17328: ICYMI USPS RFI BS.

MediaPost reported the US Postal Service retained a White search consultancy; plus, an RFI has been issued to White advertising agencies and White media firms.

 

The USPS and consultancy insist the RFI represents an exploratory exercise, and a competitive pitch has not yet launched.

 

Expect the following delivery process: RFI > RFP > RIF

 

Also, non-White advertising agencies and media firms can count on collecting crumbs and experiencing Prime Redlining.

 

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these [White] couriers from the swift completion of their appointed [discriminatory] rounds.

 

Postal Service Issues RFI, Taps JLB To Study Ad Market

 

By Steve McClellan

 

In advance of a likely competitive pitch for new media and creative agency assignments, the US Postal Service has retained search consultant JLB + Partners and issued a request for information to a number of media and creative shops.  

 

USPS spent approximately $150 million on net media expenditures in 2025, according to agency research firm COMvergence. 

 

A spokesman for the postal service stressed that it has not yet launched a formal review for new agencies. 

 

Instead, he said it is “performing ongoing market research regarding the advertising and media services market and issued a Request for Information (RFI) in December ... to both creative and media agencies.” 

 

JLB, the spokesman added, “is supporting this effort as a consultant focused on market trends. The RFI is not a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) concerning any potential future requirements.” 

 

In recent years USPS has worked with McCann Worldgroup and its agency MRM on campaigns.

16405: Addressing Incompetence In The Age Of Multicultural Data.

 

MediaPost published commentary titled, “Why Cultural Competence Is Critical In The Age of Multicultural Data.” It begs the question, “Why is cultural cluelessness still so prevalent in Adland?”

 

Why Cultural Competence Is Critical In The Age of Multicultural Data

 

By Mario Carrasco

 

Programmatic media buyers know that multicultural audiences are a rapidly growing and vital market segment. However, advertisers also know that targeting these audiences can be challenging, especially for those lacking cultural competence. Cultural competence is essential for programmatic media buyers aiming to reach multicultural audiences effectively while avoiding costly mistakes.

 

What is Cultural Competence?

 

Cultural competence is the ability to understand, appreciate, and interact with people from cultural backgrounds, values, and beliefs different from one’s own. While necessary for companies and brands aspiring to reach and engage multicultural audiences meaningfully, cultural competence is essential for programmatic media buyers who rely on data-driven strategies to target their ads.

 

The absence of cultural competence in the multicultural data era can have negative consequences for marketers, so it’s important to remember the following:

 

• Data can be biased. The data that programmatic media buyers use to target ads is often collected from various sources, including social media, search engines, and online surveys. However, this data can be biased, reflecting the biases of the people who collected it and the systems they used to collect and analyze it. For example, a social media dataset might be biased toward younger users, or a search engine dataset might be biased toward people interested in specific topics.

 

Advertisers unaware of these biases could end up targeting ads to the wrong people or using offensive language in ads, risking the company’s brand reputation and alienating the target audience.

 

• Different cultures have different values and beliefs. What’s considered acceptable in one culture might be offensive in another. For example, direct eye contact is considered rude in some cultures, while others assume that those who avoid eye contact are rude. It is important to be aware of the cultural differences between the target audience and advertisers to avoid causing unintentional harm that jeopardizes brand health.

 

• Multicultural consumers are more likely to trust culturally competent brands. A study by ThinkNow found that 63% of multicultural consumers are more likely to trust brands that create ads that reflect their culture. When ads are culturally competent, they signal to the target audience that the advertiser understands them and respects their culture. This builds trust and loyalty, which can lead to more sales conversions over time.

 

Programmatic Media Tips

 

Wondering how to employ cultural competence when using programmatic media to reach multicultural audiences? Here are a few valuable tips:

 

1. Be aware of your own cultural biases. We all have cultural biases, even if we’re not always aware of them. So, the first step to becoming more culturally competent is awareness. To do this, consider taking a cultural bias assessment or talking with someone from a different cultural background. Then, embrace accountability.

 

2. Research the target audience. Once you have acknowledged your cultural biases, thoroughly research your target audience. Delve into their culture, understanding their values, customs and belief systems. This can be accomplished by immersing yourself in books and relevant articles, conversing with people from the target audience and participating in cultural events.

