Every August, Black Business Month serves as a powerful reminder: Black ownership is not just a practice, it’s a vital force driving growth and change. The numbers speak for themselves: black women–owned employer firms grew 71.6% from 2017 to 2022, outpacing overall growth for Black-owned and women-owned employer businesses. During the same period, the number of Black-owned firms overall increased to 194,585, with revenues rising from an estimated $127.9 billion to $211.8 billion. These statistics and the stories behind them are a testament to the resilience and innovation of Black entrepreneurs. Across the broader landscape, women now own approximately 39% of U.S. businesses, employ an estimated 12.9 million workers, and generate $3.3 trillion in revenue.
Amidst this momentum, Kellie Pean stands as a co-founder of Brand New: A Collective—a millennial, female-owned marketing practice that distinguishes itself with its unique approach. Brand New marries data and cultural fluency to build memory and not just moments, a philosophy that sets it apart in the marketing landscape.
With nearly two decades of experience across tech, CPG, and media (including The Coca-Cola Company, Diageo North America, and marketing leadership at Billboard/The Hollywood Reporter), Pean has built a boutique team that delivers insight-driven strategy, memorable experiences, and talent partnerships with clients like Crown Royal, Baileys and feature talent collaborations with Tanner Addell, Carmelo Anthony and others.
Brand New, the north star of Kellie Pean’s work, is a concept that goes beyond a KPI: “Does anyone even care?” It’s a filter that pushes past logomania and toward programs people actually remember. It’s about creating brands and campaigns that resonate with people, that they care about and remember, rather than just creating a logo or a momentary trend.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
WayMaker: For readers new to Brand New: A Collective—what guides your work?
Kellie Pean: There’s been a guiding question that we’ve had since the beginning, which is, does anyone even care? Are we doing things that leave a lasting impression and show that people care?
WayMaker: Take us back to the spark. Why launch the agency?
Pean: Back in 2017, there was an opportunity to really change the paradigm of how we worked with the brand-marketing space as it related to culture-forward partners. My business partner, Alyssa Convertini Lindquist, and I said, we can do something in our own space here. There is a world where we can be of service to brands that are looking to build a brand in culture and really dive into the niche of subcultures and community through data and insights with a creative flair and then leverage other channels like media to help distribute and push it out to the masses and tailored ways.
WayMaker: You’re explicit about not chasing virality. How do you frame that with clients?
Pean: It’s not about chasing a trend. It’s about paying attention to where people are and how they’re moving, who inspires them, and then tapping into that to create the right unlocks. Because information spreads so fast and opinions are going viral quickly, you can get a groupthink that kills a campaign if the right people aren’t in the room.
WayMaker: Local authenticity—say, New Orleans during Super Bowl—what does respect look like in practice?
Pean: We start with listening. How do the people of New Orleans feel about hosting this event versus being participants in the Super Bowl? Those are two different things. We build from the inside out, so it doesn’t feel like a logo on a party.
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WayMaker: You’ve moved decisively into today’s Western/cowboy wave. Why did that click?
Pean: We’re working with Crown Royal—America’s whiskey. Black culture has had a huge influence on the resurgence of country music. Beyoncé put a spotlight on it and introduced a new artist [Tanner Adell]. Tanner came on as a strategic partner. She brings together a blended fusion of fans, including new country fans and existing country fans, into a whole new space. To achieve this through the lens of Crown Royal, we also incorporate a give-back and generosity component. If you had asked me three years ago if our agency would be working with cowboy culture in Western culture, I would have said, Probably not.
Yet, we’ve been at the rodeo multiple times this year, working with Tanner, and we have something coming up with Kane Brown. Even for us, you find yourself in these surprising spaces, and that’s what I mean by brand new. Everything’s evolving, and it’s not about chasing a trend; it’s really about paying attention to where people are, how they’re moving, and who inspires them. Then, you can tap into that to create these really fun unlocks.
WayMaker: What does growth look like without losing your center?
