The New Playbook: Navigating Multicultural Marketing in Today's Cultural Landscape

Let’s face it: These days, brands are struggling to figure out how to approach multicultural marketing—if they’re even willing to engage at all.

But this marketing strategy has never been more crucial. Audiences from diverse backgrounds make up some of the fastest-growing and most influential consumer segments, commanding over $7T in purchasing power.

The bottom line? If you want to remain relevant, impactful, and ahead of the curve, you need to keep these consumers in mind. And in our latest webinar, we got together with some of the leading multicultural marketing experts to show you how to do exactly that in the midst of a rapidly changing landscape.

Our all-star panel comprised:

• Nidia Serrano, Vice President, Sales Marketing, SiriusXM Media

• Nikki Buchanan, Senior Sales Director, SiriusXM Media

• Gonzalo Del Fa, President, GroupM Multicultural

• Donna Hodge, SVP, Head of Media Services, Burrell

• Arnetta Whiteside, SVP, Multicultural Consulting, Agency and Brand Readiness, Publicis Media

• Michael Roca, Executive Director, Cross-Cultural Center of Excellence, Omnicom Media Group

Our experts covered it all—from key insights on the most pressing challenges in the market, to firsthand experience to help pave the path forward, to actionable strategies that will help brand ensure multicultural marketing remains a priority.

If you’re ready to listen to their words of wisdom, check out the full webinar recording below.

Looking for the key takeaways, instead? We’ve got you covered. Pop those headphones in and listen to what the most brilliant minds in the industry had to say.

Multicultural Marketing Is Growth Marketing

“Without multicultural marketing, advertisers have a very low chance of connecting with a consumer segment that commands over $7T in buying power in the Unites States. If you look at the individual groups, many of them have a spending power that essentially competes with some of the largest economies in the world, from Germany to Japan, India, the UK—you name it. And that's something that we have seen in the multicultural conversation for quite some time. And while I think there's a lot of distinctions between DEI that people recognize in comparison to multicultural marketing, there's one that's really important. And it's the fact that multicultural marketing is becoming essentially growth marketing. So for any brand that needs to connect with a future segment and wants to see future growth, it’s very important for them to really nail the way that they connect with these consumers.” - Nidia Serrano

Investing in Inclusivity Pays Off

“We just finished a massive study. We looked at 57 clients across 12 categories. And we calculated the ROI with a worldwide formula of how to do ROI. And we determined that when brands invest in an inclusive manner—meaning they intentionally try to engage with diverse audiences—the ROI is 70% higher than the highest average of the industry. So… not all the clients out there have the right systems in place to measure ROI by audience, but we've done it and it's positive.” - Gonzalo Del Fa

This Is Not charity—It’s Business

“I think we need to keep going back into the business opportunity that these audiences represent—period. This is about business. This is not charity. This is not because I'm trying to be nice. This is pure business.” - Gonzalo Del Fa

Focus on Doing the Work

“If we continue to change how we talk about what we're doing, all we're doing is getting sucked into the political drama that's happening and swirling around us and not actually doing or focusing on the work. The bottom line is that we still have to focus on these growth audiences.” - Arnetta Whiteside

We've Seen Amazing Performance Across All of Our Campaigns

“As we also go into the marketplace and we're talking about language, we're talking about redefining language, we also have to see how we can do that from a data perspective in terms of ensuring that we're capturing these audiences. And now we're doing it by behavior and by affinity. And I’ve got to give credit where credit is due—SiriusXM, Pandora, you guys do an amazing job. We've seen amazing performance across all of our campaigns that we activate with you guys on how you're able to do that, from an affinity based perspective.” - Michael Roca

They’re the Ones Who Are Spending on Your Products

“I think there is an opportunity for us to redefine and discover a way to really pay attribute to these audiences that are really doing a lot of the heavy lifting. And if you look at the share of wallet, they're the ones who are spending on your products.” - Michael Roca

Population and Language Are Table Stakes

“We need to step away from the data points of the population and language. Those things are table stakes at this point. We all know that information. The part that we don't know is the attribution. That's where we need to drive home how we're going to get the growth, not only through the consumers, but our brands.” - Arnetta Whiteside

It’s Not Always About Scale

“The thing that we're getting away from, and we're going to stop doing, is holding our diverse-owned platforms to these KPIs and to these requirements that they're not there for... Scale is not why we’re partnering with these media platforms. It’s about the niche audiences that they serve. It is about the passion point. It’s about the community... It’s about these safe spaces and these curated spaces where these consumers are engaging at a passionate rate and a passionate level. It’s not about scale.” - Donna Hodge

Invest in Us

“I think it is in (a brand’s) best interest to actually listen to us. Hire us as your AOR. Put us in decision-making positions, with real influence and real budgets within your organizations. Invest in diverse-owned and targeted media partners to ensure that you are truly reaching your consumer.. These multi-cultural consumers are those growth consumers…. They are the future of these brands' businesses. So, invest.” - Donna Hodge

The future of marketing is multicultural marketing. And we are your partners to help you drive impact, connect with the growth consumers of tomorrow, and navigate a successful path forward. Let’s chat.

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