 

3. Use zero-party data from a cultural research company. Zero-party data is voluntarily shared with companies and organizations by customers via surveys, online forms, applications, polls, etc. Cultural research companies can collect zero-party data from multicultural consumers that deliver insights about their culture. This data can inform programmatic media plans that result in culturally responsible advertising.

 

By following these tips, advertisers can use programmatic media to reach and engage multicultural audiences respectfully and effectively.

15715: Nielsen & Procter & Gamble & Media & Racism.

 

Advertising Age reported Nielsen and Procter & Gamble are teaming up on the launch of “a Diverse Media Equity program to help bridge measurement and other structural gaps that have excluded minority-owned media companies from receiving their fair share of ad spend.” Gee, that sounds like a confession of systemic racism in the media world. The sudden spike in creating initiatives designed to bring equity indicates recognition of inequity. Surely Nielsen and P&G were aware of the “measurement and structural gaps” that led to crumbs for minority-owned media. According to Ad Age, P&G is providing seed funding for the effort. Um, it would probably make more sense to simply write a check to Byron Allen instead.

 

Nielsen And P&G Look To Help Minority-Owned Media Beat Data Hurdles That Block Ad Spending

 

The efforts include expanding access for minority-owned radio stations to Nielsen data, even if they can’t pay for subscriptions

 

By Jack Neff

 

Nielsen is launching a Diverse Media Equity program to help bridge measurement and other structural gaps that have excluded minority-owned media companies from receiving their fair share of ad spend.

 

The effort includes a new report quantifying reach and impact of diverse-owned media outlets and expanding access for minority-owned radio stations to Nielsen data, even if they can’t pay for subscriptions.

 

As part of the effort, Procter & Gamble Co. is joining Nielsen to provide seed funding for a $130,000 reimbursement program with the National Minority Supplier Development Council to help cover certification fees for diverse-owned media suppliers. The fund will help provide around 200 publishers with Minority Business Enterprise certification, often required by large companies to qualify for diverse investment.

 

This comes as Madison Avenue looks to shift more media dollars into minority-owned media companies, as media leaders like Byron Allen call for a more equitable share of those budgets. Over the last year agencies like GroupM and Magna, as well as brands like General Motors and Verizon, have made pledges to increase how much of their media budget they are allocating to Black-owned and minority-owned media channels.

 

Nielsen’s first report on diverse media reach and audience profiles finds Black-owned TV stations reach as much as 41% of all adults in smaller local markets where they’re present, while Black-owned radio reaches more than 1.2 million people ages 12 and up.

 

Hispanic-owned local TV reaches 61% of viewers 18 or older in the top 101 U.S. markets where they’re present, including 24% of Asian Americans, 33% of Blacks and 39% of Hispanic viewers, according to the report. Asian-American-owned TV stations reach more than 200,000 adults 18 and up in the top 48 U.S. markets, while Native American-owned radio reaches nearly 800,000 listeners across the U.S.

 

“These are our first steps to bring forward some of the most important metrics that the industry has asked us for about diverse media entities,” said Stacie M. de Armas, senior VP of diverse consumer insights and initiatives, DE&I practice, Nielsen.

 

“We have aggregated really important data for national television, local radio and local television,” de Armas said. “These essentially are numbers that can be used by planners and buyers looking to invest in diverse-owned entities in whatever market they're interested in.”

 

Canela Media, a Latina-owned media company that has participated in Nielsen’s pilot initiative, started initially with one measured campaign and increased that to five within one week.

 

“Our partnership with Nielsen has enabled us to deliver the granular level of transparency and measurement our clients demand,” said Isabel Rafferty, founder and CEO of Canela Media, in a statement.

 

Carlos Santiago, co-founder of the Association of National Advertisers Alliance for Inclusive Multicultural Marketing and president and chief strategist of consulting firm SSG, said in a statement that the Nielsen report data “gives media buyers a view into the impact of diverse media and will facilitate increased investment from media agencies and major advertisers.”

 

Marketers and agencies — including P&G, Unilever and WPP’s GroupM — have lobbied Nielsen in recent years for better measurement of minority-owned media as they look to increase spending there. But the media companies are often smaller players in smaller markets that are harder to measure accurately, and they often can’t afford subscription fees for Nielsen data, said Gonzalo del Fa, president of GroupM Multicultural, during Ad Age Next: CMO virtual panel last year.

