By Laurel Rossi, Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer at Infillion
What if your multicultural marketing strategy is missing the mark—not because of the creative, but because of where and how you deliver it? In advertising, the spotlight often shines on representation and cultural relevance within the ad itself. But here’s the twist: even the most thoughtfully crafted creative can fall flat if the strategy does not reflect the preferences and behaviors of the audience it’s trying to reach.
When marketers sit down to ideate on how to reach multicultural audiences, typically they prioritize diverse representation within ads, or incorporating cultural messages that are likely to resonate with a particular group. And this is great, provided it’s approached with authenticity, and the target cultural demographic is represented in the creation of the ad as well as in the creative itself.
But most marketers are missing something: what about the media strategy?
Media strategy shapes everything from determining ad frequency to choosing what interactive features to include in an ad, and our research has shown that different cultural groups have very different preferences about this – and as with all things multicultural marketing, it’s best to listen to what the target audience has to say. This fall, we released a report, Engaging Multicultural Audiences, that underscores just how important it is to understand these nuances.
We zeroed in on streaming video ads for this research, because streaming platforms are a nexus for multicultural audiences – they offer extensive content, including multilingual and international content, that speaks directly to those viewers. They also offer a fresh canvas for creativity. Fine-tuning the elements of an ad obviously couldn’t be a consideration in the days of linear video – a TV spot was a TV spot, and the only ways to alter the way it was shown to a particular audience was the choice of content it was run against, or perhaps the time of day it aired. But with interactive video ads, there are a myriad of options– turning an ad into a quiz, showcasing products interactively, or guiding viewers down the path to purchase.
Changing How We Think About Multiculturalism
To put into perspective how current common multicultural efforts work, here’s a question to ask yourself. If you saw that an ad was working well with U.S. audiences, would you ever think: “This would be a huge hit in Malta and Uruguay?”
The logic is as follows: the vast majority of ad dollars in the United States go to Caucasian audiences. With an 89.1% Caucasian population, it would then stand to reason that U.S.-based ads could seamlessly slot into Maltese ad strategies.
If this sounds like convoluted logic, that’s because it is. And that’s exactly what we’re doing when we corral people from the 21 Spanish-speaking countries of the world into a single group that makes purchasing decisions as a bloc. Such a one-size-fits-all approach ignores the complex layers of culture, motivation, and preferences that drive consumer behavior.
It might sound contradictory, but multiculturalism goes far beyond complexion or language. As an advertiser, you’re better served reaching specific demographics by keying in on things like shopping motivators, preferred means of ad consumption, desired budget, consumer pain points, and more. Simply changing “Click Here” to “Haz Clic Aquí” is a low-effort move that will be rewarded with equally ineffectual numbers.
Why It Matters
The way we treat members of our audience – any member of our audience – should mirror that of any service-based industry. At its core, marketing should mirror any great customer experience, and great customer experiences go far beyond seating people at the same table just because they share a common language or ancestry.
Great customer experience focuses on relieving pain points while solving problems. Put in over-simple terms: adding more good things while removing more bad things. That can be achieved through the study of motivations and preferred ad consumption – not how they conjugate their verbs.
And it’s not just respectful—it’s profitable. Consider this: U.S. Latinos contribute $3.7 trillion to the economy, making their GDP the fifth largest in the world. Yet only 4% of ad dollars target this demographic. Imagine ignoring a market the size of France’s GDP (the 8th largest GDP) and failing to commit to cracking it.
This is the missed opportunity we face today in the U.S.
Moving Forward
The path to successful multicultural marketing starts with a shift in mindset. It’s no longer enough to focus solely on representation or linguistic adaptation—audiences expect deeper engagement and personalization. This means investing in strategies that go beyond demographics to understand behaviors, motivations, and preferred experiences.
