How UM’s David Queamante Budgets for Diverse Audiences, Step by Step

Media planning targeting diverse audiences may need improvement. Despite a 40% multicultural population, only 5% of media investment is reportedly allocated to multicultural media. Media planners at brands and agencies must learn how to budget for this opportunity. The challenges include:

• Difficulty in quantifying the opportunity
• Not understanding media consumption
• Lack of access to/consistency in organizing the data points.
• Lack of objectivity among stakeholders

That is why Portada touched base with David Queamante, VP, Client Business Partner, UM Worldwide*. Queamante uses a 7-step process to improve diversity/ multicultural media budgeting based on the opportunity.

This process establishes a final ratio between the multicultural-specific media budget and the overall media budget. This is how it works:

Media Planning STEP 1: Determine Diverse/MC Target as % of overall Consumer Target

Questions Step 1 tries to answer: Who is the diverse audience, and how much of the total target do they represent? How many of these consumers are there?

Sources used to answer the above questions: Census, Nielsen, Proprietary Data, Polk Syndicated Research, etc.

Examples:

• Automotive-Mid-size Car Brand: Queamante says, “We help the client focus on who they should target; In this case, 25-54 year-old people who buy similar size-classes and have similar needs. Using Polk, Syndicated Research, and other data, we can see how many of those buyers are Hispanic, African American, Asian American, etc... For instance, we may arrive at 20% as a starting point for the African American audience , 25 % for Hispanic, 7% for Asian American, and a similar amount for LGBTQ+.
• Mortgage sector: “Using publicly-released mortgage data, syndicated and proprietary research, we estimate how many home purchases there may be, and how many existing homeowners may need to refinance. We can determine race and ethnicity within that pool of people as a starting point for our approach.,” says Queamante.

Outcome: This is the starting point for multicultural marketing efforts. For example, Hispanics are 20% of the target audience, so 20% of the marketing effort should be aimed at Hispanic audiences.

Preliminary audience ratio (in % of overall media budget) obtained in Step 1:

20%?

STEP 2: Quantify the Value of the Diverse Consumer?

Questions Step 2 is trying to answer. What is the multicultural consumer category consumption? Do they shop in the category more often?? Do they spend more per visit? Are they more likely to be in-market looking for your brand’s product/service? What is their ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend). The sources used to answer the above questions are MMM, Syndicated Studies, Shopper Data, Proprietary Data, etc.

Examples:

• QSR (Quick Service Restaurants): “This example considers that not all consumers are created equal,” Queamante asserts. For instance, for fast food, Hispanics spend roughly 20% more than non-Hispanic white visitors. They are also more likely to visit with a friend or family member, so, for QSR brands, Hispanics are more valuable. "

"All consumers are not created equal: For instance, for fast food, Hispanics spend roughly 20% more than non-Hispanic white visitors. They are also more likely to visit with a friend or family member."

• Children’s Clothing: “Hispanic parents spend a lot on children’s clothing,” says Queamante, “because culturally, Hispanics will do anything for their kids."Queamante notes that for the highest range of expenditures on children’s clothing, roughly ? of sales is to the Hispanic population. While Hispanics have, on average, less buying power than the U.S. consumer, they spend more on their kids; in this case buying power and consumer spending have little correlation,” Queamante states.
• Conclusion: For children's products, QSR, and many other sectors, Hispanics spend above the average U.S. consumer. For other categories, Hispanics are below, e.g., brokerage services.

Outcome:? Step 2 determines the ROI the group can provide. which is established through over/underspend factors.? The audience effort ratio obtained in Step 1 is adjusted to align with the opportunity; increase the effort if they are visiting/spending/consuming more, and decrease if they are not. ? Sticking with the hypothetical Hispanic audience in the first example, if Hispanics spend 20% more than the average U.S. consumer the 20% established under Step 1 is multiplied by 1.2. (Total 24%).

Preliminary audience ratio obtained in Step 2:

24%?

Media Planning STEP 3: Adjust for Projected Growth?

Questions Step 3 is trying to answer How is the population shifting?? Is the Diverse/multicultural target audience growing more rapidly? This step looks at the dynamic/growth for the market.” Last year's numbers are out of date,” Queamante notes; “You need to think about how the market is shifting to stay ahead of the curve.” Sources used to answer the above questions: Census, Nielsen, Syndicated Studies, Proprietary Data, etc.

Examples:

• Mortgage/Home Improvement: Queamante asserts: “We know that Hispanic and Black incomes are increasing; the populations and incomes are shifting. Black audiences are moving from the Northeast to the South (e.g., Georgia, Mississippi ), selecting a more suburban lifestyle to give up apartment rentals and buy properties in the South."
• Small Business Ownership: According to Queamante, the gig economy and small business ownership have increased since the pandemic, and people of color have led them. This is driven by a desire to find new and creative ways to get ahead that reward diverse audiences' hard-working ethos. The Black audience share of SBOs has risen 20%, and Hispanic has risen 21% in the most recent reporting period alone. "

"The gig economy and small business ownership have increased since the pandemic, and people of color have been leading them."

Outcome: Resize the audience effort based on population and income/lifestyle dynamics: increase or decrease allocation based on annual or 5-year projections. If, for instance, Hispanics are growing 4% faster than the average population, factor in 1.04. So 24% gets bumped up to 25% (0.24 x 1.04).

Preliminary audience ratio obtained in Step 3:

25%?

Media Planning STEP 4: Recognize the outsized influence of diverse and multicultural audiences?

Question Step 4 is trying to answer: How and to what degree do diverse audiences influence the overall population’s purchasing decisions?

Sources used to answer the above question:? Proprietary Research, Social Listening, Syndicated Studies, etc.

Example:

• Diverse Audiences are Tastemakers: Black and Hispanic audiences have influenced popular culture for as long as they’ve been in the U.S., especially for music (Country, Rock, and Hip-Hop) food (comfort foods and Latin flavors) and fashion/accessories (sneakers, jewelry, body image, etc.). Black audiences are huge influences on movies (tweeting, commenting, posting), and Soccer (Futbol) is slowly overtaking traditional U.S. sports. According to a UM study on the influence of diverse audiences on purchasing decisions, this impact can be quantified; for example, respondents are 25% more likely to say Hispanics influence their music preference.

Outcome: Recognize the impact of converting diverse audiences to your brand. Increase or decrease the marketing effort based on the audience's likelihood of influencing others in the category. Suppose the client’s product is music-related, continuing with the prior example from step 3 and knowing that Hispanics over-index in influencing music preference by 25%. In that case, the marketing effort toward Hispanics might be bumped up to? 31% (25% x1.25). Preliminary audience ratio obtained in Step 4:

31%?

The remaining 3 steps, which UM’s David Queamante uses in his media planning to establish budgets for diverse audiences, will be published on Thursday, June 20, 2024.

* David Queamante is a jury member for the Portada Awards. The?winners will be announced at Portada Live in New York City on September 19.

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