 

In an interview last year, P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard said his company has been asking Nielsen “how big is the market, so we can really make sure we understand how much inventory and spending is actually available.” As part of that effort, Pritchard said P&G shared its own list of minority-owned media companies with Nielsen.

15713: Publicis Media Promotes DIME—And Probably Pennies—For Minority Media.

 

Adweek reported Publicis Media is pushing diversity efforts in media through something labeled “DIME Marketplace”—an acronym for Diverse and Inclusive Media Exchange. Seems like an appropriate moniker, as minority media probably gets a dime—or crumbs—versus every dollar received by White media.

 

Has Byron Allen approved this initiative?

15464: Coca-Cola Pouring Patronizing Propaganda…?

 

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.

15341: IPG Equity Upfront Downplays IPG Inequities.

 

Advertising Age reported on the inaugural Equity Upfront event from IPG Mediabrands, designed to spotlight Black-owned media and consumers for major White advertisers. Sounds like minority media brands are gonna pitch for crumbs. Wonder if IPG will be upfront about its own dismal diversity ratings, despite decades of delusional denial and downright gobbledygook.

 

IPG Plans Upfront Event Focused On Black-Owned Media And Consumers

 

Equity Upfront will highlight brands including BET, Essence and Urban One

 

By Jeanine Poggi

 

IPG Mediabrands will look to garner awareness and shift dollars to Black-owned and -focused media businesses with a week-long event that highlights these companies.

 

In the same way media giants battle for ad dollars every spring in the so-called upfronts, IPG’s Equity Upfront will highlight linear, streaming, digital, radio and print brands such as Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios, BET Network, Essence Communications and Urban One, among others. Historically, these brands have not usually brought in the same share of ad dollars as other media groups.

 

So, these media organizations will get the chance to make pitches to Mediabrands clients such as American Express, BMW, CVS Health/Aetna, Johnson & Johnson and others as the industry plans upfront deals for the new fall season.

 

“As we reviewed our media partnerships at Mediabrands, we saw the need to be more inclusive in our media investment strategies with Black audiences,” Daryl Lee, Mediabrands global CEO, said in a statement. “The Equity Upfront is an opportunity to enact real change by increasing investment in often underrepresented media businesses that reflect the significant influence of Black consumers and trendsetters in the economy.”

 

The goal with the event is to move beyond intent and into actionable steps with minority and Black media partnerships, said Dani Benowitz, president, U.S., Magna.

 

“The minority consumer’s consumption patterns are influential across all media and we must take accountable steps forward to address the inequities in how we invest. I have no doubt this critical initiative will urge other industry partners to see where there are gaps in their media approach and how they’re contributing to BIPOC media partner oversight,” she said in a statement.

 

While the first Equity Upfront, which will kick off on March 15, will focus on partnerships with Black-owned and -targeted media businesses, Mediabrands will expand partnership efforts with other multicultural platforms including but not limited to the Latinx, Asian and LGBTQIA+ audiences.

11850: BET Total Market Segregation.

Oh, look—BET is jumping on the Total Market bullshit bandwagon. Too bad Total Market still equals a teeny fraction of crumbs for minority media and minority agencies. BET can bet on it.

9153: Latino Media Treated Like, Well, Latinos.

From Adweek…

Hispanic Media Disconnect

Telemundo and Univision still get just a sliver of the ad market. What gives?

By Anthony Crupi

Spanish-language broadcasters raked in a record $2.15 billion in 2011-12 upfront commitments, but executives at Univision and Telemundo believe that many marketers are still guilty of undervaluing the Hispanic TV marketplace.

Despite earning bragging rights as the only broadcasters to post ratings gains this year, the two rivals are all but segregated from the English-language broadcasters. Not only are Univision and Telemundo’s respective upfront presentations pushed to the margins of the mid-May schedule, but both nets are obliged to wait for the Big Five to wrap up their business before they can begin engaging with buyers. (The Hispanic nets nailed down the last of their upfront deals in late July, a good seven weeks after ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and The CW finished writing deals.)

