Media Buying: Setting a New Path for Multicultural Marketing

From the pandemic to racial reckoning, the events of 2020 forever shaped the way we think about advertising and marketing. Historically, the industry has framed these topics within the context of “multicultural” marketing — but perspectives are still evolving, and right now, modern marketers have an opportunity to help lead the conversation.

Here at Vox Media, we’ve internally reframed multicultural marketing as Marketing Equity & Inclusion Partnerships. We believe that change starts from within, and as we continue to grow and reach more consumers than ever before, it’s our goal to be responsible and inclusive as we work to strengthen our company, our partnerships, and our industry.

In the past, multicultural marketing has often targeted perceptions of certain groups of people, rather than their actual interests and values. As we move into better understanding consumer sentiment around this topic, it’s an exciting time to come together to find new, more intentional approaches to traditional media buying. Though we don’t have all the answers today, what we do have is clarity and insight into how consumers feel.

In order to better understand how they view “culture,” Vox Media and Bastion db5 spoke to 1,000 U.S. adults (18+) with equal representation from four races: Caucasian, Hispanic/Latinx, Black, and AAPI. What we discovered is that most people do not want to be targeted by demographics alone; in 2022, traditional notions of race, nationality, and culture have a chance to move toward visibility, representation, and inclusion.

What we know:

1. Culture is much more than nationality, race or ethnicity; age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, politics, and geographical region now play a much greater role in how we define ourselves.
2. True representation in marketing means working with publishers that reflect our identity, both individually and collectively.
3. Vox Media consumers offer a rich and diverse target audience.

What we feel:

We wanted to do this work to create an opportunity to explore what “multicultural” means today, and how we can use the perspective of consumers to enact change that is meaningful to them. Learn more about our findings by downloading the full whitepaper here: Media Buying Whitepaper 2022