Dozens of brand marketing and media buying agency leaders shared knowledge at last week’s Portada Live event in New York City and virtual format.
“If you think about multicultural advertising in the digital space. We were doing contextual advertising before contextual became a thing and before it came over to the general market,” Stephen Paez EVP of Cultural Investment and Innovation Publicis Media, said during the Portada Live event in New York City and virtual format last week. “That was how we achieved scale through cultural and contextual relevance,” he added. “It is super interesting how partners like SunMedia now provide the technology to accelerate contextual advertising solutions. Luis Solis, Sales Director East at SunMedia, moderated a “Culture, Tech, and Creativity” session. During the panel, Juan Miguel Lapido, Global Head of Creative Strategy Design & Innovation SunMedia, highlighted what creativity means in the process of working with his brand partners:
- “Creativity is what surrounds us”(Style, culture)
- “Creativity has to be daring (breaking monotony and not falling into habits)
- Creativity is technology, the natural ally of creativity.
What is Contextual Advertising
Asked about what media buying agencies like Publicis are doing to face third-party cookie deprecation, Paez answered, “You need to make sure that the data used does not have a bias built into it.” The critical question is, “How accurate is the data you will use from a targeting perspective.” He added that “for contextual advertising to work well in multicultural markets, agency and brand teams must have training in place to understand where the gaps are and be able to build a solution. Awareness, education, and understanding must be pushed from an industry perspective.”
It is critical that agency and brand teams have training in place to understand where the gaps are and be able to build a solution.
The Role of AI in Multicultural Marketing
Artificial intelligence in digital marketing “will lend a lot of opportunities to create more dynamic creativity and optimization,” Paez maintained. However, he cautioned that AI can produce stereotypes; “We can’t lose cultural relevance just to create more ads and be in more spaces. It has to be a marriage of communication strategy, engaging the audience in a culturally relevant way, and using tech to be more effective and rapid to create more content more efficiently. It’s a delicate balance.”
“From a back end and tech perspective, we all understand that we can’t continue to work without AI. But on the other hand, you need to leverage cultural intelligence.”
From a back end and tech perspective, we all understand that we can’t continue to work without AI. But on the other hand, you need to leverage cultural intelligence.
Ronald Mendez, EVP, Cultural Investment & Strategy Lead, Mediacom, asked how brands and media buyers should address the ‘fear factor,’ referring to campaigns that go wrong and get a substantial backlash from the consumer, like the recent Bud Light and Target campaigns. Publicis’s Paez recommends to “lead with authenticity and own up to your mistakes. Admit when you fail. It’s about understanding what the brand’s values are bringing that forward will help align with the brand positioning.” On the other hand, he noted: “Let’s be honest, societally, we are in the most divisive state we have ever been to.”
Lead with authenticity and own up to your mistakes.
Multicultural Marketing, Still an Afterthought?
A resounding theme among brand marketers at Portada Live was why multicultural budgets often are an afterthought in a country as multicultural as the U.S. Wilson Santiago Soler Senior Multicultural Campaign Manager Rocket Mortgage, questioned: “Why is multicultural an afterthought if at least 50% of the growth of corporate America comes from multicultural audiences? Dan Johnson Director, Segment Marketing Altice USA, asked for advice on how to get a champion to adopt budget changes.
According to Mercedes Rodríguez Bermejo, Senior Multicultural Marketing Specialist at Emblemhealth, who spoke in a session on Healthcare Marketing in Multicultural America, “Even if it is a small initiative, provide the results of what you have done. Start small and offer tangible results. Showcase clearly in your organization what you have accomplished.” Publicis’ Paez said that from an agency perspective, the client has to be educated, and the client needs to have a very clear understanding of the KPIs. Measurement begins with understanding. It’s about ensuring you have the right understanding of the audience you are going after and what the gap is. The worst thing you can do is not to have the right KPIs cause then the client tests it and doesn’t come back into the market. ”
Start small and offer tangible results. Showcase clearly in your organization what you have accomplished.
Premium Partners at Portada Live, Sept. 21:
