Advertising Age reported Coca-Cola plans to nearly double its spending on minority-owned media over the next three years. Did Byron Allen approve this move? After all, the pledge presents the standard dodges:
1. As it’s common knowledge that most advertisers have historically underspent with minority-owned enterprises, percentages are deceptive. Doubling crumbs is still crumbs. Coke must reveal dollar amounts—and compare the upped figures to whatever White-owned media has been enjoying.
2. Minority-owned media is a deceptive term too—especially when the label includes places run by White women. Again, providing dollar amounts and comparing the specific allocations doled out to each underrepresented group would be the right thing to do.
3. Why simply limit the progressive thinking to media? Extend the equity effort to spending with minority vendors—particularly, minority-owned advertising agencies. Expose the separate and unequal practices placed on shops of color.
Such openness and honesty from The Coca-Cola Company would be…refreshing.
Coca-Cola Plans To Nearly Double Its Ad Spend On Minority-Owned Media
Atlanta-based beverage giant set a three-year target to ramp up its diverse media budget
By Ethan Jakob Craft
Coca-Cola North America announced it will nearly double its media spend with minority-owned companies over the next three years, pledging that no less than 8% of its yearly ad budget will be directed to Black-, Hispanic- and Asian American-owned platforms and their partners by 2024.
The storied company already increased its minority-owned media spend this year more than five-fold compared to 2020.
Coke is also working to foster new relationships with partners like Ebony/Jet, Revolt and My Cultura, the company confirmed, in addition to long-standing multicultural media partners such as Essence and Univision.
“Following a thorough analysis of our marketing spend, we recognized we could do more to support an equitable media landscape by creating growth opportunities for minority-owned and led outlets,” says Melanie Boulden, chief marketing officer of Coca-Cola North America.
In addition to that growing investment, Coke is hoping to further its goals of racial equity by enlisting its global procurement division to launch a pilot certification assistance program in conjunction with the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council that will help accelerate the growth of Black, Hispanic and AAPI media partners.
Fernando Hernandez, VP of supplier diversity at Coca-Cola, acknowledges the obstacles that “some smaller companies have in competing for business opportunities with large multinational companies” like Coke.
Last year, Coke’s public commitment to diverse suppliers and businesses equaled a full-year spend of $800 million across the company’s whole supply chain, with future spending set to focus on new and existing partnerships alike in sectors ranging from warehousing and transportation to marketing and IT.
Coca-Cola also announced plans in 2020 to increase spending with Black-owned supply enterprises by at least $500 million over the next five years.
In-house, the company is taking steps of its own to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, including commiting to having the racial and ethnic makeup of its workforce mirror the U.S. population at large by 2030.
Coca-Cola needs to name the exact dollar amount they are committing, and specify what counts as minority-owned.
ReplyDeleteBecause they can, and have in the past, driven all their money to white women counted as minorities, and multimillion dollar businesses that are owned on paper by 51% minorities, and 49% enormous holding companies like WPP and Omnicom, but that are in practicality 99% controlled by those foreign white business owners.
I'm saying this as someone who saw firsthand Coca-Cola "minority" contracts go to white women, who were and are and will probably continue to be the primary beneficiaries of Coca-Cola's minority spending.