The 23rd Annual Rainbow PUSH Global Automotive Summit took place Nov. 14-15. The event served as the backdrop for the world’s leading global automotive manufacturers to discuss strengthening and creating opportunities for people of color at every level of the industry.
During the event, Tarshena Armstrong, General Motors’ diversity marketing leader; and Munson Steed, publisher of rolling out, discussed their partnership and how it has impacted their businesses.
Can you both share how General Motors and rolling out began their partnership?
Tarshena Armstrong: Last year, Munson was a moderator for this panel and that’s when I first met him. We established a relationship with Munson and his organization, and they’ve been doing business with GM for quite some time. Over the past few years, GM has been on a true journey. We have an aspiration to be the most inclusive company in the world, and that started with our diverse-owned media summit. We host about 300 diverse-owned media organizations, and we set forth our vision of investment in not only diverse-owned media but Black-owned media.
Just a few weeks ago, we did a great initiative called Sisters with Superpowers with rolling out, and it’s phenomenal because it helps our Chevrolet brand amplify and do business with influential women, and women who are in the community, which is important because that’s one of our targets as it relates to the Chevrolet brand. With Sisters with Superpowers, it allows us to flex our liberty to do branded content and partner with a Black-owned organization to do branded items experiential, which is very important. What we’re trying to do is not do things that are transactional, but do things that are really about building the relationship with diverse-owned media.
Munson Steed: My biggest thing is that the number is zero. When we started it wasn’t simple, and there were some challenges that they gave us. If you’re in the room today, I think all of us are saying please don’t make it be zero. If you’re here to support Reverend Jackson, everybody in here from Sherman to myself, to anybody who is in the media business, we just want the numbers to change and stop letting the individuals that aren’t in this room set a precedent by starting Black-owned media and Black-owned agencies. It’s a beautiful program, and it was huge for us. It was a 360 program.
