meaningful change. The CEO of Cheshire FA and others participated:
Subsequent conversations centered around empowering diverse communities in sports, celebrating Black game developers, and growing educational initiatives. The focus was broad, extending beyond sports to advocate for inclusive environments in all sectors, and helped highlight the importance of honoring the contributions of Black individuals across all fields.
Crucial, formative conversations happen on social media, and neglecting to analyze these insights can mean missing out on timely opportunities. For example, how many brands passed up participating in Black Web Fest because they weren’t monitoring the conversation?
This had the potential to be an easy, viral win for any brand partner, but many companies were caught off guard. With social media conversations—and the trends they spark—rising and fading so quickly, brands relying on outdated sentiment analysis and consumer insight tools, or lacking them altogether, risk missing out entirely.
The official theme for 2024 was African Americans and the Arts. The top themes by influence and sentiment show “black contributions,” “God,” and “News” as topics with substantial engagement:
Top themes by influence and sentiment from 10/14/23-1/14/24
Although it’s not the top result here, our analysis uncovered a significant number of discussions about "God," which reveals a unique way to approach the month. Focusing on spiritual growth and inspiration, the discussion here references religious figures and messages of hope, encouraging personal growth and reflection through spiritual and community connections and corresponding activism efforts.
During this period, we see Paramount released its documentary “Becoming King” which they described as “an emotional portrait of David Oyelowo’s journey to play legendary civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Featuring behind-the-scenes footage and intimate home videos, Becoming King is a story of faith, friendship and a destiny fulfilled.”
However, the insights and sentiment analysis also counsel caution around highly charged areas and delicate topics. The discourse on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) here is marked by polarized opinions.
There are concerns about the impact of political figures and movements on Black history and culture, with discussions on the societal implications of these initiatives. These insider insights help brands understand how to approach topics, and stresses what to avoid when participating in the conversation.
Taking it a step further and gathering consumer insights tailored to a specific brand would reveal the precise conversations playing out around these topics by uploading a brand’s owned channel data on various social sites for analysis.
Black History Month 2025: African Americans and Labor
And this year, the official theme for 2025 is African Americans and Labor and so far, top themes are centered around empowerment and resilience in black history:
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Top themes by influence and sentiment from 10/14/24-1/14/25
The topic explores Black culture, history, and empowerment, highlighting achievements and challenges in art, technology, and entrepreneurship. It emphasizes community resilience, the need for reparations, and the importance of celebrating Black contributions.
Which brands are mobilizing to participate in this conversation?
Given the short time frame under review, we can also broaden our search to include insights from October 2022 to the present for a more comprehensive perspective.
By isolating this Quid topic cluster from the broader Black History Month conversation, we can identify brands referenced in consumer discussions:
We can then delve deeper to uncover what is being said by or about each brand. Often, the most impactful campaigns stem from consumer-generated content, as demonstrated by this tweet featuring NASA.
Are they capitalizing on these powerful insights? Are you? Doing so will soon be the norm for every brand very soon as it’s just too easy and too potentially viral to ignore. Due to the large impact and ease of use, leveraging AI-driven market and consumer insights will quickly become the standard for every brand.
Don’t get left behind. Reach out for a demo and we’ll show you how it’s done!