Marketers need to be able to reach diverse, multicultural audiences with authentic, relevant messaging — while demonstrating to customers they’re walking the walk by championing diversity within their own organizations.
One way brands can achieve both is by working with diverse media suppliers.
A new set of guidelines on working with diverse media suppliers was published this week by the Association of National Advertisers, its Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing, and the American Association of Advertising Agencies.
America’s multicultural population “will be the majority in the not-too-distant future,” the report states, citing 2020 US Census Bureau data. The multicultural population rose to just over 42% in 2020, up from 36% in 2010.
The guide also lists more than a handful of business benefits from working with a diverse supplier base.
There’s a wealth of information in the guidelines, but we’ve highlighted some key information and advice:
How to find diverse media suppliers
The report offers several resources to help marketers get in touch with diverse media suppliers – those that are owned by ethnic minorities, women or the LGBTQ community. They are:
- The 4A’s BIPOC Owned Media Companies Resource List
- The ANA/AIMM’s Certified Diverse Suppliers list
- The MAVEN MC&I Media Ownership for Marketers Report from AIMM and Media Framework
Diverse media requires different metrics
The guidelines recommend that marketers consider using alternative metrics when measuring diverse media performance.
This is because highly targeted audiences come with less scale and higher CPMs. Alternatives or additional metrics could include brand awareness, intent, favorable opinion, shares, video completion rates and click-thru rates.
The importance of diverse creators
The guidelines also offer resources to help marketers find diverse content creators, such as influencers, agencies, production companies and directors.
Involving diverse teams in the creation of content from the start can prevent brand missteps — such as this recent Samsung campaign, which missed the mark with women.
Cindy Gallop, consultant and founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn, told SmartBrief in response to that Samsung campaign:
“Every brand and client — like Samsung — should mandate that their ads are overseen by women, created by women, approved by women, cast by women, directed by women, photographed by women, and announce that they will not give their business to any agency where the leadership team, the creatives and the creative decision-makers are all male.”
That example, which arose from a lack of female involvement in the creative, could apply to any campaign that hasn’t involved members of the audience it targets.
The right creative messaging
The guidelines therefore recommend that creative teams include diverse voices to ensure creative messaging is relatable.
“A lot of the time what we think works, and what works for a general market audience might not necessarily work for a multicultural audience,” said Paula Castro, multicultural creative business partner at Google, during an IAB NewFronts panel.
The importance of cultural nuance and heritage when engaging with Black audiences was recently explored by Numerator’s Amanda Schoenbauer, with a study by her company highlighting the levels of diverse thought and behavior within that community.
“A full picture view of this — or any — group of shoppers requires additional consumer context and segmentations,” Schoenbauer wrote.
Marketers can look to diverse suppliers to help deliver that context and culturally appropriate messaging. As one diverse supplier says in the report from the 4A’s, ANA and AIMM:
“There is much more value we can provide to connect through culture, heritage, emotion, nostalgia, etc.”
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