Univision hauled in $1.75 billion in early commitments for the upcoming TV season, and while that’s nothing to sneeze at—to put the number in perspective, it’s more or less the same amount NBC took in during its upfront sellathon—media spend on Hispanic TV remains disproportionately slight. “We need to get advertisers and brands awakened to the fact that Hispanics are a trillion-dollar economy in the United States,” says Randy Falco, president and CEO of Univision. “They represent 16 percent of the population. The budgets for advertisers should reflect the same thing. Fifteen [percent] to 20 percent of their budgets should be set aside to reach Hispanics every single year.”

Marketers last year spent $4.83 billion on Spanish-language TV (broadcast, cable, and spot), up 9 percent from a year earlier, according to Kantar Media. Procter & Gamble, the biggest investor in Hispanic-targeted media, plunked down $197.7 million in 2010 to reach Spanish-speaking Americans, or just 4 percent of its total media budget ($4.61 billion).

Telemundo also enjoyed a robust upfront, taking in approximately $400 million in advance sales, an improvement of 20 percent versus the prior-year period. Of the $88 million in new business that found its way into the Hispanic TV market, Telemundo landed $48 million, or 55 percent.

Dan Lovinger, Telemundo’s evp of advertising sales and integrated marketing, said he’s encouraged by the agency world’s response to the 2010 Census data. (In the last decade, the Hispanic population skyrocketed 43 percent to 50.5 million.) “We’ve seen a significant shift in the agency community in the past six months to a year,” Lovinger says. “Many agencies are starting to create a one-world planning system, where the Hispanic marketplace isn’t separated from the general marketplace.”

Still, Lovinger says there’s room for improvement. “Spanish-language TV gets about 4 percent of all U.S. TV spend,” he says. “If you look at the numbers, there’s definitely an injustice.”

9144: Money Talk & More With Earl G. Graves.

Advertising Age President and Editor-in-Chief Rance Crain interviewed Black Enterprise Founder and Publisher Earl G. Graves, who was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame this year. BTW, why did it take so freaking long to include Graves in the elitist club?

Earl Graves on the Importance of Black-Owned Media

The Newest Member of the Advertising Hall of Fame on the ‘Paucity of Publications’ Reaching an Audience Hungry for Information

By Rance Crain

There are definite advantages to publishing a magazine aimed at a black audience.

That’s the opinion of Earl G. Graves Sr., the founder and publisher of Black Enterprise and one of this year’s inductees into the Advertising Hall of Fame.

“Because there’s such a paucity of African-American magazines that are out there, I don’t think we are going to have the diminution that some of our fellow publishers might have,” Mr. Graves told me in a video interview. There’s Ebony and Jet, Black Enterprises and Essence (no longer African-American-owned).

“And so there’s a paucity of publications that are really first class that are reaching an audience more and more hungry for information.” But, he added, that audience wasn’t always appreciated.

“When I was first out selling Black Enterprise, I had people that would ask me, ‘What black business class?’ and they would ask me, ‘What black professionals?’ And I actually had people tell me in the very beginning that they didn’t want to associate their brand with the African-American market.”

But some advertisers signed up. Mr. Graves told Fortune Small Business in 2003 that Black Enterprise’s first long-term advertiser, Carter Products, wrote a check for a full year of ads before the magazine hit newsstands. Carter’s Little Liver Pills, Mr. Graves said, “were supposed to be so effective that even after you died your liver would still be flapping around and you’d have to beat it to death with a stick. In that first year we had $900,000 in ad revenues, and the magazine was profitable by its tenth issue.”

And on the race-relations front, progress was being made. At the Hall of Fame dinner, Bill Cosby was presented the President’s Award for Special Lifetime Contributions to Advertising. “What Bill Cosby did was to convince all of America to like Jell-O. And now we have an African-American president. And that’s not to say that Jell-O had anything to do with making Mr. Obama president, but the environment was there in order to let that happen,” Mr. Graves observed.

So compared to what he encountered back in the ‘70s, when he started Black Enterprise, “we’re making enormous progress in this country. … I never really, quite honestly, thought that we would see an African-American president in my lifetime. I was thrilled to be able to contribute to his campaign,” he said.

Mr. Graves has built an impressive media operation. In addition to the magazine, the family business includes a book-publishing house (he wrote the best-seller “How to Succeed in Business Without Being White”), two syndicated TV shows and business and lifestyle events. He also co-founded a private-equity fund with Citigroup to invest in minority businesses.

