Jo Muse Speech Given at American Advertising Federation, May 18, 2006 THE 10 FACTS THAT PROVE THAT MAINSTREAM

ADVERTSING AS WE KNOW IT IS DEAD. Thank you for that fine introduction. I look forward to my five or six trips a year when I speak to American Advertising Federation Clubs around the country. It is this unique time in my life when I can touch, feel and communicate with one of the finest traditions of our business. Coming together to relate to one another from different sectors of the business. Whether we are clients, students media or agency people we have a bond that typifies one of the finest professional practices in the world. The American advertising business. Coming to Central Michigan is like coming home. I was raised in Southwest Detroit and went to Michigan State. I remember a few road trips to Grand Rapids. But as we were so fond of saying back then, what happens in Grand Rapids stays in Grand Rapids. As some of you know I started a business 21 years ago in Los Angeles, California, that was billed as the first multicultural advertising in the world. Back then it seemed sort of unique to talk about ethnic audiences as if they were contained in hermetically sealed bags that did not venture out into the mainstream. The prevailing attitude back then was that ethnic groups and the so-called mainstream or general market did not share common values or attributes. Kind of like my sons proclivity to enjoy his dinner of steamed vegetables and potatoes. The food could appear on the same plate but never could the portions touch. Sometimes I imagine his stomach to be arranged like a TV tray so all his meal could digest in the way he chose to consume it. But like my son, the industry and its clients seems to misunderstand the nature of consumer behavior and human sociology. Not only did the ethnic groups tend to cluster in communities initially, but also the emerging ethnic groups began to draw new boundaries in their quest to consume and assume the great American dream. Today, the population growth we saw has produced perhaps the most fundamental sociological and economic changes America and its trading partners have ever seen in human history. This population change is also changing the way we work. How advertising agencies strategize. How we create messages and even how we bring those messages to market. What once was a single observation from a young ad man from Southwest Detroit has turn into a sea of change that is overtaking the way we think about markets. Allow me to take the next 20 minutes with you and talk about that change, and the facts that led me to a new observation. Soon, if not now, what has been called multicultural marketing communication will replace socalled mainstream advertising. I could have called this presentation, what are the 10 facts that prove that General Market advertising is dead! But I didnt, since its been a long time since I was in Grand Rapids but I do remember the population statistics. In the words of a demographer friend of mind, you guys are still one of the whitest counties in the country. But, let me take you through my thinking before you reject my premise.

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What Is Mainstream Advertising? Mainstream advertising is about so-called prevailing culture. Its about using our takes on social attitudes and norms and crafting messages to speak to the broadest possible audience. Clients continue to want their marketing messages to be efficient; to reach large groups of people. And to do that, as message makers, we develop a kind of target marketing plan that brings those messages to these large swatches of consumerism. Soccer Moms, Kids 5-9, males 18 to 24. And for this elaborate hoax of metrics, TRPs and marketing schematics to work, we created a $400 Billion industry in the U.S., and $600 Billion worldwide, that assumes people have a collective way at large to view the world, the efficacy of product consumption and the way they view their media. Marketers also are smart enough to put their products close to the right consumers so that product consumption rates are highest. Its a good way of doing business. For now. What Is Multicultural Advertising? Multicultural advertising is about capturing the emerging voice of relatively new consumers in the market place. African American, Hispanic and Asian consumers in particular. The key to multicultural advertising is that segmented groups are reached through lifestyle and cultural outlets that have been new networks and media that separate from the big marketers like Viacom and General Electric. Today, as you know many of the large media conglomerates have purchased these earlier media pioneers. What makes multicultural advertising different from the so-called mainstream is the way we identify consumersby ethnicity, race, language, or lifestyle. The research involvement in these marketing techniques is more qualitative. Quantitative studies are more difficult due to the problem of consumer identification but given the income and purchase behavior of emerging ethnic consumers, it is undeniable that these consumers are here and here to stay. What Is Culture? Allow me to take a minute and address one of the curious things about our business. It would seem that if billions of dollars are spent daily around the globe to market products, we would pay particular attention to the longitude and latitude of prevailing culture, and, since we do, there would be libraries full of books and scholarly papers on the subject. But there simple arent, and I cant figure out why. I know culture seems evasive, dynamic and invisible. But, even my book, The Shaman Chronicles. The Seven Senses of Multicultural Marketing hasnt found a publisher. But since Im self published some of you will be given a copy as gift to you after the session. Culture, as I see it, is the essence of human expression in Art, Music, Literature, Entertainment, Fashion, etc., that offers proof of human achievement and collective popularity in specific space and time.

