Multicultural Media Spending Disproportionate To Population [REPORT]

Multicultural consumers comprise almost 40 percent of the total U.S. population, yet multicultural media investments make up only 5.2 percent of total advertising and marketing spending, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by PQ Media on behalf of the ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), revealed that overall multicultural advertising and marketing spending totaled $25.9 billion in 2018.  Spending targeting Hispanics totaled almost $18 billion, a 5.3 percent increase over the previous year and far ahead of the amount of spend aimed at African-Americans ($7.2 billion, up 6.1 percent) or Asian Americans ($722 million, up 7 percent). According to 2017 U.S. Census Bureau figures, Hispanics comprise 18.1 percent of the overall population, while African-Americans make up 13.4 percent and Asians represent 5.8 percent.

The goal of the report, “U.S. Multicultural Media Forecast 2019,” was to provide ANA and AIMM members with a comprehensive examination of multicultural media investments by demographics, media platforms, and media buying strategies.

“This is a landmark study that clearly shows most companies are missing an opportunity by not focusing more of their marketing efforts on multicultural consumers,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. “The report reveals an opening for new ways to drive growth and offers a roadmap for how advertisers can compete more effectively.”

Key Findings from PQ Media

• Television was the largest of the 12 multicultural media platforms tracked in the study, representing $7.67 billion in multicultural ad spending in 2018.
• Brand activation marketing accounted for a 49.5 percent share of Multicultural Media in 2018, almost 20 percent lower than the share of brand activation in overall media revenues.
• Endemic media buying accounted for 69 percent of revenue; non-endemic was 31 percent. AIMM and PQ Media defined endemic media as those that generate an audience composition of a specific segment at 75 percent or above.
• National media buying in 2018 accounted for 62.5 percent of investment, but local spending grew faster, rising 6.2 percent compared to 2017.
• Multicultural advertising and marketing spending is on pace to rise 4.5 percent in 2019 to slightly more than $27 billion and is projected to increase 6.3 percent in 2020 to $28.7 billion.

“Multicultural media is an important concept for brands to embrace if they want to increase market share,” said PQ Media CEO Patrick Quinn. “Multicultural customers — African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Hispanic-Americans — are the fastest growing demographic, but they are under-represented in media buying. Brands need to shift away from bland, generic total market messaging and concentrate on delivering culturally relevant copy in media that are being seen by multicultural audiences.”

AIMM identified the following implications based on the study’s findings:

• There is a clear opportunity for more marketers to engage multicultural consumers to drive business growth. In what is perhaps the most significant finding, multicultural media revenue significantly under-indexes against the general population.  Multicultural consumers now comprise almost 40 percent of the total population, yet multicultural media investments comprise only 5.2 percent of total advertising and marketing spending.
• Although 100 percent of the total population growth comes from multicultural segments, marketers are significantly underspending to reach these consumers, and conversely, decidedly overspending to reach non-multicultural consumers.
• Marketers should better leverage digital advertising to reach multicultural consumers.
• There is an opportunity to have multicultural communication specialists work more in non-endemic media (i.e., general market media) to help craft communications to appeal to both general market and multicultural audiences.

PQ Media tracked six advertising platforms: digital media (pure play), out-of-home, print, radio, television and other advertising (B2B mags, directories, and entertainment media).  It also tracked six brand activation marketing platforms: branded & content, experiential, influencer, promotions, relationship, and retailer marketing.

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