U.S. Multicultural Media Revenues to Grow 6.3% to $28.72 billion in 2020, as Expanding Hispanic, African & Asian American Markets Fuel Fastest Growth In 8 Years

U.S. multicultural media revenues generated from advertising and marketing aimed at Hispanic, African and Asian Americans are projected to grow at an accelerated 6.3% to $28.72 billion in 2020, representing the fastest growth of this burgeoning market in eight years, according to new research from PQ Media. Key growth drivers are expected to be incremental shifts of ad and marketing dollars to multicultural media by savvy brands, as well as record media spending related to the U.S. presidential election and the Summer Olympics in Japan, according to PQ Media’s U.S. Multicultural Media Forecast 2019.

U.S. multicultural media revenues will increase at an estimated 4.5% to $27.01 billion in 2019, which is a deceleration in growth from that of last year due to the lack of even-year inflows from global sporting events and major U.S. political campaigns. Multicultural media revenues grew 5.6% to $25.86 billion in 2018, with the ad sector growing 5.5% to $13.05 billion and the marketing segment up 5.6% to $12.81 billion. Ad and marketing investments related to mid-term election campaigns in the U.S., as well as media spending associated with the Winter Olympics in South Korea and the World Cup in Russia were all key factors in the accelerated growth of multicultural revenues last year.

The new PQ Media research, which was sponsored by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), marks the first in-depth examination of the growing multicultural media markets in the U.S. The primary objective of the U.S. Multicultural Media Forecast 2019 was to provide ANA and AIMM members with comprehensive strategic intelligence on the domestic multicultural media landscape segmented by key demographics, media platforms and media buying strategies.

PQ Media researchers divided the multicultural media market into two broad sectors – advertising and marketing – then segmented them into multiple media platforms. The ad sector included television, radio, print media, pure-play digital media, out-of-home, and “other media” advertising, which consisted of several smaller channels like entertainment media and business magazines. Marketing platforms included were experiential, promotions, retailer, relationship, influencer, and branded content & content marketing. The ad sector accounted for 50.5% of total multicultural media revenues in 2018, slightly larger than that of the marketing segment at 49.5%.

The close split in multiethnic media revenues contrasts sharply with the growing gap between the advertising and marketing shares of overall U.S. media revenues, as marketing commands 60% and advertising accounts for only 40%. Total U.S. media revenues grew 5.9% to $502.01 billion in 2018, with marketing up 6.4% and advertising up 5.0%, according to PQ Media’s Global Advertising & Marketing Revenue Forecast 2019-23.

“The multicultural media market is fast becoming a critical consumer segment for brand marketers that want to accelerate growth and increase overall U.S. market share, as multiethnic consumers, including Hispanic, African and Asian Americans, constitute the fastest growing demographic in the country. Nevertheless, multicultural media growth has slightly underperformed the broader U.S. media industry and it still accounts for a mere sliver of the American pie,” said PQ Media President & CEO Patrick Quinn. “To put this into context, consider that multicultural consumers comprise nearly 40% of the total U.S. population, yet multicultural media investments draw only 5.2% of overall U.S. media spending.”

Of the nearly $26 billion spent on multicultural media in 2018, the Hispanic media segment commanded the largest share, with revenues growing 5.3% to $17.94 billion; followed by the African American category, which ranked second in both size and growth ($7.20 billion, up 6.1%), and the Asian American demographic, which was the smallest but grew the fastest ($722 million, up 7.0%). By comparison, Hispanics comprised 18.1 percent of the total U.S. population in 2017, while African Americans represented 13.4%, and Asian Americans made up 5.8%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Television advertising was the largest of the 12 multicultural media platforms tracked by PQ Media, generating $7.67 billion in revenues in 2018, followed by relationship, promotional, and experiential marketing. Influencer marketing and branded/content marketing both grew 11.6% in 2018, making them the two fastest growing media platforms, trailed by pure-play digital advertising and experiential marketing. National media buying accounted for 62.5% of multiethnic revenues, but local grew faster, up 6.2%. English language content was larger and grew faster (53.9% share and 6% growth) than native language content in 2018.

 

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