Peter Blacker: Identifying Multicultural Rockstars

As EVP, Agency Partnerships & Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Advertising and Partnerships at NBCUniversal, Peter Blacker, is responsible for managing Peacock Ad Sales, the Omincom Media Group (OMG) relationship, Telemundo Ad Sales and more. Peter was recently featured in a special episode of the Storytelling Revolution from the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. In the episode, he shares the range of initiatives that his team is tackling across Peacock Ad Sales, the OMG relationship, Telemundo Ad Sales, and DE&I sponsorship opportunities throughout NBCUniversal. Read excerpts from the interview and additional insights below.

Q: Tell us about your new role.

A: “I recently joined the Ad Sales and Partnerships team where I am responsible for managing Peacock Ad Sales, the OMG relationship, and Telemundo Ad Sales. Having been at Telemundo previously for 16 years, I think this is really a great opportunity to bring my multicultural experience from Telemundo into the Ad Sales team and get a chance to work on our Peacock streaming business, our DE&I business, as well as continue to work with Telemundo and some other brands.”

Q: How are you working to connect with your audiences?

A: “One of the things we’ve done is bring in a new Chief Data Officer, John Lee, who has helped organize our first party data, not just for our media business but our movie industry business, Fandango, and our theme parks. When you add all that together, the touchpoints we have far outweigh any cookie data that we have, and so we’re really positioning ourselves in a unique stratosphere of understanding our audiences and being able to better serve them with content and to work with our marketers to come up with innovative ways to connect with our audiences in the most relevant way possible.”

Q. NBCUniversal has taken some bold steps in a number of programs around DE&I. Tell us more about the programs and initiatives that have really been key.

A: “What's nice is that we’re part of a parent company, Comcast, that has made a really strong $100 million commitment towards diversity, equity, and inclusion, and on top of that, what we’re looking to do and what I'm trying to do in this new role, is to always look at opportunities for our partners and our sponsors to engage in this space. For example, during Pride month, we’re not just celebrating the LGBTQ+ community in June, we’re looking throughout the entire year and finding ways to create programs that extend 52 weeks a year. That’s a really big push – trying to have something that's really authentic and always on.”

Q: You’re also a member of the Empowerment and Inclusion Council. Can you share a little bit about your work on the council?

A: “It’s very exciting work because really what we’re looking to try to do is combine two different aspects of business. On one hand, we are looking to attract, retain, and grow, what I like to call, multicultural rock stars. These are folks who really understand what the audience is about, but also, they themselves reflect the multicultural diversity of our world. To get folks like that to join our team, they need to be able to work on things that are both really cool and also feel substantial.”

“I look at things like our recent work with Scene in Color – which we did in collaboration with Target – and where we’re creating diverse storytelling opportunities both in front of and behind the camera. Scene in Color is actually a client facing program, but it also helps us attract retain and grow diverse talent because people want to be part of those projects.”

Q: Can you share some recent examples of how you are working with our advertising partners to advance DE&I efforts in our industry and across NBCUniversal?

A: “There are two recent programs that speak directly to how we can partner with our advertisers in meaningful ways. We recently launched a new program focused on supporting diverse small business owners called Open Doors. Because the launch date of this yearlong program coincided with Hispanic Heritage Month the first diverse, small business we highlighted is a Hispanic-owned and operated Venezuelan restaurant called Cachapas y Mas.”

“Additionally, we created a “diverse small business toolkit” (in English and Spanish) to help the entire diverse small business community have access to marketing, social media, and insights resources that are not always readily available to early stage companies.”

“And through our Scene in Color program, we identified diverse storytellers that we could highlight and promote. One of the most exciting outcomes of the program is that we just got word that one of the directors in the program, Tayo Amos, has been selected to direct an episode of our hit show Chicago Fire in 2023.”