Issa Rae is adding to her business ventures with a new company Ensemble, to connect brands with diverse creators.
The advertising-focused shop is apart from her other companies, including Fête, the brand marketing arm of Hoorae, her media and production company.
Ensemble aims to attract ad spending by facilitating pathways between 50 up-and-coming creators, and big brands. So far, the company has tapped Pepsi, Chili’s, and Popeyes as clients.
The company is financially backed by Rae, and opertationally led by a small team of advertising and marketing professionals: Ian Schafer, cofounder and president; Matt Berger, head of revenue; and Keith Lee, head of revenue operations.
“We just see it as an evolution of the next generation of talent discovery, and the path is not obvious,” Schafer said in a statement. “People used to look at digital as the minor leagues. It’s very much the major leagues, but the thesis is that the future talent is much more likely to be discovered by audiences and financed by brands.”
“The goal was for Ensemble to be independent of Rae’s persona,” Montrel McKay said, who is the Hoorae’s president of development and production said per Business Insider.
Although the new company’s mission is a through line that connects all of her ventures to the overall amplification of Black voices, Ensemble will stand as its own entity.
“The proposition is that we have deeper relationships with the partners,” McKay said. “A lot of people are just selling media impressions and matching them with creators. We’re going to teach you how to sell media to these brands and do it in a way that allows you to service your audience.”
The outlet also said McKay pointed out that while the appetite for Ensemble’s services has been strong, the goal wasn’t strictly to seek multicultural budgets.
“We want Ensemble to be seen as a general market company,” McKay said. “We want to go after media budgets. We don’t want to go after small allocations that are for diversity buys. That’s why it’s important to work with Pepsi out of the gate — we want to show the world, we’re just trying to drive popular culture.”