So does he see the day when he would align himself with a larger publisher? “Not at this time. These are very tough times, I want to be very clear. And were it not for the other entities we’re involved in, it would be difficult. The events that we have. The internet, which obviously is a big thing and which my son is still explaining to me how it works, in terms of why it will make the money that he thinks it will.” (Mr. Graves has three sons in the business.)

He added that “there’s something to be said for an entity which is owned by people who don’t look like everybody else. … I want my grandchildren to tell their children about what we did at Black Enterprise and how we brought people together at conferences, and how our Women of Power conference, which we have every year, is probably one of our most dynamic. You know, black and white women, when they decide to do something, they get on with it.”

Mr. Graves said he “married over my head. My wife, Barbara, is my partner. She has made an enormous difference in my life. I love her more each day.” He and his wife “are set back with cancer right now,” and she is undergoing radiation treatment. But “she gets up every morning, she’s out the door by the time I get out of bed, going right over to get the treatment, and then coming right back. You wouldn’t know—you might think she went down to the laundromat.”

Mr. Graves doesn’t think now is the best time to start a new magazine. “We’re bringing along a generation that doesn’t want to cuddle up in bed with a magazine—they want everything that’s quick. And I think that’s unfortunate. I don’t think they have a chance to relax and see life a little bit slower. And my sense is the country’s not going to be the better for it. They’re not going to enjoy the kind of things that my wife and I did growing up.”

8642: FCC To Fight Radio Racism.

From Adweek…

FCC Promises Action on Discrimination in Ads, But Can It Deliver?

Regulator targets broadcasters, not advertisers on “no Urban,” “no Hispanic” buys

By Katy Bachman

For some time now, advertisers’ practice of making radio buys that come with “no Urban” and “no Hispanic” strings attached has been the industry’s dirty little secret. Now, after years of inaction, the Federal Communications Commission is picking up its cudgel and threatening to get tough with broadcasters who allow that kind of discrimination when they sell airtime.

The commission's enforcement bureau will now require stations to include a non-discrimination clause in their ad contracts, and certify during their license renewal that advertisers did not place a buy that intentionally bypassed Urban or Latino stations.

The issue has been around since the late 1990’s, thanks to the leak of a damning internal memo from a Katz Radio sales rep that called Urban listeners "suspects," not "prospects.” Around the same time, "When Being No. 1 is Not Enough," a report delivered to the FCC, showed that minority stations don't earn as much revenue per listener as general market stations, at least in part because of the industry practice of making ad buys that specifically exclude radio stations that cater to a minority audience.

The FCC doesn’t have any power over advertisers, and can’t control the way they target their buys. But it does have authority over stations, so in 2008—nearly a decade after the Katz memo and landmark study— it adopted a rule that required stations to include nondiscrimination clauses in sales contracts.

The enforcement action for the rule, which came this week, was long overdue, a point minority groups had made last month in a scathing letter sent to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

But the rule might be more of a feel-good thing than anything else. It’s not clear that the FCC can really do much to stop the practice—nor is it clear that the problem is still as widespread as it was when it was first brought to the regulator’s attention.

“Trying to use the FCC’s authority over broadcasters as a method to modify the conduct of advertisers (who are generally beyond the FCC's authority) is a futile approach,” Scott Flick, a partner with Pillsbury Law, wrote on the firm’s CommLawCenter blog.

“I don't know if anyone figured out if it would actually accomplish anything,” Flick told Adweek.

But minority groups see the FCC’s enforcement action as a big step forward. “This [will ensure] that the buy was created without discrimination,” said David Honig, executive director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council.

8556: FU, FCC.

From Adweek…

Minority Groups Lambaste FCC for Inaction

Congressman says commission only good for “lip service and platitudes”

By Katy Bachman

In the two years since President Obama named his law school buddy Julius Genachowski as chair of the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC has depended on support from minority groups for its biggest policy initiatives, including net neutrality and the National Broadband Plan. Now those groups are looking for some payback, or at least more attention.

“We had the administration’s back. Now the administration should turn their authority to this objective,” said David Honig, president and executive director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council.

In a Feb. 22 letter to Genachowski, 23 minority groups—including the MMTC, the NAACP and Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition—blasted the commission for what they said has been a poor civil rights record recently. The groups charge that the FCC has dragged its feet on just about every minority-related responsibility it has.

