Fane partners with marketing agency Dark Matter to reach more Black audiences 

Fane has engaged marketing agency Dark Matter for a six-month period to help the business reach, develop and maintain Black audiences for its events programme and subscription offerings. 

Dark Matter is a specialist agency dedicated to creating campaigns that are “fully immersed in the Black British experience today", with a focus on “amplifying books within Black  communities and broadening and diversifying literary audiences". Launched in January 2021 by marketeer Micallar Walker, its clients include Faber, Bloomsbury and Vintage.

Fane hopes the partnership will ensure its consumer offer and digital platforms are as “accessible, inclusive and relevant to Black audiences as possible, as well as developing meaningful partnerships with Black-led organisations, brands and communities”.

The collaboration, which has already resulted in a discussion between actor and author Paterson Joseph and Jason Okundaye at Amazing Grace, London, to mark the publication of Joseph’s debut, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho (Dialogue), is the latest in a series of creative partnerships introduced by Fane to improve representation of, and engagement with, underrepresented groups in its programming and book subscription services.

In addition to its existing relationships with publishers including Dialogue, #Merky Books and Jacaranda, it has also used its newest platform — book subscription package LoveMyRead — to establish partnerships with Rebel Girls and Knights Of, who each curated a children’s list for LoveMyRead’s autumn 2022 programme.

Serena Brett, producer at Fane, said: “We are delighted to be working with Micallar and Dark Matter in this way. Our team are highly skilled at what they do, but we recognise that — as a small business — it is really important for us to engage external specialist consultants to support us in delivering the most inclusive and accessible offer possible.

“We are taking a qualitative rather than quantitative approach with this work, and we are thrilled with the impact of our first event together. Developing and diversifying both our programming and our audiences continues to be a key focus for 2023 and we are keen to hear from potential partners – from publishers and booksellers to external consultants and outreach organisations — on how they can support us in that work."

Walker added: “I am thrilled to be delivering this important work with Fane and very excited to build on the great results we achieved with the Paterson Joseph event collaborations. It is refreshing and exciting to work with a team that is genuine in its endeavours and is open to putting in the work to reach Black audiences.”

Further details of Fane’s commitments can be found in its Accountability Charter. Launched in 2021, it outlines Fane’s commitments across three key pillars of the business: audience development, creative partnerships and internal practices.

On 1st November it released a progress update as well as outlining further goals, such as offering more regular training for staff from external consultants and offering work experience placements through publishing partners. Fane said: "This is something we have done in the past and did offer again but it wasn’t taken up and, going forward, we would like to offer paid work experience to a broader demographic beyond the publishing industry."