Despite recent challenges to DE&I progress, the demand for inclusivity in digital media remains strong. Advertisers are waking up to the growing influence of underrepresented and marginalized groups and are looking to allocate portions of their digital media budgets to diverse-owned media platforms to better engage these groups. This approach has several benefits, like giving minority-owned businesses a seat at the table and ensuring that media dollars contribute to more equitable representation in advertising. 

But here’s the challenge. While a growing contingent, the number of diverse-owned media platforms is limited, making it difficult for buyers to fully achieve their diversity spending goals. This is where diverse-owned data can step in to bridge the gap. 

Diverse-Owned Media Supply vs. Demand 

The number of diverse-owned media platforms has surged in recent years, driven largely by the momentum of social justice movements like Black Lives Matter in 2020. Yet, despite the industry’s growth and well-earned recognition, demand for programmatic is outstripping available inventory. The shortage has led to bottlenecks, frustrating media buyers eager to invest. 

Additionally, some diverse-owned media platforms, while culturally rich and authentic, lack the scale needed to accommodate large programmatic buys. This often forces buyers to look for alternative ways to meet their diversity goals without compromising the reach and impact of their campaigns. 

Diverse-Owned Data: A Scalable Solution 

Diverse-owned data, on the other hand, offers a scalable and efficient solution to this supply-demand imbalance. Unlike media platforms, data has no cap on inventory. It can be applied flexibly across multiple campaigns, regardless of the media channel, ensuring that diversity goals are met consistently.  

By investing in diverse-owned data – data collected and owned by diverse entities – programmatic buyers can enhance the cultural relevance of their campaigns and precision in targeting specific hard-to-reach demographic groups. More importantly, it ensures that media budgets earmarked for diversity are spent effectively, overcoming the challenges posed by platform scarcity. 

Cultural Relevance at Scale 

Diving deeper, diverse-owned data enables advertisers to incorporate cultural sensitivity into campaigns at scale. Diverse audiences are far from monolithic, possessing unique preferences, behaviors and beliefs that demand a nuanced approach. Diverse-owned data is more likely to reflect these nuances, offering insights that are both deep and actionable. 

For instance, using diverse-owned data, a campaign targeting Hispanic Millennials in the U.S. can be tailored to reflect the specific cultural touchpoints that resonate with this audience, such as language preferences, cultural identity and media consumption habits. This level of specificity would be difficult to achieve through platform-based buys alone, especially given the limited number of diverse-owned media options available. 

Moreover, diverse owned data facilitates continuous optimization. As more campaigns are run, the data becomes richer and more refined, allowing for even greater accuracy in targeting and messaging. This iterative process helps build stronger connections with diverse audiences over time, leading to more effective campaigns. 

Rethinking Diversity Investments 

While the political appetite for DE&I may be waning, consumers are steadfast in their expectations of brands. In response, the advertising industry remains committed to championing diversity, but doing so will require programmatic buyers to rethink how they allocate their diversity budgets. While the focus on diverse-owned media platforms is commendable, it’s clear that there are challenges in relying solely on these platforms to meet diversity goals. 

Diverse-owned data offers a viable and scalable alternative, or a valuable complement, to existing services. It offers the flexibility to reach diverse audiences across any media, with the added benefit of cultural sensitivity and relevance. By integrating diverse-owned data into their strategies, programmatic buyers can ensure that their diversity initiatives are not only fulfilled but also drive meaningful engagement with the audiences they seek to reach.