Think Multicultural

For those of you in the L.A. area, I highly recommend you stop by the Multicultural Media Expo taking place at the LA Convention Center 3/11 - 3/12.

In addition to an exhibit floor with lots of multicultural media and advertising companies, there will be 13 different panels discussions that should be very interesting. You will also be able to hear Danny Allen from Admixture and myself rant in person about various multicultural media and marketing issues. Stop by and say hello if you can.

For those of you who can’t make it, we’ll be sure to provide you with coverage of the event on ThinkMulticultural.com

Last week AdAge published an article basically stating that most marketers still do not understand multicultural markets. If you have a subscription to AdAge, you can read the article here.

The article only reinforces what I have already known about the decision-makers at large U.S. companies with significant ad budgets. Basically, they all know multicultural markets are a big opportunity and important for the success of their businesses, but the next tactical step is not so clear to them. This is evidenced by a statistic in the article that explains who these marketers typically reach out to for help. According to the Heidrick & Struggles / Brandiosity survey, of the 60 companies surveyed:
-58% use general market research firms
-51% use multicultural agencies
-42% use general market agencies
-35% multicultural research firms

While it makes sense to reach out to research firms first, the fact that GENERAL MARKET agencies are so often tapped for help decipher multicultural markets leads me to believe that there is a lot of confusion about multicultural specialists among marketers.

Are we not doing a good job of creating awareness of the 100+ Hispanic agencies, the dozens of African American and Asian agencies, or the countless specialist multicultural research and marketing firms out there? I wonder.

As a practicing professional in the online media industry I truly cherish the relationships that I have established with our online media partners. These relationships can be a key factor when it comes to delivering results for our clients.

To my disappointment, I have noticed that most publishers are highly involved when it comes to selling their product but when it comes to optimizing a campaign there is a HUGE drop off in customer service. If I had a nickel for every publisher that is proactive about campaign optimizations, I could probably afford to buy a stamp…….in Africa.

In my opinion, it’s not fair to leave the entire burden of campaign optimization on the agency side. I also think campaign optimization is a great opportunity for publishers to show that they care and to continue to cultivate agency relationships. The bottom line is that as our trusted partners we expect to get something from you too (Besides impressions and invoices).

So my advice to all publishers is: don’t get lazy! Help us help our clients. We’re all in this together.

JM