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Multicultural and Inclusive Marketing Excellence Awards Grand Jury
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Elite Media
BIO
Chris Crawford is the founder and CEO of Elite Media, an independent, black-owned creative agency that reflects the New General Market. As an award-winning, 20+ year veteran of the advertising and media industries, Chris leads brand strategy and creative for clients looking to connect with America’s changing landscape–a landscape that is more multicultural and socially conscious than ever.
Under Crawford’s leadership, Elite operates under the ethos that advertising can be a powerful tool to change the world. To that end, Elite Media invests in startups that help to close financial and health equity gaps, partners with Harlem-based nonprofits to create local change, and employs and empowers the growth audiences it looks to reach at every touch point. Above all, Elite is radically committed to driving positive impact–and challenges other agencies and media companies to use their privilege and their platform to do the same.
Crawford is a graduate of Temple University with a BA in Advertising. Born and raised in New Jersey, Crawford has lived in Harlem for the last fifteen years. When he isn’t guiding Elite, he enjoys creating entrepreneurial initiatives that positively impact his community.
Q&A with Chris Crawford
What makes great marketing today?
Great marketing today doesn’t just reach people, it reflects them, respects them, and moves with them. At Elite, we believe the work has to live at the intersection of culture and community—where insight becomes action and storytelling becomes a vehicle for impact. Where we use the same creativity and rigor to provide client solutions and tackle community challenges.
The brands that win are the ones brave enough to listen deeply, show up authentically, and create work that doesn’t just interrupt, but contributes to it in a meaningful way.
What is the one cultural trend you are watching today?
I’m watching the continued shift from audience to community. People don’t want to be targeted, they want to be understood, included, and invested in. The most powerful brands today are building ecosystems of belonging, where culture isn’t mined for moments, but nurtured through long-term relationships and shared values that give the communities a voice and an opportunity to thrive.
In one sentence, what will it take to make an entry worthy of winning a Grand Prize award?
Work that transforms a cultural truth into measurable outcomes, driving both business growth and meaningful impact for the communities it serves.
What advice would you offer to teams preparing submissions for the ANA Multicultural and Inclusive Marketing Excellence Awards?
Don’t just show us what you did, also show us why it mattered. The strongest submissions go beyond surface-level storytelling and clearly articulate the relevant insight, the intentionality behind the execution, and the tangible outcomes that followed. Be honest about the challenge, be even bolder about the solution, and rigorous in demonstrating results.
Why do awards programs like ANA Multicultural and Inclusive Marketing Excellence Awards matter to the health and progress of the marketing industry?
These awards set the standard for what responsible, forward-thinking marketing looks like. They challenge the industry to move beyond performative inclusion and toward work that drives real equity, real connection, and real business impact. More importantly, they create accountability—ensuring that multicultural marketing isn’t treated as a moment or a mandate, but as a core driver of growth and innovation.
When reviewing submissions, what signals tell you that a program is driving real, sustainable business growth?
You can feel when a program is built for longevity versus a moment. I look for evidence that the work didn’t just spike attention, but shifted behavior. That what was presented, expanded audiences and created new pathways for engagement over time. Sustainable growth shows up in repeatability, in cultural resonance that endures, and in metrics that connect the brand affinity to bottom-line impact.
When you review the “breakthrough insight” or “aha moment” behind a campaign, what tells you that a team has uncovered something truly meaningful? What do you most want to understand about their thinking in this section?
A real insight doesn’t just sound good, it unlocks something. It should be undeniable, like once you see it, you can’t unsee it. I want to understand how deeply the team went to uncover it: what they observed, what they challenged, and how that insight directly shaped the creative and the outcomes. If the insight could be applied to any audience, it’s not specific enough. The best ones are rooted in lived experience and intentional with the cultural nuance.
An effective performance evaluation framework is critical to show the value a marketing campaign delivered. What type of evaluation framework do you use when assessing marketing efforts? What metrics and KPIs will you expect entrants to provide in their submissions?
I think the most important thing is to understand that there is no one-size-fits-all framework. Measurement should be clearly rooted to both the business objective and the subsequent solution. What problem is this solving for consumers, for the business? How are we piercing culture? An actionable framework interrogates those three questions and then builds a model and system to measure and optimize against it.
How have your expectations of great marketing evolved over the past few years—and how does that shape how you approach marketing?
The bar has been raised. It’s no longer enough to be creative, you have to be accountable. Audiences are more discerning, culture is moving faster, and brands are being asked to stand for something real. We have community impact embedded in our agency model and ensure that our work and impact are aligned with a larger purpose. We have intentionally chosen to push past vanity metrics and use our creative talents to do some good.
Risk taking and effectiveness, sometimes friends, sometimes foes. How have you handled the balance in your marketing experience?
Risk without strategy is noise, and strategy without risk is forgettable. The key is grounding bold ideas in sharp insights and clear objectives. When you do that, risk becomes a multiplier, not a liability. In the end, we are in the industry of using creativity to drive business outcomes.
What distinguishes exceptional multicultural and inclusive marketing work from work that is simply “good”?
Good work acknowledges culture and community—exceptional work advances it. The difference is depth, intention, and impact. Exceptional work is created with communities, not just for them. It reflects real experiences, avoids shortcuts, and ultimately leaves a lasting imprint on both the audience and the business.
How do you balance creative ambition with commercial accountability in marketing?
Creative ambition should always be in service of the business outcome. The question I come back to is simple: who are you in service to, and what are you in service of? If you’re building a business, then creativity and commercial accountability aren’t at odds, they should be in sync. You’re free to create anything, but in this context, the work has to do something. It has to drive growth, shift perception, or create real value. That’s where the discipline comes in. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard because there’s a bottom line to meet. So the balance isn’t about compromise, it’s about alignment.
How do you evaluate the role of data, AI, and marketing technology in creating meaningful brand impact?
Data and technology are powerful tools but they’re only as valuable as the human insight guiding them. AI can help us move faster and scale smarter, but it can’t replace cultural intuition or lived experience. The real opportunity is in using these tools to deepen our understanding, sharpen our storytelling, and ensure that the work reaches people in ways that feel personal, relevant, and real.
Get to know the 2026 Multicultural and Inclusive Marketing Excellence Awards Grand Jurors.