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So Why is Prevailing Culture Important? In advertising, it helps to define the consumer tastes of America. It also serves as a driver in key economic sectors, like fashion and the soft drink business. Prevailing culture helps define the opportunities of education. Not only what we teach in our institutions but what types of people learn best. It also aids in sociological development and understanding. The more we understand people from different cultures the more apt we are to adjust own sensibilities to allow for theirs to prevail. Like the people you meet when we travel to foreign lands. The ability to make those kind of adjustments to prevailing culture are greeted with respect and understanding. Unless you are one of those ugly Americans that want hot-dogs in Zimbabwe. Prevailing culture suggests that things change and when it does it impacts politics and governance. And finally it allows for consumer market messaging resonance. So now that we have a few conceptual constructs to give our conservation wings. Lets take flight. Fact 1: America Is A Melting Pot The melting pot theory has been an American concept for nearly as long as we have been a country. Being a land of immigrants is our strength. And in 1965 the Immigration and Nationality Act made immigration easier. So much so, during the 1990 through 2005, more than 350 million have immigrated to the USA. The 1960s also were when Civil Rights legislation helped improve the quality of life for many minority Americans. Population trends continue to indicate the advancement of Latin American and Asian immigrant leading to advances in living conditions and economic and educational progress.

Fact 2: Growth Spreads Magnet states like California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, New York and New Jersey are close to borders of entry and until recent years contained the bulk of the population growth. Now nearly 1/3 of major metros show not only a decline in white population but advances in Hispanic and Asian population. Another trend that weve been watching for a decade is the reverse immigration of African Americans back to the south. This return to the south is a reminder of the historical immigration of the 40s and 50s when millions of African Americans moved into urban cities like Detroit and Chicago in search of a better life. Now the growth of American cities is being fueled by the population growth of these emerging ethnic groups. Fact 3: People Reproduce Yes. Thats a fact. We are now going to talk about sex. Sort of. The biological fact of reproduction provides great certainty in the notion of the continued growth of so-called minority populations. The current trend on emerging population has yield the fact that one third of major metropolitan centers in America now have majority/minority child populations. Couple this with the trend in slowing white birth rates and increasing black, brown and yellow birth rates, that one day when the possibility of emerging minorities being the majority, in southern, western and east coast America, it is all ready here.

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Another highly-regarded trend in this dialogue on race and culture is the emergence of new multicultural consumer generations. We saw the growing importance of urban and hip-hop attitudes toward culture and fashion in the composition of Gen Y and their change consumer interest. Today, a new generation, one that is without doubt the most multicultural generation in American History, the so-called Millennials are kids between 9 and 15 that are again changing the way Americans thinks about race, ethnicity and culture. You all may have remembered the first sign that things were indeed changing with regard to race in young America; it occurred when Tiger Woods was asked whether he considered himself, black, Chinese, Asian or Filipino. His resounding answer was yes! Now the U.S. Census suggests that the fastest growing population in America is the millions of people that defy race identification logic by checking the one box that best describes them to a change conscious government. Other. As minority populations spread across America it will have great influence on government and the political lives of our elected officials. Fact 4: Voters, All Voters, Vote for Issues that Reflect their Social and Economic Interest In a small border town in California, it is reflected in a municipal vote for being identified as a safe haven for undocumented immigrants. In Michigan there was a recent vote where English was instituted as the official language. On the national political landscape, I found it fascinating that the more I listened to President Bush on immigration, the more he sounded like Los Angeles ultraliberal immigration advocate Cardinal Mahoney. The Republicans and Democrats are trying to flow with the electorate. But in this issue everyone will vote based on their personal interest and legal immigrants will help change the political landscape accordingly. Fact 5: Consumer Involvement Drives Advertising Relevance Back to the idea that got us here tonight. Multicultural marketing is changing how we do business. As consumers, all consumers become empowered to map their interest and attitudes on the way we craft messages. This new trend toward consumer engagement will also impact who crafts the messages themselves. More and more, our clients are involving consumers in deciding what messages get to market. You may have noticed the ads requesting consumers to write ads or go on web sites and finish ads. The day will soon come where messages to consumers will be in an assortment so that a consumer segment can identify the ad they want to consume and chose from an online or broadcasted assortment of commercials instantly. This suggests that the more we as marketers know about consumersand that means a growing number of people of ethnicity and culturethe more expert and relevant we will become in the eyes of our clients. It seems pretty curious to me that despite that fact, the advertising business is without a doubt the most segregated business in America. We still would rather identify people of color as racially specific professionals and when state and federal oversight committees review our employment numbers, they are at 30 year lows at many of the worldwide, mega-large holding companies. On average just for a sense of the current atrocities of employment, our general workforce is about 70 percent woman, yet the executive ranks in the business is about 6

