10 Insights from New Multicultural Media Forecast

By Bill Duggan

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The U.S. Multicultural Media Forecast 2019 is a new study conducted by PQ Media on behalf of ANA's Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) that identifies a clear opportunity for more marketers to engage multicultural consumers to drive business growth. The following provides ten interesting insights from the study.

1. Multicultural media revenue — meaning total advertising and brand activation revenue for both above and below the line media — significantly under-indexes against the general population. Multicultural consumers now comprise almost 40 percent of the total population, yet multicultural media investments account for only 5.2 percent of total spend!
2. Television is still the primarily medium of choice among multicultural consumers. More money is spent in television than any other media platform, not only for total multicultural segments but also for each of the individual segments — Hispanic, African-American, and Asian.
3. Radio listenership among multicultural audiences skews higher than the overall population; multicultural radio advertising will be over $1 billion in 2019. African-Americans in particular over index on radio listenership.
4. Political campaigns are increasingly targeting multicultural consumers. Numerous multicultural agencies report a significant increase in political clients as many political campaigns specifically target African-Americans and Hispanics.
5. In the Asian market, Chinese is the top segment in terms of ad spending, followed by Indian and Filipino.
6. Multicultural retail has fared better than the overall retail market, reporting fewer store closures. Hispanic bodegas remain staples in multicultural neighborhoods while many communities have Asian marts specializing in products not available from grocery chains.
7. Almost two-thirds of advertising targeted to Hispanics and Asians is in the native language or bilingual, while the remainder is in English. Almost all African American media is English language, although there is a rise in media aimed at African immigrants.
8. Influencer marketing has grown by double digits overall as well as across each of the individual segments of Hispanic, African-American, and Asian.
9. Esports sponsorships are dramatically on the rise, particularly with Asians.
10. Digital advertising represents only 10 percent of multicultural media revenues (advertising and brand activation) and only 20 percent of total advertising revenues, significantly under indexing against the total market. Yet multicultural audiences use digital media more than the average population.

The 50-page executive summary of the report is available to all. The 350-page full report and supplementary list of sources are available to ANA and AIMM members.

Thanks to PQ Media for their amazing analysis, using 41,652 sources. PQ Media's Dr. Leo Kivijarv will share highlights of the report at the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference in November.