GM’s Diversity Media Plan May Be a Template for Brands

When General Motors pledged to shift specific portions of its media budget to Black-owned agencies and media companies a week ago, some of the carmaker’s strongest critics greeted the intentions with extreme doubt. GM has mapped a five-point “action plan” to diversify its media and marketing company relationships. The plan appears to show a substantive effort to affect meaningful change. As the automaker reached out to critics in the days following the plan’s release, the company has generated a degree of tenuous trust that this is not another empty public relations campaign. GM could prove to be a model for other major brands for approaching issues of racial inequity. But this will depend on how successfully GM continues to navigate the political minefield associated with America’s tense ongoing discussions of racial disparity. The first test of this strategy to rebalance its media spending begins May 14 when GM will host a dedicated upfront with diverse media owners ahead of the traditional TV ad buying marketplace. As stated in the second point of the action plan, the summit “will encourage existing and potential partners to submit an overview of their business for consideration” by GM. The automaker is promising deeper engagements beyond the summit, including a request for proposals from Black-owned media shops. The RFP process for choosing GM’s new diverse agency partners will be accredited by a heretofore unidentified third party “to ensure fairness and transparency.” GM’s decision to dive deeply into matters of inequality in business comes as all brands are forced to speak and act with greater clarity on a range of challenges. Car companies, in particular, find themselves at the center of conversations about promoting greater sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. The ability to simply release vague, well-meaning statements aimed down the middle of the road has been rendered impossible in 2021. Keeping quiet isn’t an option, either. There are only two courses available to brands in this moment: get out in front of the issues surrounding your industry category, or quickly follow the lead of those cutting the path. Walmart Invests in GM’s Electric Self-Driving Vehicle Company An updated commitment The main component of GM’s plan is a promise to double its commitment for spending with Black-owned media to 2% in 2021 and 4% in 2022, with a goal of reaching 8% by 2025. According to GM’s annual report, the company spent $1.1 billion in total on media in 2020, down from $2.7 billion in 2019. Kantar Media’s ad tracker estimated GM’s U.S ad expenditures at $630 million last year, down 37% from the prior year. “I'm actually really pleased and happy that General Motors came out and made this public announcement,” said Walter Geer, executive creative director of experience design at VMLY&R. “I would love to see other brands follow in line and do the same thing. Right now, what we are unfortunately seeing a lot of is big promises but no follow through.” In addition to the pre-upfront summit for diverse agencies, the action plan includes establishing a Diverse Marketing Incubator Fund. Separate from the media agency spending increase, GM is allocating $50 million over 10 years to “support and scale diverse marketing companies.” The plan is rounded by the development of an Inclusive Measurement Rubric with the benefit of input from diverse media. That element is accompanied by a Prospective Partnering Analysis, where GM and its media buying agencies will use a “multi-factor analysis for selection of diverse media.” “This action plan will transform our engagement model with diverse media in a sustainable way,” Deborah Wahl, GM global chief marketing officer, said in a statement. “Over the course of several weeks, we met with many diverse-owned media organizations. We are grateful for the transparency and spirit of collaboration, which helped us frame this inclusive approach.” The plan was positioned as another step following GM’s June 2020 declaration as part of the Association of National Advertisers' (ANA) Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing. The ANA group outlined several goals to be reached by 2022, including a 20% increase in accurate depiction of African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans in advertising and media, as well as a 20% increase in representation of those groups in marketing and media companies. Negative reaction turns cautiously positive While GM declined to comment beyond last week’s announcement, it would appear that the five-point plan was “accelerated” by an open letter signed by Black executives, blasting the company for what they perceived as miserly expenditures being devoted to diverse agencies and media. The letter to GM, which appeared in an ad in the Detroit Free Press, was signed by native Detroiter and Allen Media Group founder Byron Allen, rapper Ice Cube, journalist and CEO of Nu Vision Media Roland Martin, among other prominent Black executives. A few days later, Sean “Diddy” Combs released a separate directive critiquing GM executives on his Revolt.tv site. After GM released its plan, Martin pointedly criticized the company’s stated effort as “grossly unacceptable” and said it was time to step up. In a follow-up Instagram posted a few days later, he described a positive conversation with GM’s CMO and said he planned to attend the May 14 pre-upfront summit. “Everybody has an expiration date, but we've got to make sure that we change this system,” said Martin, who also hosts a news series on YouTube called Unfiltered. “That's [why] we've been saying, ‘Where's our money?’ because we're not satisfied. We're going to keep the pressure on. And we're going to keep watching.” A domino effect For Geer, GM’s incubation fund could have the most far-reaching impact. Specifically, it could solve one of the key problems that have held back spending on Black-owned media: there simply are too few Black-owned advertising agencies. “Here’s the problem: You can count all the Black owned media companies on one hand,” Geer said. “So they’re simply giving more money to the same few agencies. That does not do anything for Black businesses at large. We need to see brands investing in and helping develop Black-owned media. That is how we see change. We don't see change by putting it in the same pot.”

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

General Motors’ Diversity Media Spending Plan Could Be a Template for Other Brands

The carmaker will host a pre-upfront for Black-owned media buyers

David Kaplan

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David Kaplan