NAACP's top marketer tackles everything from DEI rollbacks to the organization's first foray into daytime TV

• The NAACP is speaking out about the Trump administration's DEI rollbacks, promoting its new VC fund, and gearing up for the launch of a new TV show.
• Aba Blankson leads NAACP's marketing and storytelling, including its recently launched #KeepAdvancing campaign.
• This article is part of a series of interviews with chief marketing officers for CMO Insider.

A few days into President Donald Trump's second term, the NAACP denounced the president's executive order to dismantle federal government diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

"This executive order threatens public services that benefit all Americans," the NAACP president and CEO, Derrick Johnson, said in a statement. "It's an attempt to consolidate power and money to a few wealthy individuals. And poor and working-class people will pay the price."

It's a critical time for the NAACP, and Aba Blankson, its chief marketing and communications officer. There's no shortage of issues, but Blankson has the chops to handle them: She's been the NAACP's top marketer since 2017, following roles at Common Application and USAID. Key programs during her tenure include social advocacy campaigns, and the #CovidUnmasked series that exposed the impact of the pandemic on Black communities across health, employment, and housing.

Like many CMOs, she's working out the applications of artificial intelligence, conducting stakeholder research, and advising the rest of the C-suite on where the brand needs to show up. In 2024, Washington Women in Public Relations named her "Woman of the Year."

"Aba is a luminary," said Rebecca Lowell Edwards, the former chief communications and marketing officer at the ACLU who is now at Organon, in an email. "When I was at the ACLU, I would often watch with admiration what she was doing to engage the NAACP community and captivate a competitive landscape to gain attention for weighty topics."

Edwards said Blankson's role demands a complex amalgam of skills and passion."You are operating on multiple speeds, across different complex subjects matters with deep personal resonance," she said. "It's important to know the mechanics of organizing, marketing, brand-building, and every other essential organizational discipline while keeping your heart and soul intact and out in front."

Blankson said NAACP has had to keep evolving the way it inspires action and awareness. One way is by driving investment into minority-owned startups through its first VC fund of funds, which launched last year.

Now at the beginning of Black History Month, the NAACP gears up for something completely different: the launch of a new daytime drama titled "Beyond the Gates," which it has co-produced.

Bringing a fresh story to the small screen

"Beyond the Gates," a new daytime drama premiering on February 24 on CBS, is an outcome of the NAACP's efforts to foster more diverse storytelling. Produced by CBS Studios and the NAACP, in partnership with P&G Studios, a division of Procter & Gamble, it's the first new daytime drama launched by a major TV network since 1999.

The series focuses on an affluent Black family, the Duprees, living in a Maryland suburb. The show is a direct outcome of a development deal between CBS Studios and NAACP that began in 2020.

It's taken nearly five years to bring the project to life. That's showbiz, said Blankson. "If you know anything about the television landscape, it takes a long time for projects to make their way through their pipeline," she added.

Procter & Gamble was the pioneer of the so-called soap opera genre, and is coproducing. Kimberly Doebereiner, the head of P&G Studios says the company is proud to be part of the new show.

"We are thrilled to continue P&G's legacy as a pioneer in the genre," Doebereiner said in an email to BI. "We value finding interesting ways for our brands to connect with people around relevant and resonant stories. We hope people will fall in love watching the Duprees!"

A campaign that invokes 2020 community support

In October, the NAACP launched an advertising campaign called #KeepAdvancing. It aims to reignite the momentum of 2020 when the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd sparked global calls for social justice.

At that time, allies posted black squares on their social media accounts to show solidarity with Black justice causes. The gesture was generally perceived as performative and was subject to criticism and ridicule.

Though individuals also donated a lot of money to organizations like NAACP at the time, Blankson confirmed that only one in three of those donors returned to give to NAACP again.

The #KeepAdvancing campaign, which includes national advertising, is intended to remind allies of their past support and encourage them to take direct action and make donations to the organization. The TV commercial depicts a woman posting a black square and expressing concern for the racial justice issues, only to drift away as life events overtake her.

"In some ways, it's hard to believe that it's been five years," Blankson said. "But in other ways, it's amazing that we haven't progressed as much as I think our spirit wanted us to as a country. Part of this campaign is really to challenge the country — to challenge all those who were engaged in 2020 to say, 'Hey, the work is not done, we need you now more than ever.'"

Blankson said the campaign launch ahead of the election was intentional, as the issues persist regardless of the party in power.

"Elections are not necessarily about presidential candidates per se, but about the mood of the country, where the country is going," Blankson said. "No matter what happened, we knew that we needed to get people engaged."

The changing state of corporate DEI

Blankson declined to give specific details of any campaign the NAACP will undertake to persuade companies to retain DEI. She said she has met with many companies over the past year and heard firsthand the trepidation of leaders wary of backlash.

"There's a level of fear, 'We're going to be attacked if we don't dismantle our DEI programs,'" she said.

It's a big shift from 2020 when companies sought the NAACP's advice on speaking publicly about their DEI initiatives. "I personally reviewed a lot of statements in 2020," Blankson said. "I would always say to companies that if it's authentic to your company and your company's culture, then it is right. If it's not, then it's not. If you can maintain it in the difficult times, then it's right."

Blankson said the purchasing power of Black consumers will exert influence on these decisions. Though estimates vary, McKinsey & Company predicts Black purchasing power will grow to $1.7 trillion by 2030. "Companies cutting DEI practices — effectively turning their backs on a significant portion of their customer base — will eventually come to recognize this reality as well," Blankson said.

Nixing DEI initiatives can complicate things for brand marketing. Case in point, Walmart rolled back some of its DEI initiatives in November; the following month, the company faced backlash on social media for running a Christmas ad with Nia Long and Larenz Tate, reprising their characters from the 1997 film "Love Jones."

"You cannot use the culture to sell your products and then not invest in the culture and dismantle your DEI," Blankson said.

The CMO evolution

Blankson, who has been the chief marketing officer at the NAACP for nearly eight years, said she has seen a notable change in the role since 2020 — at her organization and elsewhere.

"The relationship with the CEO has never been closer," she said. "The need for the CMO is to, in some ways, reflect truth — to make sure that the organization is being truthful to its own mission and its own values."

Additionally, she said CMOs must help their organizations make judgment calls about when to jump into a cultural or political issue and when to stay quiet.

"There was a time where no matter what was happening in the world, every brand felt like they needed to take a position," Blankson said. "Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes that's not a good thing. It's important that the CMO is able to give counsel to others at the leadership table."

Then there's the hot-button topic on many marketers' minds: artificial intelligence. Blankson, like many CMOs, is figuring out what AI use cases will help the organization and what rules are needed to protect its IP and data.

"As we were developing our own set of commercials, there came a point where we said, 'This part of the video isn't quite right. Can we use AI to fix this?' But then if you do that, what is the disclosure?" Blankson said. "It's a whole new landscape, and I know that my CMO colleagues are grappling with it."

As the NAACP approaches its 116th anniversary this month, Blankson said the organization's secret to enduring relevance is adapting to change.

One example is the launch of NAACP Capital, a fund that's raising $200 million to invest in fund managers committed to closing investment gaps for people of color. "We know that African-Americans in particular get less of the capital funds that are available, and our entrepreneurs have great ideas that they want to bring to market," Blankson said. "So we have started a VC fund to try to close that gap."

The NAACP's historical legacy looms large, but Blankson is focused on storytelling that emphasizes its enduring relevance. "The secret of being a long-standing legacy brand is that you have a way of changing, innovating, morphing, and being of the time," Blankson said. "There has to be a constant retelling of the story and reframing of the narrative."