Justified criticism about the lack of diversity is good. We think providing positive solutions is better.
Rightly, the lack of diversity in the Australian media and advertising industry have been pointed out by organisations and individuals; not enough diversity on our screens, in our TV commercials and in the staff that creative and media agencies hire. For decades, multicultural marketing agencies have highlighted the benefits of multicultural marketing. The industry has long argued that advertisers should invest more advertising budget to multicultural or “ethnic” marketing.
L-R: Wei Ng (IDENTITY Communications), Mark Ella (NITV), Danny Bass (IPG Mediabrands), Glenn Hamilton (NITV), Thang Ngo (IDENTITY Communications).
IDENTITY Communications are hugely proud to lead an IPG Mediabrands-wide initiative aimed at increasing investment in Indigenous media as well as improving employment opportunities Indigenous Australians. The NITV and IPG Mediabrands partnership announced this week is a first in Australia. The partnership is supported and sponsored by Danny Bass, IPG Mediabrands CEO.
We’re hugely proud to play a role that takes the debate beyond debate and criticism, to providing one solution to this complex issue. Details of the Indigenous partnership between NITV and IPG Mediabrands are contained in the media release below.
IDENTITY will be announcing other Australian first multicultural marketing initiatives in coming months.
MEDIA RELEASE
NITV AND IPG MEDIABRANDS ANNOUNCE UNIQUE PARTNERSHIP
May 23, 2017: Australia’s National Indigenous Television network (NITV) and IPG Mediabrands have announced a unique partnership to raise awareness of the potential of Indigenous audiences within IPG Mediabrands’ client base. The partnership aims to increase investment from Mediabrands on NITV to help support more production of Indigenous content on the network.
NITV is a free-to-air channel led by and focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The channel commissions or acquires content primarily from the Indigenous production sector. It was founded in 2007, then launched as part of SBS in 2012 and currently reaches more than two million unique viewers a month. It is available in 95% of Australian homes.
The agreement is a first in Australia. NITV will help Mediabrands businesses develop a greater understanding of Indigenous communities and help develop insights, strategies and connections for client teams. Mediabrands will help NITV unlock greater investment into Indigenous media and create opportunities for improved representation across the marketing industry.
NITV Executive, Mark Ella said, “Australia’s Indigenous audience are sometimes stereotyped by advertisers who overlook the rich diversity of our people. This partnership will help us to understand what clients are looking for and bring the potential of our audiences to Mediabrands’ clients in an authentic way. It is a true partnership that offers both sides unique benefits.”
Danny Bass, CEO of IPG Mediabrands Australia, said there was both a need and a responsibility for the Media Industry to be far more inclusive of Indigenous people and minorities. “Our industry is a major contributor to helping shape the culture of Australia and that culture has been shaped in great part by our Indigenous People. The partnership with NITV is a two-way lens for brands and Indigenous people to influence each other in the digital world. More broadly, Mediabrands is fully committed to providing roles for Indigenous people within our business.”
At IPG Mediabrands the partnership with NITV will be led by the group’s multicultural division, IDENTITYCommunications. Thang Ngo, Managing Director of IDENTITY Communications, said, “Diversity and representation are topical issues in the industry. This partnership moves beyond debate and criticism to solutions that aim to make a tangible difference.”
The partnership allows for joint internship programs and NITV support in development of an IPG Mediabrands Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
IDENTITY Communications are predicting the multicultural marketing industry in Australia will change dramatically in 2017. Here’s why.
We’re not talking about terminology and semantics which have changed over time such as NESB (non-English speaking background) and LOTE (languages other than English) being replaced by CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse), refugee with asylum seeker, ethnic marketing with multicultural marketing.
Beyond descriptors, we believe there are five key trends in multicultural marketing that will change the industry forever. And it will happen in 2017.
1. Census 2016 The multicultural industry relies on Census data to quantify the size of the opportunity. Size and English language proficiency are two data points referenced frequently by multicultural agencies. While Census 2016 isn’t in itself a trend – it’s the trend in the data that will make a big splash.
We predict when the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) releases the full 2016 Census data on 27 June, the multicultural opportunity will be more compelling than ever before. We’re predicting it will show the Chinese speaking community in Australia will pass 1 million people for the first time and that Mandarin, followed by Cantonese, will be the two most spoken languages in Australia (other than English). Our modelling suggests Australia’s population will increase by 11% between the 2011 and 2016 Censuses, however, the China-born population will increase by 90% during the same period.
2. Data, Insights & Strategy While Census 2016 will help multicultural marketing agencies get in front of the client, the general lack of CALD data and insights to inform strategy will continue to be a major set-back. Roy Morgan, with relatively small migrant sample sizes, is of limited help. There are still no independent media consumption data sources for in-language print, radio and TV (most print publications are not audited) and consumer insight research is severely lacking for CALD audiences.
Similarly, it’s not enough to respond to a client brief with a media schedule. Those days are over. Clients expect data, insights and strategic thinking to inform the agency’s recommendations.
Multicultural marketing is more than translation and agencies that invest in data, insights and build up their strategic offering will gain a significant competitive advantage.
