Karl Carter is Co-Founder of Inner City Enterprises, Inc. (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, Soul Underground event productions, Wheat Bread urban lifestyle & apparel, and Change the Game (www.changethegamenow.org), a foundation dedicated to encouraging young people to become activists. Karl is responsible for designing innovative media & business strategies targeting the youth subculture market.
A DC native, Karl received his bachelor's degree in Business Administration from George Washington University, specializing in Electronic Media Marketing. In 1998, his campus marketing team at GWU became American Advertising Federation's National Collegiate Champions. In 1997 while still at GWU, Karl with his partner Darius Evans, launched Soul Underground a live, positive entertainment platform for showcasing the best in underground urban talent.
The success of Soul Underground inspired Karl to move to Atlanta following his graduation from GWU to launch the Atlanta branch of Soul Underground. While in Atlanta, Karl was approached by Rolling Out a national urban weekly newspaper, to serve as the publication's Music Editor. Karl's expertise in innovative, ears-to-the-street event marketing soon caught the attention of executives at Burrell-- one of the country's largest and oldest multicultural advertising agencies-- who eventually recruited Karl to head up their creative marketing department. At Burrell, he spearheaded the creation of a special Innovations Unit and pioneered the use of "guerrilla media". The truthcampaign was one of the first to make use of this strategy. Karl's team created, programmed, produced and marketed a $1.5 million radio show, truth.FM a nationally syndicated late night hip-hop and soul radio show years before branded content was a mainstream practice.
At that time, The Innovations Unit, comprised of Darius Evans, Shawn Howard, Kembo Tom and Karl Carter, eventually struck out on their own to create GTM…It Means A Lot an award-winning youth marketing and promotions agency that launched in 2000 (www.gtmcentral.com). The truth® campaign was their first client (the most successful youth-focused anti-tobacco campaign in history). In 2001, the truth® campaign and the team of GTM and Arnold Brand Promotions, won the Guerrilla Marketing Campaign of the Year from Brandweek. The following year it won the Gold Reggie awards for cause marketing from the Promotional Marketing Association, and in 2003, the truth® campaign won the Grand Effie and an award for Achievement and Diversity from the Boston Ad Club.
In the summer of 2001, Change the Game (www.changethegamenow.org) founder Karl Carter traveled with the Black August Tour to Durban, South Africa for the World Conference on Racism. That experience opened his eyes to how social change could be accomplished through entertainment and media. CTG is dedicated to using culture, media and technology to encourage civic participation and activism to youth and young adults, in order to foster a new generation of socially conscious, politically involved people. Since then, Change the Game has been instrumental in key campaigns in relation to the Jena 6 national student walk out, Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund and New York Telephone Justice with the center for Constitutional Rights.
In 2003, Carter and GTM linked with Fuse Green a lead designer for Jay-Z's Rocawear line, to help launch Wheat Bread (www.wheatbreadlife.com), a progressive urban lifestyle & apparel company, that has won fans from LA to NY to Tokyo. Artists from Nas, Mos Def to Jay-z have been seen wearing Wheat Bread.
In 2005, Carter & GTM were tapped by co-founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt 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. Current has had 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 Guerrilla marketing Campaign of the Year and just recently won an Interactive Emmy. In 2007, Carter was awarded the first ever Ad Color (adcolor.org) Innovator award.
