Devils to promote Black-owned business with logo on player helmets

The New Jersey Devils have selected Razu, a locally owned networking and collaboration digital platform for musicians, as the latest beneficiary of the Devils Buy Black Program presented by Prudential Financial.

The Irvington, New Jersey-based company will have its logo featured on the side of helmets worn by Devils players for free for 30 road games beginning Saturday when they visit the New York Islanders at UBS Arena.
Prudential Financial has donated the advertising space on the white helmets for the 3.75-inch by 1.2-inch blue-lettered Razu logo to appear as part of the expansion of the Buy Black program to support and amplify business opportunities for Black entrepreneurs.
In addition, the Devils will provide Razu with exposure during home games through ads that will appear on the electronic marquee above the Prudential Center's Zamboni entrance and promotion on the team's broadcast and social media platforms.
"This is a gamechanger business moment as millions of sports fans will see Razu's logo emblazoned on the Devils helmets throughout this NHL season," Prudential Financial chief marketing officer Susan Somersille Johnson said. "This is just one example of how Prudential is working to elevate Black and underrepresented entrepreneurs in our hometown and across the nation."

The owners and operators of Razu said the exposure will help the company which was founded earlier this year. It's a business that provides music creators the tools to create, produce and enhance songs virtually on a digital, global platform.
"As a Black-owned start-up, we appreciate the opportunity that's been given to us to highlight our innovative technology and the impact we will have on the music industry," Razu CEO and co-founder Marc Saint-Ulysse said. "The team at Razu is looking forward to partnering with the amazing talent of the New Jersey Devils throughout the season."
Razu is the third beneficiary of the Buy Black program. Flows Tasty Treats and the Newark Paper Company, an office and janitorial supplies distribution firm, were the program's inaugural awardees last season.
The program is part of an action plan by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Devils and Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, that commits $20 million to combat systemic racism.
That plan and the Buy Black program derived from internal conversations following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died while in Minneapolis police custody in May 2020.
David Gould, the chief diversity and impact officer for the Devils and HBSE, said the organization decided to focus on Black-owned businesses because of the historical challenges that they face in succeeding, which have become even more daunting during the coronavirus pandemic.
Research by the University of California, Santa Cruz revealed that 41 percent of Black business owners nationwide -- some 440,000 -- had shuttered their companies between February and April 2020 compared to 17 percent of white-owned businesses.

Prudential and the Devils had initially agreed to advertise a local business on the helmets for 13 games this season. But they were so pleased with the impact and response to it that they decided to keep Razu's logo on for the rest of the season.
"The fact we are partnering with Prudential to use such a visible marketing asset and donating it to a Black owned business, I think that's going to tell an incredible story," Gould said. "I think the other thing that is really powerful about this program is we think about trying to diversify our sport and our fan base, especially being located in a city like Newark, that symbolically it really speaks that hockey is a sport for everyone, the Devils are a team for everyone and that we really care and appreciate and embrace everybody."