Diverse media investment grew in 2024—how the war on DEI is changing 2025 market outlooks

Ad dollars spent with diverse-owned media companies continued to increase in 2024. But with the political war on DEI, which has seen pullbacks on policies from brands including Target, Walmart and McDonald’s, the marketplace has more hoops to jump through than before. Read more: DEI rollbacks impact agency and brand strategies While many marketers made commitments to increase investment in diverse-owned media after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, the trend has since reversed, particularly as President Donald Trump has made moves to expel any program or verbiage related to multicultural initiatives in the U.S. government and has put a magnifying glass on corporate practices as well. See all of Ad Age’s 2025 Agency A-List winners here This reversal of trend puts greater scrutiny on the performance of media committed to reaching multicultural audiences, according to two agency executives who lead diverse investment practices, and will increase competition for the small share of budgets as the emphasis on supporting diverse ownership in media diminishes. More than anything, marketers “all want to ensure, whether now or in the past, that they don’t get the negative press, whichever way that press is,” said one of the executives, noting the swift reversal of course from brands rushing to support multicultural initiatives. Diverse-owned media sellers are taking note and leaning into the push to highlight the divisions between corporate DEI initiatives and the business imperative to advertise to growing multicultural populations. “Diverse-owned is great, but it’s not why you should buy us,” said Cavel Khan, chief growth officer at Black-owned media collective Group Black. The DEI pullback “isn’t about the data. It is about rhetoric more than anything, but real actions that are taking place tied to that rhetoric impacts companies like mine, which get pushed into that bucket.” The numbers Diverse-owned media investment increased 14% from 2023 to 2024, from $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion, for media companies with Asian, Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, Indigenous and disabled ownership, according to new research from the ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) and media investment trackers Media Framework and Guideline. The rate of diverse-owned market growth outpaced the year-over-year investment increases for the total ad market, which grew 12% from 2023 to 2024, rising from $76.3 billion to $85.8 billion. The research noted these increases were primarily due to the strength of the Paris Olympics and increased political spending—2023’s year-over-year total industry spend was down 2%, per AIMM. Despite the growth in spending with diverse-owned media companies, the market’s share of dollars among total ad spending remained flat at 2.2% in 2024. Also: What brands get wrong when working with diverse creators To note, these figures factor direct spending with media companies and exclude programmatic, B2B, trade and local cable investment. Early data on programmatic spending found that 1.7% of programmatic investment went to certified diverse-owned media companies, according to AIMM and programmatic ad tech company Fiducia based on a sample of 26 major marketers. Among the multicultural segments, ad spend with Black-owned media remains the largest, at $943 million, but declined 5% in 2024 compared to the year prior. Conversely, investment in Asian, LGBTQ+ and Hispanic-owned media grew 58%, 30% and 15% year-over-year, respectively. This year’s AIMM report broke out investment with the above multicultural segments specifically while last year’s research included media owned by women, veterans and small businesses as well. Inclusive of those groups, investment in the diverse marketplace grew 11% year-over-year from $1.9 billion to $2.1 billion. Red flag language As brands continue to make headlines for rolling back programs and initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion, diverse-owned media sellers and agency leaders for the market said a change in language is key to maintaining investment momentum. As such, one agency has created a list of red flag and green flag words when discussing the market with clients, according to the second agency executive. Most prominently atop the red flag list is “DEI,” which has become a phrase wielded on the political stage to represent business inefficiency. The executive said anything that’s specific to a certain races or ethnicities without being tied to a business goal is a red flag, particularly media plans revolving around heritage months such as Black History Month or LGBTQ+ Pride. “If we’re putting together a strategy that’s closing household penetration on Hispanic households, I think that that will suffice,” said the executive. But a bespoke media plan related to a heritage month would raise concerns. Rather, the agency executive said it would look to activate a long-term plan for a client wanting to increase awareness with U.S. Hispanics, for example, and Hispanic Heritage Month might be like the Super Bowl of a multi-month rollout instead of an individual activation. The green flag list plays on the pitch diverse media sellers have long brought to the market, that multicultural populations are inherent business drivers as they increase in share of the total U.S. population. As such, “growth” has become a go-to descriptor for diverse media. AIMM’s research aligned with the sentiment in renaming its research segments from “diverse-owned media” to “growth-segments-owned media.” Another term rising in usage is “cross-cultural,” which the agency executive said sets off fewer alarm bells than “diverse” or “multicultural.” White, non-Hispanic Americans made up 58% of the U.S. population in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and the number drops to around 50% or below for Gen Z, according to researchers such as Pew Research Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation and PRRI. But the emphasis on audience also shifts marketers’ attention away from ownership. Commitments to invest with media companies owned and operated by multicultural leaders was a major push alongside the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement. Current pullbacks on commitments of that ilk put higher scrutiny on the performance of the media, according to both agency executives, who said this reversal of trend may send more of the market’s budgets in the direction of larger network groups such as Paramount’s BET, NBCUniversal’s Telemundo, TelevisaUnivision or Disney’s Onyx Collective, which produces streaming content with creators of color. Both executives’ top advice for diverse-owned media groups is to never lead a client conversation with their ownership status, and instead clearly lay out differentiated programs and offerings for reaching their audience. For example, the 2026 FIFA World Cup has become one of the highest-demand media events on the horizon, and not all advertisers will be able to buy space in the Fox or Telemundo coverage of the event, according to the second media executive, who added that they will be looking for smaller media companies who can present differentiated ways for clients to reach the World Cup audience. Beyond uncertainty in the diverse media space, broader economic unknowns tied to President Trump’s international trade tariffs are potential strains on all media spending. While the first agency executive said multicultural audiences are too large now for those marketing budgets to be cut, Group Black’s Khan said the potential suppression of U.S. access to international markets is another reason to increase brand visibility with domestic cross-cultural groups to drive business growth. Marketers’ “jobs are to drive your business KPIs to increase your market share and increase your penetration,” said Khan. “Suddenly the Canadian market may be closed to many brands. Does that mean that your sales have to drop? No. Where are you going to replace those sales? It is still right here.” More: The presidential election’s impact on diverse media spend Given the complex political environment, “we’ve noticed a slow in demand,” said Augusto Romano, CEO of Hispanic media network Digo. Romano added that the change isn’t specific to Hispanic media and that brands are in waiting until this year’s economic trajectory becomes clearer. Similarly, the second agency executive said that “post-election, we thought that there was going to be more dollars in the [diverse media] market. That didn’t come to fruition … A lot of folks are going to be conservative on this end.”

Diverse media investment grew in 2024—how the war on DEI is changing 2025 market outlooks

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