The agency JWT, owned by one of the world’s leading advertising group WPP, will launch a new unit this week targeting ethnic minority communities. With the unit it hopes to reach a wider audience and target products more effectively.

Sandeep Vandher, a former account director at rival Saatchi & Saatchi, will lead the unit. He proposed the idea to JWT last year. The group now aims to create advertising campaigns that are specifically designed to appeal to ethnic minorities.

A Report of the Aspen Institute Forum on Diversity and the Media by Amy Korzick Garmer, Rapporteur, download article in pdf.

Executive Summary

Fundamental changes are taking place in the advertising marketplace. Audiences are moving away from big media and adopting niche media, with indisputable trends toward fragmentation, disintermediation and greater consumer control affecting the media sector. Consumers have expressed preferences for more personalized, relevant forms of media that speak directly to their needs and interests. Advertisers are experimenting with new ways of communicating with customers and searching for new ways of reaggregating audiences. In this new environment, new media expert Jeff Jarvis has observed, “the economies of scale must compete with the economies of small.

At the same time, the number of self-identified ethnic Americans, the number of businesses serving ethnic communities, the purchasing power of ethnic communities and the number of ethnic media outlets connecting them together are all on the rise. Taken together, the data are integral in making the business case for advertisers to engage more fully with and invest in ethnic media. Now may be a moment of great opportunity for ethnic media to leverage their connections in their communities and increase their participation in the marketplace for advertising. In doing so, the leaders of ethnic media must contend with the fundamental shifts in the rules governing advertising that threaten the revenue streams of mainstream and niche media alike. Moreover, they must overcome the barriers that have historically resulted in the undervaluing of ethnic media and directed advertising dollars for both commercial advertising and government-funded social marketing almost exclusively toward general market media.

This report is based on a roundtable conference convened by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, with funding provided by the Ford Foundation. The conference, “The Future of Advertising and the Attention Economy: Leveraging the Influence of Ethnic Media,” took place in May 2005 as part of the Aspen Institute Forum on Diversity and the Media.

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Atlanta Business Chronicle - September 1, 2006
by Erin Moriarty

Metro Atlanta’s Asian population and its buying power are increasing rapidly, creating fertile new ground for companies eager to reach one of the nation’s wealthiest demographic groups.

Asian buying power in Georgia will reach $7.4 billion in 2006, according to a new report on the multicultural economy from the Selig Center for Economic Growth at The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.

By Diane Anderson,

The ethnic make up of U.S. consumers is expanding, mixing and ready to spend. Are you ready to get their attention?

By 2020, America’s largest ethnic group will be “mixed,” a blend of the nation’s dominant racial groups – African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics and whites. The 2000 U.S. Census strengthens the point: The typical two-parent, same-race, same-religion, twocar, suburban household is giving way to an increasingly multiracial, multigenerational world. Although only 2 percent of the 2000 U.S. Census reported belonging to more than one race, those that did were typically young, with 42 percent of the 6.8 million declaring themselves multiracial being under 18. And the growth of the nation’s immigrant population outstrips that of other countries, so America will look radically different by 2040.

By Jim Kvicala

A report on minority buying power released today by the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business projects disposable income controlled by minorities will continue growing at a faster rate than that of white households at least through 2010.

“The fast-paced growth of minority buying power demonstrates the increasing economic clout of minority consumers,” said Jeff Humphreys, Selig Center director and the report’s author. “One implication is that business-to-consumer companies do not necessarily have to look overseas to find booming markets, as there are great opportunities right here in America’s multicultural economy.”