Black Enterprise Profile: Karl Carter

Karl Carter Karl Carter
Co-Founder,
Inner City Enterprises

"We need to use our power as professional marketers to create positive changes," says Karl Carter, Co-Founder of Inner City Enterprises (I.C.E.), a strategic communications and entertainment holding company.

Karl helped establish I.C.E. and its subsidiaries to develop and launch creative programs that engage urban youth audiences worldwide through its four integrated business segments: GTM...It Means A Lot marketing, Sould Undergroun event productions, Wheat Bread urban lifestyle & apparel, and Change the Game, a foundation dedicated to encouraging young people to become activists.

While Karl is responsible for designing innovative media and business strategies targeting the youth subculture market at GTM, from whence his entrepreneurial passion is clear. "I was always a motivated child -- my father was a civil rights attorney who worked for himself, and I had strong role models in my uncle and grandfather, so it was natural that I'd become my own boss," says Carter.

"I grew up in Washington D.C. and it was a mix of getting in trouble and watching my friends get into serious trouble, and coming through those experiences, that made me realize there was a purpose for me."

While still in college, Carter was experimenting with alternative ways to connect with young people. After moving to Atlanta, he continued to hone his skills as a marketer targeting sub-cultures, created the term 'guerilla media' and established himself as a leader in marketing innovation.

"I was very successful as a mainstream marketer, but after a while it felt a bit empty. I was attracted to music, arts and culture. As I got older, I formed a political filter and decided I wanted a creative and meaningful professional life. I and my partners struck out and formed GTM...It Means A Lot, in 2000. GTM combines corporate knowledge with street credibility and morphs traditional marketing concepts into hip, savvy & culturally relevant strategies," says Carter.

GTM went on to create the truth® campaign, one of the most successful youth focused anti-tobacco campaigns in history. In 2005, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt approached GTM to help launch Current TV.

"Current is the first user generated national network created by, for, and with an 18-34 year-old audience, inviting them to change the paradigm of television by becoming active collaborators," says Carter.

Current enjoyed one of the most successful launches in history, going from 18 million to 48 million homes globally in less than 2 years and was named the most successful new network launched by TV Week. In 2006, Al Gore & Current TV received Guerilla Marketing Campaign of the Year and just recently won an Interactive Emmy.

This year, Carter will be awarded the first ever Ad Color (adcolor.org) award in Innovation by the American Advertising Federation (AAF). He will also begin work on GTM's first foray into the motion picture industry, when production on Producer Peter Bratt's film Mission Love begins early next year.

"I'm excited about producing content for this film -- it's a new opportunity for us to provide jobs for youth of color on the set, creating a situation where people from local communities can get experience in the industry," says Carter.

For Karl Carter, connecting, creating and levereging business opportunities acts as a portal into a deeper understanding of where we stand on personal and political issues.