3. Collaboration & Consolidation
Multicultural agencies have tended to work independently of ‘mainstream’ media and creative agencies. That’s another agency in addition to media, creative, digital, PR, social and search agencies for a time-poor client to manage. There’s been a trend back to the full service agency model, and we believe it will impact the multicultural marketing sector. Multicultural agencies that understand how mainstream agencies work and can collaborate seamlessly, will reap the rewards. Similarly multicultural agencies that are part of a larger mainstream marketing communications group will benefit by being a part of that group’s comprehensive offering.
4. Shift from Traditional Media The shift from in-language traditional media to digital, social and mobile is on. It’s no longer enough to spend the bulk of a client’s budget on ethnic print or radio channels. And increasingly, it’s not enough to recommend a couple of Facebook and WeChat posts as add-on. Programmatic, data, retargeting, building ‘look alike’ audiences, community management, influencer marketing, search and SEO are expertise that will distinguish successful multicultural marketing agencies from the also-rans.
5. Multicultural is dated? Just as multicultural replaced ethnic, CALD replaced NESB, there’s an argument that multicultural is an out-dated concept. Supporters of the change argue that multicultural often refers to different ethnic backgrounds, but if we’re talking about embracing diversity what about sexual orientation, indigenous, age, ability, etc. In California, Latinos have outnumbered Whites since 2015 – what’s multicultural and what’s mainstream in this context? Rather than differentiating with multicultural, should we not look at cultural marketing that recognises similarities and differences? Some say polyculturalism should replace multiculturalism.
Whatever term we’ll end up using in the future, the undeniable truth is that cultural diversity is here to stay and clients are looking to their agencies for effective strategies to reach this valuable and growing market.
Thoughts?
That’s our view. Do you agree? Are there any other trends in multicultural marketing that you’ve picked up? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Sydney Water has appointed Identity Communications to its panel of creative, design and multicultural agencies after a competitive tender. The appointment is effective immediately.
Sydney Water is Australia’s largest water and wastewater provider, servicing almost five million people in Sydney, the Illawarra and Blue Mountains areas. Census statistics show that in Sydney one in three people speak a language other than English at home and Identity Communications’ key role will be supporting Sydney Water’s communications to its highly diverse customer base.
Identity Communications has been appointed to the multicultural agency roster, supporting the roll out of Sydney Water’s external communications program. A key focus will be to reinforce the high quality of Sydney’s water supplies delivered straight to people’s taps.
In appointing Identity Communications to its multicultural communications agency roster, Sydney Water was impressed with the agency’s digital communications and social media capabilities.
Part of the IPG Mediabrands group of businesses, Identity Communications will be working with other Mediabrands agencies to deliver a comprehensive communications program for Sydney Water. These agencies include data, technology and insights business Cadreon, socially-led marketing agency Society, as well as activations and brand experience agency Ensemble.
Says Thang Ngo, managing director, Identity Communications: “Multicultural audiences are highly digital, very mobile and have deep engagement with content that is relevant to them. This is an area where Identity works 24/7 and we are looking forward to our assignment with Sydney Water.”
Identity works with a range of government and commercial clients. In 2016 the agency’s work for Meat & Livestock Australia was recognised with two Australian Multicultural Marketing Awards for excellence in communications.
IDENTITY multicultural marketing agency starts 2017 in winning style
Only a few months after winning two AMMAs, IDENTITY Communications has been recognised with the Outstanding Branding Image Award 2017 by TVB Australia.
TVB says “the award is given an agency with new and innovative ideas which has lead to positive branding awareness amongst TVB Australia viewers”.
TVB is the largest Chinese and Vietnamese media platform in Australia, boasting over 160,000 daily viewers via household and commercial subscribers. Operating in Australia since 2000, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong’s Television Broadcast Limited, one of the largest producers of Asian dramas and content, which is widely distributed in Australia, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
“Strategic thinking and innovation are in our DNA and I’m really happy the IDENTITY team’s hard work has been recognised by the industry and our multicultural media partners” said Thang Ngo, IDENTITY managing director.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better anniversary present to mark my 12 months leading one of the top multicultural marketing agencies in Australia”.
IDENTITY Communications is a specialist multicultural marketing agency and is part of the global IPG Mediabrands network.
It seems like every marketer is interested in the Chinese community. That’s probably because, apart from English (naturally), Mandarin is now the most spoken language in Australia (overtaking Italian since the 2011 Census). When we combine all Chinese languages; Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Teo Cheo and more, the total Chinese speaking population in Australia is around 650,000.
And this audience spends. In addition to normal expenditure to set up a new life in Australia, this group includes a significant number of high value consumers as evidenced by house purchase, luxury labels and luxury cars etc. So it’s not surprising we’ve seen a spike in interest from existing and new clients in multicultural marketing (or as some clients still call it, ethnic marketing).
Given the last Census was in 2011, IDENTITY used migration figures from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and forecast natural attrition rate to project the Chinese speaking population to June 2016 (it will be interesting to see how close our estimate is to the 2016 Census figure when it’s released on 27 June).
International Student data is sourced from the Department of Education and Training, Tourism data from Tourism Australia.
IDENTITY Communications is a strategy led, award-winning multicultural marketing agency. We are part of the global IPG Mediabrands group. If you find this information useful, please consider following us for more updates:
