"The Room Where It Happens" -- How AIMM Is Igniting a Cultural Reckoning

Multiculturalism exists in many countries but embracing it and tapping into its power has been a systemic challenge across the world The Caribbean represents one of the most dynamic mix of cultures in the world with over 59 living languages capturing the traditions of Indigenous African European Indian and Chinese populationsLinManuel Miranda pictured at top captured the story of a historical figure from the Caribbean who embraced quotboisterous multiculturalismquot driven by his personal experiences born on the British island of Nevis raised on the Danish island of St Croix and attending a school run by a Sephardic Jewish woman who taught him Hebrew This immersion into a diversity of cultures and rich mosaic of thought is what is driving two other changeagents who like Miranda are using their craft to get more multicultural people into the room where it happensGilbert Damp225vila pictured below president and CEO at DMI a leading multicultural agency Lisette Arsuaga pictured below copresident and COO also from DMI Consulting and Carlos Santiago president of Santiago Solutions Group are cofounders of The Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing AIMMThey coincidentally also share Miranda39s Puerto Rican heritage The Alliance is focused on harnessing the power of cultural understanding in our industry to drive advertising and programming effectiveness Focusing on the dignity and equal rights of every person they have focused on ending the quotageold virus of racismquot in this country Organized under the Association of National Advertisers ANA with the ANA Educational Foundation read our profile of AEF here which serves as the bridge that connects the advertising marketing and academic communities Damp225vila emphasizes the role of AIMM is to quotuplift and prioritize all things multicultural and inclusive and help companies and brands drive growth in an increasingly diverse countryquotDamp225vila Arsuaga and Santiago hail from prestigious backgrounds Arsuaga worked with legends like Oprah and Maya Angelou in her role as a strategic communication and educational expert Damp225vila has led brands at bluechip organizations like PampampGCoca Cola and Disney Santiago founded and led a 3 billion multicultural and diversity business unit for NYNEXBell Atlantic Verizon39s precursor Tapping into their deep expertise they recognize the importance of strong purposedriven partnerships and expanding their capabilities and scale of impact by creating valuable alliancesOne key partner is Elliot Lum who runs growth and community at the ANA Education Foundation He is tasked with bridging the academic industry and talent community together for the AEF Specifically he is spearheading an initiative to bring the whole industry together in a farreaching and consequential alliance around key entrylevel diverse talent commitments involving AIMM and working closely Damp225vila Santiago and Arsuaga as well as Bob Liodice ANA president ampamp CEO and Bill Duggan ANA Group executive vice presidentThe AIMM team know that the road to true inclusion and belonging is going to take deep cultural transformation measurable and decisive action and courageous demonstrable leadershipThe 7point pledge launched by the ANA and AIMM garnering 600 industry signatures provides clarity and an urgent call to action on a number of fronts from equity in representation to removal of bias to inclusion and accuracy of dataDamp225vila who has served as chair of the ANA39s Multicultural Marketing and Diversity committee for over 20 years does point to some progress in particular around awareness and recognition of the impact multicultural customers can have on growthThe significant disconnect however is the fact that despite this acknowledgement only 16 of marketers infuse culture into multicultural communications Inspired by the old adage quotwhat gets measured gets donequot the Cultural Insights Impact Measure CIIM was created as an quotindustry leading metric that validates the impact and effectiveness of cultural insights in ads and programming making a direct correlation between culture and business performancequot According to Arsuaga the higher the measure the higher the impact on brand perception ad effectiveness and purchase intent CIIM has applications across advertisers creative agencies media planning agencies and media networks and content developers Importantly for content creators CIIM has also proven that cultural relevance in programming drives audience viewership preferencesHowever all these results rely on having early research on customer needs preferences and behavior in the first place As Arsuaga explains quotthere is a breakdown in accurately capturing the voice of the multicultural customer in research studies and correctly classifying them in online and offline dataquot which in turn means that marketers are relying on erroneous and misleading data to make decisions on advertising and programming content When decisions are made taking into account particular multicultural customer groups it is driven by the zeitgeist of the moment For example prior to the George Floyd murder companies were focusing on the xenophobic backlash towards AsianAmericans triggered by the pandemic When Black Lives Matter became an urgent cry for help companies pivoted yet againThe inability to serve the needs of multiple constituents at once is driven by a number of constraints the most important one being a lack of true understanding of the issues due to a lack of representation at the decisionmaking table across agencies clients suppliers trade associations and creators To galvanize the industry to action AIMM launched SeeAll as an industrywide movement amplifying equality efforts by simultaneously ensuring the accurate representation of Multicultural Hispanic Black Asian and Inclusive LGBTQ and People with Disabilities communities in ads programming and brand plans as measured by the Cultural Insights Impact Measure CIIMamp8482A recent PQ Media study commissioned by AIMM highlights the fact that only 52 of overall US media spending is targeting multicultural audiences underscores the significant heavy lifting still needed to get to the 40 target which today represents the percentage of Black Hispanic Asian and Native American customers in the total populationTo achieve this more balanced representation is going to take deliberate collaboration and precision planning most critically it will need a lingua franca that cohesively brings everything together and that common narrative in the world of business is Growth As Marc Pritchard chief brand officer of PampampG reminds us quotcompanies need to be force for good and a force for growthquotThe ANA39s Growth Agenda captures the complex capabilities deliverables and priorities of a growthdriven marketing organization creating a cohesive flywheel structure driven by four priorities that shape the agendaBrand Experience Creativity and MediaDate Technology and MeasurementTalent and Marketing OrganizationSociety and SustainabilityAs an arm of the ANA AIMM continues to align with these 4 main pillars of the Growth Agenda as it shapes its 2021 strategies and priorities By developing a DampampI maturity model with best practice leaders across clientside marketers agencies suppliers and trade associations AIMM will provide clear measurement metrics for each company to track progress and monitor learnings and wins This important progress will be celebrated through the creation of a comprehensive Diversity index providing organizations transparency on how their efforts are moving the needleAs AIMM continues to make inroads into changing the paradigm the alliance itself has relied on the power of diverse voices for its own influencer campaign during this Emmy Awards season The PSA spot opens with a montage of celebrity faces and the inspiring and evocative statement quotWe are herequot Throughout the spot celebrity talent recognize the effort Hollywood has made but challenge the entertainment industry to quotstand up against stereotypes by embracing authentic cultural representation and urging marketers and changemakers to SeeALLquot And among the celebrities we hear the voice of a renowned multicultural advocate once more Lin Manuel Miranda reminding us all to quotcome together so we can create waves of changequotOur collective mandate is to not only embrace these waves of change but to urgently propel the waves of systemic transformation by dismantling the industry practices policies and entrenched biases that are preventing us from celebrating the beauty of our differences as a multicultural America And yes it even means questioning a revered Founding Father on the alleged inconsistency of word versus deed AIMM is bravely undoing centuries of hypocrisy and inequality through the power of cultural inclusion authentic belonging and purposeful growth amp8211 this is the future we want for allFor more information on AIMM and the work they do you can visit wwwanaaimmnet Read the AdvancingDiversityorg profile of AEF hereClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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"The Room Where It Happens" -- How AIMM Is Igniting a Cultural Reckoning

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