It’s no secret that sports marketing is one of the hottest topics on marketers' minds. Determine the best way for your brand to show up at ADWEEK Brand Play: A Sports Marketing Summit. Register now to join in NYC or virtually on May 9.
Last spring, the media and marketing world experienced a tipping point of sorts around the topic of supporting minority-owned and diverse-targeted media. There were high-profile pledges being publicized from marketers and agencies on an almost daily basis during the upfront season. However, it’s been thought-provoking to see the conversation cool off, especially in the current shadow of Madison Avenue’s shiny new gimmick, NFTs.
This raises an immediate red flag, suggesting that the critical subjects of supplier and audience diversity have been reduced to just another intermittent topic to be washed out in the ever-spinning news cycle. As we celebrate Black History Month, how do we ensure that the conversation and commitment continue to be consistent rather than something that is only convenient?
First, there needs to be a clear purpose, from both the marketer and agency perspective, regarding a more equitable media ecosystem. While agencies can recommend what’s in the best interest of their respective clients, at the end of the day, they are only agents. Investment benchmarks and pledges help provide a North Star, but agencies need to give clients the tools to tear down the systemic barriers that can prevent these goals from ever being achieved.
We need to create more influencer marketing channels that give Black and other diverse creators more opportunities to strategically and effectively partner with brands. They must be built around three pillars to provide a template for action industry-wide.
Being different
While most of the diverse-owned media conversation has mainly been focused on Black-owned national media entities like Revolt and Essence, it’s been healthy to see an evolution—first with the diverse creator’s ecosystem and now with the recent launch of Nielsen’s Diverse Media Equity, centered on the impact of diverse-owned local media outlets. The diverse-owned media landscape offers various opportunities and spans a large spectrum of outlets, including ad tech, mass reach, and diverse endemic and legacy publishers.
Being genuine
We need to modify processes to better support diverse creators and publishers who don’t have access to large lines of credit and whose incomes depend on steady cash flow from advertising revenue. General Motors recently confronted this obstacle by becoming the first marketer to establish a 30-day payment term for all diverse-owned media partners. Throwing money at a problem will never address the root cause—the industry needs to innovate, dismantling barriers to generate long-term revenue growth for diverse partners, which in turn will result in increased advertiser value.
Being purposeful
This can’t be a conversation we only have during the upfront season; we need to normalize the narrative by aligning with industry or trade organizations. For example, The National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) has been front and center in many initiatives, given that its Minority Business Enterprise certification connects diverse media owners with corporate and public-sector supply chains, which helps advance business opportunities. The industry is responsible for ensuring that diverse-owned media has every opportunity to succeed.
Of course, even the best investment solution or strategy will not deliver meaningful, systemic change unless it is upstreamed within all client and planning conversations, 12 months a year, enabling investment with Black-owned media to escape the confines of categorization and calendarization. Only then can we truly write a new chapter of Black media history and achieve permanent and positive disruption in the broader media supply chain.
This article is part of The Black History Month Voice Series, intended to educate marketers and advertisers and spotlight issues, nuances and challenges the industry should be aware of when marketing to the Black community. Be sure to check out more articles throughout the month here.
