We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Peay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

In 2020, we all experienced and were affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed deeply rooted disparities in our societies, especially highlighting issues of systemic racism and the digital divide both of which disproportionately affected communities of color, revealing long standing healthcare inequalities. Additionally, with many aspects of daily life shifting online, the lack of access to reliable internet and digital devices among marginalized communities became more evident. As we continue to serve underrepresented communities, we quickly learned that K-12 students in underserved communities lacked access to digital devices to be able to continue distance learning. Without those devices, students would not have been able to participate in the school year. We launched a program called Tech-4-Covid which we produced as an online stream-a-thon on the live streaming Giant platform, Twitch. In 24 hours of the live stream, we had appearances from celebrities such as Michael Strahan, Doug E. Fresh, Dionne Warwick, Jeezy, and more. We raised over $110 thousand dollars, and used those funds to purchase and donate laptops, wifi-hotspots, and other tech devices so that students going without could excel and continue distance learning without having to sit out or re-do a year of school. This event put us on the radar of Twitch who also had a need to get more diverse content on their platform, and from there a partnership was formed.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Chris Peay is based out of Atlanta, GA but originally from Charlotte, NC. Chris graduated from North Carolina Central University in 2016 where he became a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. He then went on to obtain a Masters degree in Marketing from Georgia State University.

After graduating from Georgia State University, Chris served in multiple positions at Techtronic Industries, a Hong Kong based multinational company that designs, produces, and markets power tools; and Enviroscent, pioneers of the non-toxic air freshener movement. After spending time at Enviroscent, Chris was affected by the Pandemic which led him to join forces with his business partner Ryan Johnson, and they both went all in and launched Cxmmunity Media, a media-tech company on a mission of future proof diversity in the video game industry. Very early on we realized that 83% of African-American youth played video games on a daily basis, but taking a peep behind the curtain and into the video game industry’s workforce, we also realized that only 4% of professionals in the industry identify as Black or African-American.

Shortly after, with the help of Amazon’s own Twitch, they launched the ground-breaking HBCU Esports League. The world’s first and only competitive esports & gaming league for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

In their first season they amassed a total of 14 million live views with Verizon as a title sponsor. They saw a total of 15.5M live views in their second season. CXM was also able to bring a $1 Million dollar donation from the Verizon foundation to help build esports and innovation labs on the campuses of their partner institutions.

To date, CXM has worked alongside media and entertainment industry giants and created brand strategy for films such as Creed III starring Michael B. Jordan, Space Jam: A New Legacy starring Lebron James, and Jordan Peele’s, Candyman. They’ve also curated bespoke gaming strategies for corporations such as Mountain Dew, Microsoft, Verizon, Discover, Nike/House of Hoops, NBCUniversal, and Honda.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

Chris Peay and Ryan Johnson met through a mutual friend who was also in the Masters in Marketing cohort with Chris in 2017. This friend learned that Chris wanted to work in sports, and the same for Ryan so he connected them over lunch and the rest, we are currently living out.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I truly believe that good, quality work that’s cause driven has helped us build rapport in the gaming industry. Everything we do has a social good element. As we like to say, we provide Social Good Through Media. I find peace in knowing that collectively, we understand that there is no finish line. The real battle in all of life is being someone people can count on. That isn’t defined in a single moment. You earn it with a lifetime of showing up. I think this is how we continue to win.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cxmmunitymedia.co
• Instagram: @cxmmunity.co
• Linkedin: Cxmmunity Media
• Twitter: @cxmmunity
• Youtube: Cxmmunity Media

Image Credits
Cxmmunity Media Co.