The Multicultural Message: Two Industry Players Assert the Marketing Needs of the Hip-Hop Generation and Beyond

Written on
January 22nd 2007
Author
by Regine Zamor
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With the rise of the digital era and the growth of interactive usage and advertising, it’s become increasingly important to understand audiences. Making up 13% of the population is the multicultural audience, which subsequently, has not received attention commensurate to the “astronomical growth” it’s experienced.
Upon speaking with consultant Erin Patton with the Mastermind Group, and Publisher of AOL Black Voices Alvin Bowles, and taking a closer look into the interactive realm of multicultural advertising, it is clear that as this audience grows, advertisers and agencies need to do more to acknowledge that this demographic is here and that their dollar is important. Although this demographic was a bit sluggish in the wake of online participation, there has been consistent growth. Even in 2005, African Americans had an online user base of 18.4 million and in 2006 African American and Hispanic internet usage was nearly equal to that of the general market. Considering such growth, it’s time for the industries ad spending dollars to finally make a match. Welcome to the age of multicultural marketing.
So, it’s no secret that online usage and the advertising that comes with it are on the rise. What this means for agencies and marketing professionals, however, is that the way multicultural audiences are factored into ad budgets may also have to change. Alvin Bowles heads all of the sales efforts at AOL Black Voices and has seen the rising trend of the multicultural audience. According to the December 2006 comScore Media Metrix report, just last year when Bowles joined AOL Black Voices, the website brought over a million visitors a month, while today, the African-American hub accounts for 3 million users per month.
“There’s tons of growth. In a sense, there’s astronomical growth within the multicultural audience online,” states Bowles. Accordingly, Erin Patton of the MasterMind group concurs that not only is there growth, but “hip-hop’s generation X has matured and evolved the influence that was once willed through traditional categories and it has now broadened.”
Furthermore, through his research, Patton has found that the “growing influence of multicultural consumers in the general market…at this point is clearly becoming the new general market for this generation, which is growing up without the racial parameters or boundaries.” Part of the lack of online acknowledgement may be attributed to the approach advertisers take when it comes to reaching this target. Most advertisers are still under the misconception that traditional media is the best way to reach the African-American community. Not suggesting that traditional media be decreased, Bowles calls it “not an either but an and conversation”—a conversation that agencies and executives and consultants need to begin having in order to achieve the brand loyalty that comes along with the multicultural market.
And with the multicultural market also comes a certain type of brand loyalty that is known, but Patton warns that brands may be taking this loyalty for granted, assuming that the dollars will just flow in. “It is a loyal audience, but it’s also one that places a high degree of importance and significance on brands that communicate to them through cultural and lifestyle nuances,” Patton affirms.
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