Outdoor advertising company Adshel has unveiled its new ethnicity targeting initiative, which claims to use geo-targeting tools to identify high-density locations of each ethnic community, and as a result serve up targeted ads to specific audiences.

The launch follows recently released ethnic urban projections at the Outdoor Media Associations’ ’Future Cities’ event that cited Australia’s urban ethnic population is projected to increase to 40 per cent by 2050.

Through this initiative, Adshel hopes to give advertisers the opportunity to run campaigns that better target, reach and, ultimately, engage across a multicultural Australia with its audience profiling capabilities including Roy Morgan Helix Persona.

Adshel head of marketing, Charlotte Valente said the initiative takes everyday outdoor audience targeting to a new level.

“The proportion of Australians who were born overseas has hit its highest point – 28 per cent of the population, or 6.6 million Australians, were born overseas,” she said.

“With these numbers steadily on the rise, we have seen an increasing demand for targeting audiences from different ethnic backgrounds, ensuring relevant and engaging creative. To be able to communicate with this valuable audience in their own language sends a relatable and impactful message.”

Asked if the venture could potentially suffer backlash as a result of racial stereotyping, Valente told B&T they expected a positive response.

“On the contrary, this is about delivering information that has true relevance to them. Australia is fortunate enough to be a diversified, multi-cultural country,” she said.

“We are expecting a positive response, acting as a channel for brands to demonstrate they understand their audiences – ethnic or not – and can communicate with them in a way that engages and relates to them.

“We have a national network that allows brands to precisely target any audience or demographic.

“A perfect example would be a brand like SBS who has programmes that are relevant to various ethnic communities. The ability to promote those programmes at the heart of each ethic community not only delivers greater campaign effectiveness for SBS but ensures the audience is informed of relevant products and services available to them.”

The official launch follows trials with SBS targeting Chinese communities during Chinese New Year that delivered over 8.5million contacts across Sydney over a two-week period.