How does it feel when you’re watching television or scrolling through content, and you see nothing that reflects your life, your family, or your language? It’s not just a missed connection; it’s a feeling of being unseen, unspoken to, and fundamentally isolated. This was the raw, emotional truth that keynote speaker Sara Shams drove home during B&T’s recent ‘Inclusivity with Impact’ event. She highlighted that when our industry fails to acknowledge an audience’s background or identity – whether through disability or cultural heritage – the cost is deeply personal, writes MCO’s founder & CEO Ronnie Navani.
For brands, this isolation means we are not only losing the audience’s trust, but we are actively stifling our brand’s growth potential. Shams’s call to action was clear: brands must move the dial from passive inclusion to active influence, giving diverse audiences a genuine voice within our campaigns.
The Commercial Reward for Creative Courage
But what does this dedication to sensitive, audience-first creativity look like in practice?
The answer lies in examples like the highly effective Remitly campaign, an example shared during the panel by MCO CEO and founder Ronnie Navani on cultural sensitivity. The brand successfully shifted its focus to genuine culturally sensitive creative. Navani, who migrated to Australia from India when he was 18 years old, reflected on the creative in the Remitly campaign – a ‘Nani,’ an Indian Grandmother making naan bread – he spoke fondly of his Nani’s cooking and how this ad spoke to him.
The results aren’t just a campaign that performs well – it proves that when you overcome the fear of getting it wrong and commit to respecting and reflecting an audience’s identity, the commercial rewards are undeniable. They are the reward for building trust. This commitment to authenticity and connection is what separates market leaders from those left behind.
The Irrefutable Case for Investment
The demographic reality of Australia proves that the future growth of virtually every category – from retail and finance to technology and FMCG – is driven by first and second-generation migrants. According to the latest Census data, nearly half (48 per cent) of Australians have a parent born overseas, and more than one in four Australians (27 per cent) were themselves born overseas. Critically, over 5.5 million people (over 21 per cent of the population) speak a language other than English at home.
These are high-growth, high-value consumers. To treat them as a monolingual, homogenous segment is to actively leave money on the table. Brands must stop asking, “Why should we invest?” and start asking, “How long can we afford not to invest in a segment driving 80 per cent of urban population growth?”
The Creative Imperative: Authenticity Over Automation
The path to authentic connection requires a strategic shift from simple translation to creative sensitivity. As the panel experts discussed, literal translation fails because it loses the “soul” and the cultural texture of the message – the jokes, the family dynamics, the social norms. This need for authenticity extends to every element of the creative process. As an example, brands like Dove reinforce this principle by doubling down on using only real women in their campaigns, deliberately avoiding shortcuts like AI generation. If we are not willing to put in the effort to reflect genuine human experience, the work will fall flat.
Creative Sensitivity is the ultimate differentiator for growth:
1. In-language is trust: Communicating in a person’s mother tongue builds a foundational level of trust and emotional affinity that general market ads simply cannot touch.
2. Cultural nuance: It’s about more than the words. It’s about the visual cues, the colour palettes, and the context, the powerful cues that make the ad feel authentic, relevant, and respectful.
3. Curiosity-first design: It demands a brave, learning mindset, focusing on investing in creative tailored for the audience, not just translated for it.
The MCO advantage: Delivering connection where it matters.
Brands cannot achieve high-impact connection without platforms that are authentically integrated into multicultural communities.
Multicultural Outdoor (MCO) was founded on the singular principle of closing this critical gap. We are a Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) network specifically designed to place your brand’s sensitive, in-language creative directly within the hearts of key multicultural communities – in retail environments where these groups shop and gather to be connected to their home country.
At MCO, we are not selling mass reach; we are selling guaranteed relevance and connection. MCO offers the platform to deliver Sara Shams’s vision: giving your audience a genuine voice by communicating with them on their terms, in their space, in their language.
The opportunity for growth through authentic inclusion is monumental. The time for brand leaders to move from talking about diversity to actively investing in it is now. Start with curiosity, partner with expertise, and watch the dividends of genuine connection grow.
MCO is Australia’s leading Digital Out-of-Home network dedicated to connecting brands with multicultural communities through culturally sensitive and in-language advertising. To book a conversation with MCO simply email [email protected]. Or visit: mcomedia.com.au.