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percent female. And the other racial specifications are less that 4 percent on average. With the ever lusting for the 18-24 set, someone will get hip from the client side and mandate change at their agencies. Just a few days ago I heard something along these lines at an organization called the Billion Dollar Club. Reportedly, a group of corporations that spend more than a billion dollars annually with minority suppliers have began to make inquiries into these lopsided numbers with advertising agencies and plan on speaking with the CEOs of their agencies to discover real hard boiled ways of holding them accountable for their minority hiring and retention practices. Thats a step in the right direction There is something interesting I bet you didnt know. Half of U.S. Hispanics Watch English Language Media. Forget the slug fest in the Spanish language marketplace with Univision and Telemundo, know that an equal sized opportunity is how do we market to English language dominate Latinos. The day is upon us when we can stand and articulate a position that artfully informs our clients that some broadcast programming choices will have large impact on their growing Hispanic customer. How do we offer messages that use cultural and ethnic cues to sell more effectively to them? Im reminded of a recent NFL oriented spot that showed a small Latino man carrying two large containers of mayo around a grocery store. I dont think thats the way to motivate and sell to this growing Latino target. Fact 7: African Americans Over Deliver in Network TV Unlike the Latino market concerns, its pretty apparent that marketers know that there is an African American target in broadcast media. However, the fact that blacks watch much more television that their white counterparts means how we talk to these consumers is varied. Some clients have invested in culturally and racially skewed messages to trade on the message conveyance of race and culture, while others seems to see blacks as deeper-hued white people. Multicultural casting in content as well as commercials is an effective answer, but in some cases efficacy or how some ethnic groups view the credibility of their own media is also a key factor for determine where to advertise. Whether its Chinese newspapers, Jet Magazine or Black Enterprise, its crucially important that our clients understand that eyeballs are one thing, but consumer behavior is closely tied to the mind and to the heart of the consumer. In fact, we revisit the Hispanic males. Now if I were to ask you what were the two things a white male 18-24 and a Hispanic male of the same age have in common. One would be sex and perhaps the other would be beer. Yes. Well the point here is just that there does exist some similaries between race, and gender and across ethic group. But we cant use these common values and motivations based on stereotypes and assumptions. We have to build a knowledge base of multicultural intelligence that helps make our client messages stronger with more resonance across cultures. The more we accept that culture and race sells, we can develop the right collection of messages that meet the requirements of our clients marketing mission. Fact: 9: All About Money The business is changing because it is driven by the profit potential and clients want messages that have cultural and racial sensitivity. This is the key fact that spells the end of so-called general marketing. Now that the big boys own so-called minority shops, the real chase is to determine the best way to use these multicultural talents. As far as I can tell, no one has it

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rightcertainly not the holding companies. Independents like us still have a role in the market due to the efficacy of our product when tested against the sometimes stillborn messages crafted by holding company agency. God bless them for that. Because when they get it right, Ill have to go over to the dark side. A Final Fact. Number 10: An Idea Doesnt Care Who Its Parents Are You may have wondered if I was advocating the death of general market for the sake of minority owned agencies. No. Far from that. I am a champion of the idea. Our business, no matter the agency, is about the fickle, evasive quality of ideas. As I say, they do not care who there parents are. I think the best ideas should win and the best agencies should look like America. I think the day is in fact approaching when this business will change. And that will be for the better. Given that about 15% of ANA clients say multicultural agencies have better creative, and 98% of all broadcast television ads done by multinational agencies, its safe to say that the business is split along some lines other that the best ideas win. Add to that knowledge that clearly one-third of clients want mainstream ads that appeal to mainstream and diverse segments, there will soon come a time when work that is truly multicultural and brilliant will be sought without concern for race or ethnicity. That is just not the case today. Its time to really seek out people of color that can change the business for the better. Getting more people of color means finding them where they live and learn. But ethnicity is no substitute for talent, and ideas and the inevitable account review should be colorblind. I like to say. Great ideas dont care who their parents are. Lastly allow me to share with you The Multicultural Manifesto. The gist of it is 10 attributes that I will share with you today. The full-length manifesto you will find on my blog, "@30FT" on the Muse website www.museusa.com. Please take a look and visit the blog from time to time to see what ravings I have come up with from week to week. Here are the major tenets that true multiculturalists should abide by. Culture is more powerful than race, language or ethnicity. It is the entire way of life of a society - its values, practices, symbols, institutions and relationships. Two. Apply universal marketing tools and disciplines to all our work; execute with rigor, infuse with passion. Number 3. Stay attuned to the massive transition America is undergoing, for as America transforms, so must we. Four. Attempt the extraordinary and the world will move in your favor. Sometimes planned, sometimes never imagined. Five. Anticipate the unexpected. The changes of the next millennium will surpass our current understanding of race, ethnicity, culture and community. Number 6. Recognize and appreciate our greatest resource - the diversity of our people. And number seven. Seek knowledge about the lives of those we live among, and move forward with leadership to foster zones of commonality.

Living by these tenets helps build a commitment for change and gives credence to the fact that so-called mainstream advertising is dead!

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