Advertising Age presented a “Custom White Paper” on Blacks—In Plain Sight: The Black Consumer Opportunity.
There’s something semi-depressing about the supplement. Is it that only two Black advertising agencies—Burrell and Footsteps—bothered to place advertisements in the special section? And neither ad is very good? Or could it be the repetitive regurgitation of standard arguments about buying power, brand loyalty, non-monolithic, trendsetting, media savvy, authenticity, blah, blah, blah? Perhaps it’s the obligatory perspectives from big clients advocating for targeting the segment, despite the fact that the majority of advertisers don’t engage minority agencies or audiences at all—and those who do grossly underfund the efforts. Hell, it’s probably a combination of the aforementioned, along with the sobering reality that marketing to Blacks must still be introduced, promoted, validated, justified and ultimately positioned as an opportunity.
I wrote a piece about doing better creative but it got pulled to make room for more insights! Too bad, we don't realize that there is a lot about producing BETTER creative that needs to be said.
ReplyDeleteA full-page Ad Age print ad like those runs, what, $33,000? To START?!
ReplyDeleteThis is a chicken and egg argument. In order for a black agency to have the money necessary to run an expensive ad like that in the first place and not feel it in the pocketbook, clients would have to be paying them the same as GM agencies.
Instead, they're getting pennies on the dollar and yet Ad Age is still charging them the same rates as bigger, better funded agencies. I'm surprised that there were two black agencies with that much cash laying around in the first place.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThey probably received a minority discount – or bartered the space in exchange for providing supplement content.
Ad Age doesn't "barter space in exchange for providing supplement content." Ad Age interviews 'leading executives' and then hits up their companies for tens of thousands of dollars in 'advertising'.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go out on a huge limb here and guess that the two black agencies that advertised in the supplement also have articles written about them or their execs somewhere in the pages of said supplement and magazine.
The writing is on the wall black agencies are doomed. There is no golden light at the end of the tunnel, clients dont even want to work with them to be honest. Look at the budgets that are spent for black consumers. If they valued the black consumer or even multicultural consumers they would put more money into targeting them. THey are fine the way things are.
ReplyDelete