Insights, commentary and news

NOTE: This commentary was also published on Linkedin.

At the 2023 ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, I heard many exciting case studies – but most for the first time.

Kudos to The Association of National Advertisers for selecting fresh content for the conference, but on the other hand, why weren’t these stories part of the regular news cycle? After all, inclusive marketing is known for having a positive impact on brand growth.

The unspoken assumption about inclusive marketing

For years, the need for more diverse staff dominated inclusive marketing conversations. The underlying (seldom verbalized) implication was that inclusive marketing was “intuitive” and could not be learned.

But marketing teams have not become more diverse, not significantly. At the same time, efforts to train marketers in inclusive marketing have been limited. The result: The ad spend in diverse-owned media remains minuscule at 1.9% of the total ad spend in the U.S.

So, rather than thinking sequentially (i.e., first get a diverse staff, then inclusive marketing will grow organically), we should, instead, be able to embark on parallel paths: Let’s learn to both broaden the aperture of creative work now while also continuing our efforts to diversify teams.

Obstacle to inclusive marketing

Many ad executives, creatives, and planners acknowledge the importance of inclusive work, but they feel they don’t know enough. So, they continue with the status quo.

And many of those who do inclusive work say they are building the plane as they are flying it, which also suggests they have limited knowledge and experience on the topic.

So, the lack of knowledge, best practices, and guidelines are significant barriers to more marketers doing inclusive marketing work.

The dire need for “how-to” content

Following Cannes Lions 2023, Kantar said, “Inclusion must be integrated […] brands have now moved past whether to be inclusive to the how.”

One way we can approach “how” is to make it part of our everyday conversations. When we pick up a trade publication or stop in on a blog site, we should see the kinds of inspiring cases that were shared at the recent ANA conference:

• TD Bank aimed to connect with South Asian immigrants in two ways: (1) through a targeted campaign appealing to this group’s passion for cricket; and (2) by including them in the larger campaign through non-overt representation. While the targeted media buy focused on the South Asian community, the larger media buy was also heavily upped for this community through TV shows and basketball games, both of which index high among the South Asian community. Continuity between targeted and mass media efforts is critical in ensuring the group feels it truly belongs.
• P&G talked about “resonance,” an approach that aims for two things at once: (1) messaging that targets specific diverse groups; and (2) media planning that makes use of diverse-owned outlets. For example, Black women skin care isn’t about anti-aging (a primary concern among white women), but rather skin luminosity, oil control, and hyper pigmentation. To effectively deliver ads around this messaging, they should appear during culturally relevant shows, like “Black-ish.”

Let’s not save these kinds of insights for an event that’s dedicated to diversity. Let’s showcase them alongside all the other success stories in our industry.

If you’ve participated in an inclusive marketing endeavor, then share your perspective. The industry trades should be regularly publishing opinion pieces that explore this territory and its challenges so we can all learn how this work is done. And it would be ideal to have diverse individuals doing the sharing, but anyone that has knowledge should be comfortable with sharing.