Multicultural marketing is no longer an afterthought or a box ticking exercise, it is often a business necessity—but most brands are struggling to get it right. At Inclusivity with Impact, a B&T Breakfast Briefing in partnership with Identity Communications, a room full of marketers heard from brands doing it well, as well as advice from multicultural media owners about the compelling opportunity to reach a third of Australians who speak a language other than English at home.
McDonald’s is one brand that has embraced multicultural marketing not only because it works, but because it has many side benefits beyond campaign KPIs. Marketing director Amanda Nakad, who has worked at the Golden Arches for nearly eight years, said the fast food restaurant is increasing its investment in multicultural marketing organically.
“It’s an incredibly efficient way to reach a lot of people, and I think we’ve got the flexibility to have those one on one conversations and actually do it in a really kind of authentic and creative way,” she said
Speaking at the Inclusivity with Impact Breakfast Briefing event in partnership with multicultural marketing agency Identity Communications, Nakad added: “to be honest, it’s not just a proportion of our media plan anymore, but part of our DNA and the way that we do business everyday at the moment. Year on year, we are scaling up in this space as it starts to become more and more effective.”
McDonald’s began its multicultural marketing journey by testing the waters with a couple campaigns targeting Australia’s Asian community. As this worked, the fast food restaurant began branching campaigns out to Arabic and Indian communities and now it is always a part of campaign and media plans.
Nakad said authenticity and consistency are important in getting campaigns and messaging right to ensure “we’re talking to communities about things that they care about, and doing it in the way that they respond to”.
Beyond strong commercials, such as a positive return on marketing spend, multicultural marketing has other benefits. Internally it has inspired McDonald’s diverse workforce, “who feel seen and represented”, driven brand loyalty from and advocacy within Australia’s multicultural communities.
“Having some of these influences take the McDonald’s brand and use it in a way that reflects their communities is priceless,” she said.
‘Embrace change of get left behind’
Nakad was joined by AGL Energy head of brand Yasmina Pinto to discuss how they have been successful running multicultural marketing campaigns.
For AGL Energy, one of the benefits has been to enhance its customer service to non-English speaking communities about how they can save on energy costs during a cost of living crisis.
The campaign, which was done in partnership with Identity Communications and SBS included different communities offering energy tips in foreign languages and familiar settings. For example, one iteration involved a Vietnamese family providing tips while singing karaoke.
“The driving force was more of a customer service job rather than brand. It was basically to do right by our customers during a really tough time for everyone in the country. A side benefit of that was that our employees were really proud, they saw themselves represented for the first time, and so it really opened up the door to doing much more of this multicultural marketing.”
Pinot admits that resources and patchy measurement can be a hurdle for brands to invest in multicultural marketing, but reckons the upside outweighs the risk.
“Don’t be scared to explore,” she said. “Customers are changing. Social media, platforms, media and the way that people engage and consume are changing. So we need to keep changing. Make sure you find the right partners to support you.”
Mythbusting, media & measurement
Earlier at the event, media owners Multicultural Outdoor, New Age Media and EternityX discussed some of the challenges and myths about multicultural marketing in front of an audience of 100 markets and industry executives.
“There is a perception that it’s too hard and takes too long,” said Vicki Richardson, the national director of marketing and sales at New Age Media, which translates radio ads into more than 100 languages at speed.
“As a supplier, we take all that hard work away and make it as easy as possible for you with the translations and production of ads. Research shows that if a brand takes the effort to translate into a customer’s own language, 52 per cent will stay loyal to that brand. This is an underserved and, in many cases, highly affluent market. There should be a line on your schedule for multicultural marketing devoted to the 30 per cent of people who speak a language other than English at home.”
Multicultural Outdoor head of sales Angelo Poli said that another myth is that it is hard to reach these audiences. Multicultural Outdoor provides advertisers the chance to reach audiences through a network of screens in multicultural shops and supermarkets, said: “It’s not just an SBS play anymore. The fact is there is a broad range of opportunities and formats for brands to connect with these communities directly. It’s a multimedia opportunity that already exists.”
EternityX’s global chief business officer Deric Wong, who flew to Sydney from Hong Kong to join the panel, pointed out several mistakes that brands commonly make when trying to engage with Chinese audiences in Australia, such as generalising that all Chinese people are similar and generic messaging.
“Personalised communications is very important and Chinese audiences use multiple media but are still very heavy on Chinese digital platforms. Not having your brand on a Chinese digital platform is a risk that your brand won’t be discovered.”
All three panellists admit that multicultural marketing measurement is not perfect and inconsistent, a challenge that was acknowledged by Nakad and Pinto, but there is plenty of evidence that multicultural marketing done well drives results.
Identity Communications managing director Santosh Murthy said the business case to invest in multicultural marketing as permanent fixture in a media plan, rather than an add on or afterthought, has never been stronger.
“The number of people that speak a language other than English at home is growing at a rate of two and a half times that of the English speaking population,” he said.
“There is now incredible commercial potential with an ever growing and large multicultural audience that has significant buying power. There is now a breadth and scope of multicultural media that allows for creativity, rigour and optimisation in a multichannel approach. With the audience, the media, and the knowledge and expertise to unlock growth.”
This year, B&T is partnering Identity Communications to raise awareness, educate and encourage the industry to embrace multicultural marketing and its many benefits. Watch this space.
