As marketers such as Coca-Cola Co. and General Motors seek to diversify their media suppliers and incorporate more diversity and inclusion into their strategies, advertising trade groups are stepping in to offer assistance.
Today, the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) and the Association of National Advertisers, as well as its six-year-old Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing arm, released a set of guidelines for marketers working with diverse-owned media suppliers. The new “Guidelines for Buyers (Agencies and Marketers) When Doing Business with Diverse Media Suppliers" are for buyers; separate guidelines for diverse media suppliers will be released at a later date.
The list of 20 recommendations includes using certification authentication through a third-party vetting process, to make sure a supplier meets certain criteria around being diverse. The report also calls for marketers to accept alternative media metrics to evaluate suppliers. For example, a diverse supplier might have a more targeted audience and would likely have a different measurement metric. In addition, marketers and agencies should not offer extended payment terms—suppliers should be paid on time. (Clients in recent years have been accused by suppliers of all kinds of implementing lengthy payment terms.)
The trade groups also put together a list of diverse suppliers and how to find them and offered advice on creative messaging and the request for information and request for proposal process.
