East London man Daniel Carter is celebrating his Caribbean roots by leading a national campaign during Black History Month – the second instalment of Amazon’s ‘Black
History is Me’ campaign.
Working as part of the team at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in London, Daniel is leading Amazon’s Black History Month 2025 celebrations with ‘Black History is Me 2.0’ –
a striking photography campaign highlighting the unique journeys of six Black Amazon employees.
“My ambition isn’t to top last year’s campaign,” Daniel explained. “My ambition is to continue the conversation. Black History is Me’s whole premise is that it’s not
just one month, so why does it have to be just one year?”
Building a campaign from the ground up
Daniel is the EMEA Customer Experience Lead in the Enterprise Skills Transformation team at AWS, where he’s worked for three and a half years. He also serves as Head
of Brand, Campaigns, and Communications for Amazon’s Black Employee Network (BEN) UK board, leading initiatives and campaigns aimed at empowering and celebrating Black employees at Amazon in the UK.
Last year’s Black History is Me campaign was ambitious in scope – featuring
a documentary,
a behind-the-scenes film,
and an original song,
‘Tell Me Where You Come From’ by artists Nomad X. This year’s photography campaign represents both a creative evolution and a return to Daniel’s original
vision.
“The first concept was actually going to be a photography project,” Daniel reveals. “But last year we pivoted to documentary filmmaking. This year, we’re coming back
to that initial idea, but with everything we learned from the documentary experience.”
The campaign emerged from a moment of frustration during planning sessions for Black History Month. “None of the ideas were really grabbing me,” Daniel recalls. “One
of Amazon’s leadership principles is ‘Think Big’ so I challenged myself to think as big as possible. I was sketching BHM for Black History Month, and I crossed out ‘month’ and wrote ‘me’ instead. The acronym sparked the idea – to celebrate the people, places
and cultures that influence and make us who we are.”
Creating a UK voice
Daniel’s campaign also emerged from his belief that UK Black History Month needed its own distinct identity, separate from US celebrations.
“A lot of ideas come from the US because that’s where Amazon’s headquarters is,” he explained. “Black History Month in the US is in February. Some people in the US don’t
even know we have Black History Month in the UK. We were starting to follow their theme, and it didn’t quite fit what we did here.”
He took his concerns directly to BEN UK leadership. “I spoke to the BEN UK president and said we should do our own thing.”
That conversation sparked a transformation in how Amazon approaches Black History Month in the UK – shifting from following American templates to creating campaigns
rooted in British Black experiences and Caribbean heritage.
“When I first came to Amazon, I felt the freedom to think big,” Daniel said. “’Think Big’ and ‘Bias for Action’ are my two favourite Amazon leadership principles. I
have a lot of ideas, and at Amazon you’re empowered to go away and deliver them.”
That empowerment has translated into tangible creative output. This year’s photography campaign maintains the high production values Daniel established with the documentary,
but the format allows for a different kind of storytelling.
“We are a voluntary network,” Daniel explained. “My team knows the bar is very high, and I wanted it to look as perfect as possible. From what I can see, it’s landing
very well.”
For Daniel, Black History Month serves a crucial purpose beyond celebration – it’s about visibility and control of narrative.
“As Black people, we feel we’re not always given a platform to champion ourselves authentically,” he said. “In corporate spaces especially, you might be the only person
of colour in that room. Black History Month allows us to be really loud and vocal in the public space.”
The stakes, he believes, are high. “If we don’t have that month, who else is going to continue telling the story for us? The day we decide we’re not focusing on telling
the story of Black history, it will be rewritten in a way that doesn’t benefit us.”
This concern drives Daniel’s year-round approach. “We should be vocal about who we are every day,” he said. “Black History Month gives us the chance to remind people
that we are a group who have contributed heavily to the world as it is today. I like taking the opportunity to be loud and proud about that.”
Making an impact
Daniel’s proudest achievement isn’t the production quality or creative acclaim – it’s seeing BEN UK members share the campaigns with genuine pride.
“There’s not a lot of Black people in tech, so my biggest desire is to push us to the front year after year,” he said. “I’ve been able to blast our story in this really
beautiful, positive way, internally and externally, breaking down stereotypes.”
BEN UK is an employee-led group at Amazon open to Black employees and allies. BEN’s mission is to recruit, retain, and empower Black employees across the business. Through
BEN, employees have access to resources, networking opportunities and engaging initiatives to support their personal and professional growth.
Amazon has 13 employee-led groups which play an important role in bringing Amazon employees together and creating a sense of community globally while encouraging inclusivity
and diversity. These groups include BEN, Glamazon, Asians at Amazon, People with Disabilities and Women at Amazon.
