Digital Media and Multicultural Marketing

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Digital Media Section of the Multicultural Marketing Source Book (305 KB)

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Mastering Digital Media for Multicultural Marketing

Sophy Regelous
VP, Director of Digital Media
Prime Access

As technology progresses and more digital media channels become available, it’s tempting to focus on exciting, new, and sexy platforms. However, depending on the target market, those cutting-edge applications may not yield the best results for engaging consumers.

Race and ethnicity are associated with how advertisements are viewed, according to the eMarketer report Blacks Online: Young, Mobile and Social, a study by Experian Simmons, as noted in its Spring 2010 National Consumer Survey.

While 50.9% of white consumers typically avoided television ads, only 24.8% of black consumers felt the same. Similarly, in an ARAnet Adfusion survey conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation, it was discovered that both Hispanic and black consumers were more likely to read and take action after viewing a banner or pop-up ad than their white counterparts.

Understanding that multicultural audiences are ready to view and engage with our marketing messages, we need to ensure that our messages are available on channels and vehicles our target group is using. This begins with connectivity.

Whereas white consumers have trended toward cable services for in-home broadband access on their desktop computers, the black and English-speaking Hispanic communities are turning to wireless connectivity on laptops and mobile phones. In fact, laptop ownership for black consumers rose from 34% in 2009 to 54% in 2010, a 20 percentage point jump, according the Pew Internet & American Life Project report, compared with a 2 percentage point increase, from 65% to 67%, for white consumers.

Mobile ownership is proving to be a continued critical access point for the multicultural audience. Utilization of mobile devices for activities such as texting and accessing the Internet, email, and social networking sites is far higher for Hispanic and black mobile phone owners than white. As found in the Pew report, 51% of Hispanics, 46% of black consumers, and 33% of white consumers access the Internet via mobile devices. This “digital divide” is wider when comparing access to social networking sites, with usage at 36% for Hispanics, 33% for black consumers and only 19% for whites.

Understanding the multicultural audience’s high utilization of social networking sites is key to benefiting from this target group’s response to marketing messages. Not only are they open to receiving and responding to messages, but are also eager to be seen as informed opinion leaders among their peers. The Pew Research Center report titled Millennials: Confident. Connection. Open to change found that 45% of black Millennials visited a social networking site several times a day, significantly outpacing 25% of white Millennials.

With this knowledge, a multicultural media mix must include banners, pop-up ads, text campaigns, mobile sites, and social media vehicles that allow the target to discover your message and respond to your strategy, and enable them to share their opinions as thought leaders and conversation starters within their peer groups.

The marriage of marketing communications and digital technology has forever changed the communications landscape in elevating our customers’ expectations, enabling true customer relationships, and multiplying customer access points. The consequences of elevated expectations are a more demanding customer who requires increasing sophistication in the channel mix used to reach them. Technological mastery and innovation can be a sustainable competitive advantage for realizing the goal of market leadership.

Prime Access is the leader in digital multicultural marketing. Call us to find out how your brand can benefit from our cutting-edge services.

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Contact information:
Prime Access
345 Seventh Avenue
New York, NY 10001
Ph. 212-868-9529
Fx. 212-868-9495
sophy.regelous@prime-access.com
www.prime-access.com