To promote and support Black-owned businesses, Clear Channel UK, one of the UK’s leading out of home media and infrastructure companies, has announced the winners of Clear Channel Compass; a long-term initiative designed to empower and support independent Black-owned businesses in the UK through out of home advertising. 

In collaboration with Jamii, an organisation established in 2016 to promote the offering of Black makers and creators to wider audiences, the initiative offers winning businesses free outdoor advertising space across Clear Channel’s digital screens to promote their products and services. Currently, Jamii lists over 250 small Black-owned British businesses and aims to support the growth of independent Black-owned businesses in the UK.

Ten winners have been selected from over 300 entries. The winners include: Pitt balm, Woke babies, Mr Blackmans, Bespoke Binny, Sock of a kind, Lucocoa, Culture Cardz, HAIRITAGE, The Cricketers, and TRIM-it. 

These winners will see campaigns run across Clear Channel’s Adshel Live screens, part of the biggest digital Out of Home network in the UK. The first winning business, mobile barbershop company TRIM-it, will see its first campaign run from Monday 30th August.

"We were overwhelmed with the quality of the applications that came through and it was so difficult to whittle it down to our ten incredible winners.” says Khalia Ismain, Founder of Jamii, “We can't wait to see everyone's campaigns rollout over the next few months, and to see so many incredible Black-owned businesses taking up space on the high street."

Throughout the pandemic, Clear Channel has supported local businesses with free Out of Home advertising via the #BusinessAsUnusual scheme and recently also launched a new programme Clear Start to help accelerate the growth of start-ups in the UK. For unsuccessful applicants, Clear Channel will also be offering discounted rates.

Black-owned businesses are underrepresented compared with the proportion of London’s population which is Black. Through the use of out of home advertising, Clear Channel UK and Jamii hope to promote and support Black-owned businesses across the UK and address this structural impaclence .