NEW YORK – In a panel organized earlier this week by Howard University, representatives from top media and marketing companies advised advertising executives to “adapt or die,” saying that, if they don’t learn how to engage and to market in a multicultural society, advertisers will reinforce stereotypes about minorities and miss opportunities to connect with ethnic consumers.
The discussion, “‘Minority’: Now Trending Majority, A Look at the 2010 U.S. Census Data and What It Means to Advertisers,” comes months after U.S. Census data released earlier this year revealed the growing “majority minority” in America, especially in southern and western regions of the nation.
U.S. Census figures released in March 2011, analyzing population and housing data collected from the 2010 Census and the 2010 Census Redistricting Data, found that Asians and Latinos represent the fastest growing racial and ethnic groups. If trends continue, the U.S. is expected to be a “majority minority nation” in three decades.
At Time Warner’s headquarters in New York City on Monday evening, the panel featured speakers from major companies, including Ogilvy, Time Warner Inc., and the Nielsen organization. The panel was convened by Howard University’s Center for Excellence in Advertising (CEA), an academic program housed in the university’s School of Communications.
Drawing chuckles from the audience, David Burgos, head of Multicultural Practice at Millward Brown, a leading market research agency based in New York, told the audience that ethnic communities have different experiences and backgrounds but they are not “aliens from a different planet.”
Burgos said that advertisers must acknowledge that consumers are diverse regardless of race and ethnic background and that they don’t always want to be targeted in a way that emphasizes their cultural differences.
“Don’t just rely on Jose, Kesha, or Jin for ethnic strategy,” said Ola Mobolade, managing director of Firefly, a Millward Brown-affiliated marketing company.
