The Minority-Majority Shift. Two Decades That Will Change America. For The Ad Business, A Much-Needed Relaunch

2020 is the year when the majority of all Americans under seventeen years old will be from a minority background, a process that will culminate with a so-called “minority-majority” population by the mid-2040s. These demographic changes will bring about a significant transformation to Corporate America, and during the next few months, I will discuss some of these consequences, in each article targeting one specific area of our business environment.

---

Over the past few months, I’ve been writing about the impact a more diverse America will have on different industries, and the advertising business is not immune to these changes.

Below I am listing five key trends that I believe will influence the reshaping of the ad business:

1 – Messaging Strategy Will Be More Segmented

As general market agencies have (finally) woken up to the need of hiring more multicultural talent to their ranks, there’s a perception that multicultural agencies may no longer be needed since this fresh pool of talent will make their agencies’ ideas more diverse and relevant for a more multicultural society.

However, there is one major problem with this reasoning. While there is no doubt that a more diverse workforce in the ad industry will create a more diverse set of ideas, their ideas will still connect with multiple and fragmented audiences through one single message.

In my opinion, the ad industry will evolve to a more balanced approach, with a mix of general ideas and media buys complemented by a robust set of segmented messages and specific channel choices.

These segmented strategies will address groups of consumers that provide the largest growth opportunities for advertisers, and will grow beyond the traditional ethnicity segments (Latinos, African Americans, and Asian American segments). They will also incorporate other groups like LGBTQ+, Over 65 years old, veterans, college students, and working moms, for instance.

This new approach will balance mass media and mass messages’ efficiency with the “mass segmented” approach’s effectiveness.

2 – Multicultural Marketing Will Evolve to a Broader Business Discipline

One of the most significant changes in our industry in the next few years will be transforming the multicultural marketing industry from a mostly advertising-related discipline to a broader and more business-oriented one.

This transformation will elevate the need for companies to consider the implications of the country’s demographic changes in areas such as R&D (developing the next generation of products and services that fit what a more multicultural consumer base’s needs), distribution (does your company have the right geographical footprint?), and HR (are you recruiting and promoting to reflect the changes in our society?), to mention a few.

Addressing these needs will require a significant shift across all levels in an organization, from the board of directors to the entry-level recruitments. Multicultural marketing experts can play a significant role in helping organizations during this transition. Traditional consulting firms won’t fulfill this need since they are not equipped, at least today, with the talent and know-how to advise their clients in this area.

Not all multicultural advertising experts will be prepared for this leap in scope, which takes me to my next trend.

3 – True and Proven Experts Will Be On-Demand

Our industry will need a new age of multicultural professionals with a track record and real expertise. To be clear, being Latino will not make anyone fully prepared to lead a Latino-driven marketing effort. It may help, but it will no longer be enough (and the same goes for any other segment).

These experts will have to be present among different stakeholders, including clients, agencies, media companies, and research organizations.

Moreover, they will also need to be represented at different levels of these organizations, including decision-making levels, C-suites, and board of directors. There will be a higher demand for training and development of multicultural marketing and business skills. In the next decade, we will be witnessing a significant increase in the offerings of training programs.

4 – Brand Purpose Will Meet Social Justice

Research after research, we learn what the younger generation of consumers don’t just prefer, but rather expect brands to provide something more than just a service or product value for their dollars. This is one way brands will remain authentic and relevant in an environment where consumers tend to ignore and even avoid their messages.

This trend perfectly fits within the multicultural marketing opportunities since most of these consumers come from a multicultural background. There are opportunities to engage with causes that disproportionally impact multicultural segments, like access to health and education, pay gaps, and representation in critical industries, especially technology-driven ones.

While it is natural for brands to be concerned with the country’s polarization, there are ways to commit to multicultural communities in a way that can dissipate fears of being accused of partisanship.

5 – There Will Be a Reset on Resource Allocation

No progress towards a more robust multicultural marketing approach will be made without a comprehensive reassessment of how resources are allocated. Today, most companies still take an incremental approach, meaning they cover what they perceive as mainstream plans and then look for ways to cover what they consider peripheral investments, such as multicultural marketing.

The reality is that this current approach does not fit the demographic trajectory of America, and most importantly, it does not fit the sources of growth brands already experience. To put it in perspective, multicultural marketing efforts still get less than 10% of an average marketing budget while representing a much larger share of the marketer’s business growth.

The advertising and marketing industry not only will be impacted by this country’s demographic changes, but it will also have the opportunity to shape a more diverse, inclusive, and most importantly, a more effective business environment that will help to create a new wave of sustainable growth for brands for years to come. To do that, we have to be courageous, break with old paradigms, and use one of the most important assets we have to lead this reinvention — the power of creativity.