“We did not think it possible that…the status of civil rights at the FCC would get even worse, but it has,” the groups wrote.

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., who is a senior member of the House committee that has oversight responsibility for the FCC, was copied on the letter. In a statement that his office provided to Adweek, Rush—a former Black Panther—said he agreed with the sentiments expressed in the letter.

“I have been grossly underwhelmed by the lip service and platitudes I have heard from this commission,” Rush said. “Their words aren’t matching up with their actions.”

Asked by Adweek to respond to the minority groups, FCC spokesman Robert Kenny said by e-mail that the FCC was “committed to upholding and fostering the civil rights of every American.” Kenny also offered a few examples. “This FCC has made great strides in this area, from its work with Comcast and NBCU and fixing key provisions in the Sirius-XM merger to working with Congress to solve a significant dispute over Arbitron’s portable people meter service,” he said.

The statistics show that whatever the FCC has been doing or not doing, improving minority media ownership remains an uphill climb.

“Minority television ownership has decreased by 50 percent since 1999. Minority radio ownership has declined by 9 percent just within the last three years. Minority wireless and cable system ownership levels are near zero. Finally, minority radio journalism employment has plummeted to less than 1 percent, a level not seen since 1950,” the minority-group letter said.

8427: NBCU Comcast Deal Minority Report.

From Advertising Age…

Minority Content Helped Seal NBC Universal Deal for Comcast

But Will Commitment Help Marketers Looking to Spend More Advertising Dollars in the Sector?

By Edmund Lee

NEW YORK—As it turns out, minority programming became the linchpin to Comcast’s expensive and hard-fought campaign to win federal approval for its merger with NBC Universal. In what some observers saw as a cynical, yet savvy ploy, the cable giant specifically sought to appease Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat who had expressed concerns that the merger would drown out diverse voices in an increasingly conglomerated media world.

Comcast put her at ease by agreeing to add at least four African-American-managed or -owned cable networks and four Latino-owned or -managed networks over the next eight years, as well as some English-language programming geared toward Asian Americans. Subsequently, Ms. Clyburn voted to approve the merger in a 4-1 ruling that turned Comcast into what some now see as the most powerful media company on the planet.

Eight more minority-owned or minority-managed channels would seem to be good news for general-market marketers that say they want to spend in the minority media sector but often can’t find enough places to put their money. But will that actually help marketers looking to spend more advertising dollars in the sector?

It’s a touchy subject and one that few industry executives would publicly say was even a matter of concern. Over the years, major marketers have openly stated their commitment to spend more advertising dollars in minority media, whether in TV, magazines or newspapers, but goals varied from company to company and were entirely voluntary, making it a fairly opaque process. Companies did not have to answer to any independent body or open their books to show exactly how much they had spent in minority-owned media. In addition, there were questions over what constituted minority ownership or management.

“What is minority-owned media?” one media buyer asked. “BET is owned by Viacom, and they say they’re urban content, but if a channel like BET doesn’t get what they want, they start accusing people of being biased.”

Most marketers, according to this person, are looking to reach as many consumers as possible, regardless of ethnicity, and reaching out to minority media is often done separately, typically as part of a corporate “goodwill” initiative, without any real concern over the advertising’s effectiveness. “When they do that, it doesn’t come out of the advertising budget,” the buyer said.

Comcast’s concessions came partly under pressure from various advocacy groups, which underscores that these new channels, which are yet to be named, were borne out of a political arrangement instead of a business one.

“I have to admit to being always a little bit skeptical to corporate actions that are being defined first and foremost as actions taken because of the twisting of elbows,” said Jeff Yang, VP-global media entertainment technology at consumer research firm Iconoculture and a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’m not saying that these initiatives are going to fail,” he continued. “I do think, however, we need to be vigilant that these types of investment are not seen as nominal bones thrown to allay the very real concerns on the part of minority advocates.”

Whether Comcast’s merger with NBC Universal will make it any easier for companies looking to make those “goodwill” commitments, however, is still unknown.

“It’s hard to say if the merger means anything to our clients about minority groups,” said Ethan Heftman, senior VP-director of national broadcast at Initiative. “Decisions around that are similar to every other decision we make for our clients—it’s about what business opportunity are they trying to fulfill?”

