The ANA Alliance for Inclusive & Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) unveiled a set of key priorities for the coming year that are specifically designed to help marketers increase their focus on multicultural marketing to help drive overall corporate growth.
The announcement was made today (11/6) in Miami during day two of the three-day 2017 Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference of the ANA (Association for National Advertisers), which founded the AIMM in October 2016 to create a powerful, unified voice that elevates multicultural and inclusive marketing to promote business growth in an increasingly diverse marketplace. The AIMM is an outgrowth of the ANA Masters Circle, a community of chief marketing officers who have developed a 12-point action plan to galvanize the CMO community and drive growth. One of those points focuses on inclusiveness, diversity, and multicultural marketing.
The AIMM’s key objective is to bring together senior thought leaders from the African-American, Hispanic, Asian, LGBT, and general market communities to create a united blueprint for the development of multicultural marketing and build brands and business results for all ANA/AIMM constituents.
The AIMM is co-chaired by Bob Liodice, CEO of the ANA, and Michael Lacorazza, EVP of brand and advertising-integrated marketing at Wells Fargo. Liodice also announced at the conference that Tony Rogers, chief marketing officer at Walmart Stores, Inc., has been appointed AIMM vice chairman for 2018 and will be named chairman for 2019–20.
“We’re confident we can make significant down payments toward the overall goal of inclusiveness,” said Lacorazza. “Our work to date has been designed help marketers quantify the business opportunity to drive growth, improve the competency of multicultural marketing, and attract the best talent. The passion, focus, and level of detail that AIMM members have demonstrated is evident.”
The AIMM’s key priorities were established over the past year in a series of meetings among the nation’s top marketers, including ANA corporate members such as Clorox, Coca-Cola, Hallmark, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, Prudential, Verizon, Walmart, and Wells Fargo. The priorities include:
- Case for Change: The AIMM plans to provide qualitative and quantitative information that will help transform the industry into a more inclusive, diverse, relevant, and proactive platform for change to reinforce business growth.
- Talent and Education: The AIMM will partner with the ANA Education Foundation (AEF) on the MADE (Marketing and Advertising Education) 2018 internship program, in which half of at least 50 new internships will be granted to multicultural students. All of those interns would be assigned a mentor from a participating ANA or AIMM member. The program is a leadership development initiative for students to become the future leaders of the marketing and advertising industry. Internship applications will begin to be accepted the week of November 13, 2017.
- Total Market: The AIMM will develop and publish a playbook of case studies and best practices on “Total Market,” a marketing approach that integrates diverse segment considerations from inception through execution.
- Data and Metrics: The AIMM will lead an industry-wide initiative to identify, prioritize, and close existing data representation and quality gaps in multicultural segments. The effort will examine what impact cultural relevance has on digital campaigns as opposed to campaigns without cultural insights, regardless of language.
Extending AIMM’s reach
The AIMM also said it will begin accepting applications from a wide range of companies seeking to join its ranks — a departure from its inaugural “invitation only” method of building membership. The move will allow the AIMM to expand its roster beyond the 37 charter members who were invited to join when the alliance was founded. Effective immediately, AIMM membership will now be open to all ANA members as well as a select number of agencies, media companies, research companies, and trade associations.
“Expanding the AIMM’s membership roster allows us to reach critical mass in our continuing efforts to address the increasingly important issues of diversity and multicultural influence in our industry,” Liodice explained. “And our key priorities will help marketers energize their multicultural marketing efforts as a pathway to increased growth, which has suffered industrywide for the past few years.”
Companies seeking to apply for AIMM membership should contact Gilbert Dávila, chairman of the ANA’s Multicultural Committee and co-president of Dávila Multicultural Insights here.
Multicultural Excellence Awards
On opening night (11/5) of the ANA’s conference, the ANA Multicultural Excellence Awards were presented. MasterCard and its ad agency McCann New York/McCann XBC won the Best in Show honor for “Restroom for All,” a spot celebrating MasterCard’s support of the LGBT community via the company’s installation of a gender-neutral restroom at the 2016 Pride Parade in New York City.
In addition, grand prize winners were awarded in 12 categories for industry-leading advertising. The Best in Show award is given to the best of the grand prize winners in all 12 categories.
Now in their 17th year, the 2017 Multicultural Excellence Awards recognize client-side marketers together with their agency or media partners who produced multicultural advertising campaigns between June 2016 and June 2017. This year’s competition, open to both ANA members and nonmembers, received more than 200 entries.
The 2017 grand prize brand and agency winners in each of the categories are as follows:
Best in Show
MasterCard
McCann NY/McCann XBC
African-American
Ford
UWG (UniWorld Group)
Asian
Xoom
Keyframe, Inc.
Audio
Comcast/Xfinity
GALLEGOS United
Business-to-Business
Prudential
Prudential Advertising
Digital, Social and Mobile
Netflix (Narcos)
Alma DDB
Experiential Marketing
Square Enix
Liquid Advertising
Hispanic
Spring
Alma DDB
LGBT
MasterCard
McCann New York/McCann XBC
People with Disabilities
Jockey International
Pure Growth
Print
Comcast/NBCUniversal
Burrell Communications
Total Market
Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. (Motrin)
J. Walter Thompson
Significant Results
Diageo (Buchanan’s)
Anomaly
“The ANA is proud to honor all of this year’s winners,” said ANA CEO Liodice. “Their work represents the very best multicultural advertising in the country and stands as a brilliant example of excellence in this increasingly important arena.”
