ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
The minority media wealth gap: An unmet opportunity for brands
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Racial and ethnic demographics are remaking America. The 2020 U.S. Census revealed a rapid growth among Latinos and Hispanics, Asians, Black Americans, and multiracial Americans. And, over half of the nation’s youth population identify as people of color.
Given this demographic change, it’s no surprise that marketers are eagerly looking to reach ethnically diverse audiences across new platforms. In 2021, we saw several brands come forth and commit to allocating more of their media budget towards minority-owned media.
While this is a starting point, there is a larger issue of discrimination that exists in the media supply chain, which has and continues to systemically place smaller companies, namely minority-owned media companies, at a disadvantage.
Minority-owned media represents just 6.7% of all media. There aren’t many large, established, minority-owned media companies for several reasons, namely pay equity, financial strains of lengthy payment terms and lack of access to capital and resourcing.
“We need to acknowledge that those with wealth and access receive a seat at the table,” says Mark Prince, SVP and Head of Economic Empowerment at dentsu. “We want minority-owned media companies to have wealth so that they can build their footprint - hire more diverse staff, grow their operations, acquire new publishers and media entities - and ultimately, better support their communities.”
How brands can level the media buying playing field
Marketers have a significant opportunity to address the discrimination that exists within the media supply chain and provide economic inclusion for diverse-owned media companies. Here’s how:
Recognize that there were inequities in the past
And that there’s a need to work together with minority-owned media partners to fix these. Use the power of storytelling to highlight these inequities and create sustainable models for change.
Understand the impact of your media spend
Whether that’s $5,000 or $2 million, it can have a positive effect on media partners. This will extend well beyond the life of the actual campaign into real-world implications such as managing overhead, investing in new technologies and capabilities and the opportunity to hire new people.
Commit to different parameters and benchmarks
That will support the growth of minority-owned media. Get past the “must-have high reach and low CPM” mentality and look at alternative methods such as evaluation within the competitive set of diverse-owned media to establish new benchmarks and trial brand lift studies as an alternative. Consider your brand’s broader corporate responsibility objectives and how inclusive media practices elevate brand.
Be more willing to test and experiment
Not everything has established benchmarks when looking at new and emerging media. Then commit to having the resources, the team members, to re-evaluate partners. Take the time for a two-way conversation with minority-owned media companies and influencers and give them the chance to present their capabilities. This will be time well spent because their activity has the potential to provide you with a true representation of audiences, and to provide the necessary economic power to help these outlets grow their communities.
Build authenticity and cultural relevance into your creative and media briefs
Invest in cultural fluency across your marketing organization so that you can truly understand the nuances of cultures and sub-cultures. Commit to building a year-round presence – don’t just show up during commemorative days or heritage months. Apply insights and data to uncover stories that authentically speak to your consumers in non-tokenized ways.
Dentsu XXXXX
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Contributors
Mark Prince, SVP, Economic Empowerment, dentsu