7582: Census Messes With Negro Newspapers…?

From BNET…

The Census Ad Campaign and the Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations for Black Newspapers

By Jim Edwards

Ad agencies Globalhue and DraftFCB and their client the Census Bureau are all frantically spinning their misguided decision to wring government propaganda posing as news from black newspapers, as noted by BNET on March 11. But that doesn’t let them off the hook. Their statements all make sad, possibly racist, assumptions about black-owned and black-targeted newspapers that would never arise if we were talking about mainstream media.

I’m not a fan of George W. Bush’s phrase, “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” but this case looks like a textbook example.

The backstory: Globalhue (whose CEO Don Coleman is pictured) told black publishers in a letter that if they did not provide six news articles about the census in their papers then advertising buys would be “canceled immediately.” That placed those newspapers in a position of providing tax-funded government propaganda posing as news, without disclosure to readers, in return for ad buys — something that would never happen at The New York Times or USA Today.

The statements by the two companies and the Census Bureau — published here in full after the jump — all confirm that the scheme existed, but they attempt to justify it by saying that it was voluntary, “a standard industry practice,” and that all newspapers were treated the same way.

Some of this just isn’t true. Globalhue’s statement says that the National Newspaper Publisher Association — which represents black publishers — was in on the scheme, and that in addition to six news articles the papers would also provide two editorials. In that sense, the scheme was worse than I first reported.

Second, it is simply not “standard” that newspapers supply coverage in return for ad buys — not at mainstream (or “white,” if you want that decoded) newspapers and news organizations.

Third, the notion that the scheme was voluntary stands in stark contrast to the letter sent by Globalhue to NNPA, which said:

In lieu of free ad space, all papers must agree to running six articles (preferably during hiatus weeks) about the Census 2010 as well as two editorials. If paper does not agree to the added value stipulations, buy will be canceled immediately.

Here’s the bottom line: Black newspaper readers, and anyone who cares about the integrity of the news business in general, should be outraged by this. The NNPA was targeted for this scheme by Globalhue, a black ad agency, with the expectation that it would go along. And, according to the NNPA’s own statement, they went along willingly, compromising their standards for money. I challenge Globalhue — or DraftFCB — to produce a letter sent to a mainstream news organization that contains a similar threat to cancel ad buys if they don’t cough up pro-census headlines.

Globalhue guessed correctly there would be lower standards in black media. I don’t know which is sadder: The fact that an ad agency whose sole mission is to stand up for black consumers lowered its standards at the first hurdle; or the fact that black publishers, whose sole mission is to serve their readers, thought this was a good idea.

7574: Minorities Fare Better In Advertising…?

Adweek reported ad spending for Latinos and Blacks fared better than the overall market. Um, the story seems to ignore the fact that minority audiences continue to receive proportionately less spending than the overall market.

Multicultural Ad Spending Outpaced Market
Ad spending in Spanish-language and African-American media sagged, but still outperformed other segments

Katy Bachman, Mediaweek

Ad spending in Spanish-language and African-American media fared better than the overall ad market in 2009.

Spending declined 4.7 percent in Spanish-language media and 7.3 percent in African-American media, according to a Nielsen report released today. This compares to a 9 percent drop in overall domestic ad spending last year.

Spanish-language ad spending was down by nearly $270 million last year for a total of $5.4 billion spent in Spanish-language media. Declines in magazines, newspapers, TV and radio were offset by a 32 percent increase in spending on cable TV to nearly $427 million overall. While Spanish-language spot TV spending was down 10 percent, the segment still attracted the most advertising dollars at more than $1.5 billion.

African-American media lost more than $153 million in ad spending across all segments with the exception of cable TV, which increased more than 35 percent to $728 million. The biggest spending decreases were in network TV (down 72 percent to $26.6 million) and national magazines (down more than 33 percent to $353.8 million). In total, spending in African-American media exceeded $1.9 billion.

The top-spending category for both Spanish-language media and African-American media was quick-service restaurants, which increased 13.9 percent in Spanish-language media and 19.2 percent among African-American media.

The fastest-growing category in Spanish-language media segment was satellite communications, up 77.3 percent. Insurance was the fastest-growing category among African-American media, up 28.6 percent. Auto was the second-biggest category for both Spanish-language and African-American media, down 38.8 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively.