Rebranding sets ByBlacks.com on new trajectory
February 21, 2020
Busy working full-time as a recruiter with Robert Half while also producing and marketing stage plays, Roger Dundas kept putting off a request from an acquaintance to meet her friend.
Realtor Jasmine Lee was very persistent.
The day after being laid off from Robert Half, he called up Camille Greer, saying he had time to see her. Their meeting 24 hours later was the beginning of a business and romantic relationship that resulted in marriage, two children and two businesses.
A decade ago, the couple started a public relations company -- 404 Media Group -- in a tiny condo apartment (the number was 404) with two publicity clients. As the Creative Director, he scouted and managed new publicity and web design clients while she advised and trained clients on how to leverage mainstream media.
“Back then, we did a lot of guerilla marketing which meant we went to different locations across the Greater Toronto Area and had teams drop off flyers and posters,” said Dundas. “One of the things I noticed was that most of the Black-owned businesses we visited didn’t have websites or they were not on social media. In 2011, we started thinking maybe we need to add another platform for Black entrepreneurs to get exposure.”
ByBlacks.com, which is an online magazine serving the Black community, was established in February 2013. In addition to covering news, the magazine offers a Black business directory and a listing of Black-focused events.
At the start of the year, ByBlacks.com launched a new brand identity.
“We had rushed the branding seven years ago and it wasn’t leaving an impact with people,” said Dundas who completed high school and post-secondary studies at Wolmer’s and the University of Technology in Jamaica. “It was not strong enough and we just felt like it was time for a whole new modern look.”
With the new look, the logo’s font is heavily weighted with a rounder shape and the stylized talk bubble represents the stories in the magazine and the communication between ByBlacks and its readers.
“I really like the talk bubble being a central part of the logo because our work is a constant conversation with our audience,” said his wife who is the Editor-in-Chief. “Our readers always give feedback on the types of stories they want to see and are always the first to celebrate the people in the stories we cover.”
Her love of reading and storytelling was instilled at a young age.
Husband and wife & business partners Roger & Camille Dundas
Born in Trinidad & Tobago to St. Lucian and Dominican parents, Camille came to Toronto at age four where she spent eight years before relocating to St. Lucia, her dad’s birthplace.
“Both my parents were avid readers,” she pointed out. “My mom read multiple books at the same time. With my dad, I developed a little weekend ritual of reading newspapers together. Each of these newspapers had a motto and one of them stood out for me because it said, ‘The Pen is Mightier than the Sword’. I was about 12 or 13 and I realized then that my words have power and they could change things. Even before that, I wanted to be a novelist. I wrote stories which is all I wanted to do.”
Returning to Canada at age 21, Camille completed a Journalism degree at Carleton University in 2007.
Shortly after graduating, she and a classmate travelled to Rwanda to produce a documentary that shed light on Rwandan women being denied access to contraceptives, thus forcing them into motherhood.
Through an on-air host who she met at a social function, a meeting was arranged for Camille to meet with the executive of a major local broadcaster to seek funding for her project.
The outcome wasn’t what she expected.
“I was so thrilled she was able to do that for me, but as soon as she made the introduction and left the room, the male executive said, ‘let’s get this over as quickly as possible as I am only meeting you because of her’,” Camille recalled. “When he asked how much money I was looking for, I said about $10,000 to $20,000 and his response was I needed a ‘sugar daddy’ to bankroll my first film and then I could come back and talk to him. I was really devastated and I said if this is what I am up against, I am out. I gave up on filmmaking and I regret that I let him take the wind out of my sails. I didn’t have the kind of resolve back then that I do now. Today, I'm unstoppable."
Joining CBC Ottawa in July 2007 as a TV Reporter for ‘News at Six’ and Associate Producer/Writer for ‘All in a Day’, Camille generated story ideas daily, pitched ideas for program content, directed the editing and mixing of audio/visual elements and wrote, researched and edited stories.
Again, she encountered hurdles.
“I would pitch a story idea, but preference was given to ideas coming from White male interns with less experience than me,” Camille said. “Then I found out by accident, that I was a diversity hire. It made me question myself and I wondered if I was hired just to fill a quota. It really affected my self-esteem in the workplace to be honest.”
In the fall of 2008, she came to Toronto and joined City TV as a Segment Producer. She also managed a media training and consulting company prior to joining CBC TV in March 2010.
Frustrated with working on contract, Camille was on the verge of packing up and heading to South Korea to teach English.
“I had all the paperwork done and was about to accept an offer from a school, but then I got an offer from CP24 and I decided to stay,” she noted. “That was also around the same time I met Roger.”
Power couple Roger & Camille Dundas
After a year writing scripts for on-camera, voice-overs, bumpers, teasers, and intros to reports, nine months as a Broadcast Writing instructor at Centennial College, just over four years as a News Writer at CTV Canada AM and eight months as a Segment Producer at CTV, Camille switched from television news to the tech sector, landing a role with Hootsuite in March 2017 as a Solutions Consultant.
The social media management platform was created in 2008.
“I am in a sales role, but I use my media skills to help with presentations talking about how social media has changed the way we do business,” she said. “I talk to Hootsuite customers and prospects about how the company’s software can help them do their jobs better.”
Like his wife, Dundas changed careers 11 years earlier.
A Chartered Accountant, he made the switch to sales and marketing in 2006.
“I was a Senior Auditor in the Finance department at Smucker Foods of Canada and was dating an employee who was in the Marketing department,” he recalled. “One year, her department employees went to Niagara Falls for their Christmas celebration while my office celebrated in our boardroom with pop and pizza. I told myself I am definitely in the wrong department. I considered becoming a mortgage broker, real estate agent or financial adviser, but I chose recruiting because I thought that fit my personality and it was the easiest thing for me to transition to.”
For five years, Dundas also produced dance, music, theatre and spoken word events through his Kingston 6 Entertainment firm before starting the 404 Media Group with his wife.
In October 2018, the couple launched Konvo Media which is a Public Relations and Communications company.
