How to not miss the mark in multicultural marketing

Subscribe to us on Apple podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher, Google Play, iHeartRadio and Pandora too. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend! On this week's episode of Ad Age Ad Lib, senior editor Jeanine Poggi and agency reporter Lindsay Rittenhouse, speak with industry leaders Jill Kelly, U.S. chief marketing officer, GroupM; Kimberly Paige, exec VP and chief marketing officer, BET Networks; Soon Mee Kim, chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer and executive VP at Omnicom Public Relations Group; and Tiffany Edwards, global head of diversity and inclusion, Droga5, on how to move multicultural marketing beyond a check box. The murder of George Floyd at the hands of police has made consumers hyper-aware of brands' actions. “I think this particular generation, when we talk about Gen Z as an example, is definitely going to hold us accountable,” Kim said. “And so, whatever we say, we’ve got to do. We’ve got to close that say-do gap.” It's certainly not enough to simply cast Black actors in a TV commercial to say a brand is satisfying multicultural marketing. BET's Paige says, "If you're using casting as your multicultural strategy, you've really missed the mark." Instead, marketers must lean into data that support a move to embrace the country's evolving ethnic landscape from a more complete perspective. “There’s that saying, ‘You make time for the things that are important.’ Well, swap out ‘time’ for ‘money.’ You find money for things that are important,” Kelly said. “If you’re not doing multicultural marketing today, you’re not doing marketing.”

How to not miss the mark in multicultural marketing

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