Pean: I have a mentality of growth with measure—slow and steady wins the race. While just an old children’s book phrase, I’ve carried that with me because things happen so fast and people are so reactive. When you [behave] that [way], it’s really hard to sustain consistency.
When you’re growing a company from the ground up, [Brand New] is seven and a half years old and in cultural spaces that are always changing. [There are] market pressures, conditions, and leadership changes. If I’m reactive to all those situations, and I can’t position our agency and ourselves as the team player and the team captain for our clients. You have to keep a level head, which is really about being able to understand the environment and move through it.
We’re growing across experiential, talent, and content, while retaining the core DNA that sets us apart.
WayMaker: Black Business Month—what does it mean to you beyond the calendar?
Pean: To even be in a position of ownership as a Black woman and be able to build and grow our agency into successful avenues has been amazing.
Being able to not just model, but also give my time and work with different children and youth to inspire that enterprising nature in them is really important to me. I’ve been personally very fortunate in that we have a lot of clients who, of course, because they’re playing in spaces of culture, Black America shapes a significant portion of culture. I’m primarily focused on several U.S. initiatives. We build programs catering to Black consumers across geographies and interests, and I focus on that year-round, not just this month.
I certainly would not be here without the amazing network of people I’ve found along the way. Many of my mentors are amazingly established black people in different parts of the service sectors who were instrumental in helping me navigate [my career].
WayMaker: Is there any advice you would give to others who may not even know that this kind of career exists?
Pean: Be open to the world around you. I was very closed off to all these other opportunities around me because they didn’t align with my plan.
When you open yourself to the world around you, engage with people, talk to them, learn from them, and are influenced by those you respect, you never know where life can take you. And that brought me here because this was never on my goal list. I didn’t know that I wanted to do this until I was met with a moment.
WayMaker: As a Black woman founder, how do you protect creative health?
Pean: Burnout’s real. One of our cornerstones is protecting mental health and work-life balance. People should feel valued and seen—and know they have access to leadership when life happens.
WayMaker: Reports indicate that Gen Z consumers prefer consistent representation over diversity campaigns. What does brand continuity look like in your work?
Pean: It depends on where the brand sits because there are quite a lot of our clients who’ve built in equity with a diverse audience for decades.
Whether they’re expressing it through sports, music, or art is another thing. It’s not a diversity play because it’s already resonating with diverse audiences, and that’s where they’ve been. We’re trying to ensure consistency and that we present ourselves in the right way. When you have other brands that are trying to check a box to hit a percentage or a goal, or to talk to these audiences and have this representation, that’s a very different story. Consumers are super savvy and can distinguish between someone who’s part of the culture and someone who is not.
Brands must be very careful in how they present themselves, given the rapid spread of information and the quick virality of opinions. You can have a groupthink very quickly that can kill a campaign because you don’t have the right people in the room to tell you that’s not ideal, and this is going to backfire.
WayMaker: Micro-trends shaping Black culture this year that you’re watching?
Pean: Brand New just released a quarterly culture report, and we’re exploring what we’re seeing happen. I think that something that has been a collective shift, but was really starting to be led by many black women, particularly after the election, was a need to step back and have a more quiet, soft era. This shift then raises questions about self-care and how we spend our time.
It’s been really cool to see a lot of the trends led by Black creatives in different respects that are democratizing otherwise traditional spaces.
It’s also been emerging in other cultural moments happening in the cities, such as block parties featuring diverse eateries that spotlight different types of owners. You’ve got Chef Kwame, who opened Tatiana, which is the best restaurant, the hardest restaurant to get into, that’s in the middle of Lincoln Center. And look at tennis—the sport’s engagement has changed with a new wave of Black athletes bringing in new fans.
WayMaker: One habit you’d hand to emerging founders and marketers?
Pean: Be your own cheerleader. You need the drive and persistence to keep going—and the resilience to push through the unknowns.
WayMaker: Who are your waymakers?
Pean: My uncle, Jason Few. He’s been instrumental since I was young—teaching me to network, prepare, and dream bigger than my hometown in Ohio. I’ve surpassed what I imagined, and I don’t take those “pinch me” moments for granted.
