The idea originally emerged from UM’s equity leadership, who identified measurement as a gap in the diverse investment market, said Smalls-Landau.
“The reasons why I think that this is important data to have is because it falls into the funnel of commitment to these communities that are influential, that are growing in nature, that have disposable income and consume content broadly,” said Smalls-Landau.
More than being able to compare numbers, the impetus was to give diverse-owned programmers an even playing field for clients evaluating strategies across the ever-growing media landscape. Smalls-Landau explained for brands to invest in and advertise to diverse communities, they should incorporate small, minority-owned programmers into larger strategies, and that there’s immense value in advertising with minority-targeted media and major media companies with verticals committed to diverse programming as well.
Also read: DE&I media investments may be impacted by the economy
Smalls-Landau said that historically, a media agency might cut multicultural investment budgets first in times of economic hardship. But as advertisers enter into this year’s upfront negotiations, the executive hopes advancements in equity for diverse-owned media partner such as this will “keep the pressure on the conversation and the commitment around equitable inclusion of diverse own media.”
The partnership, which will be exclusive to IPG Mediabrands for one year, continues a longstanding relationship between Roku and the agency network, namely Magna. The partnership also joins other efforts from the agency network in diverse investment, such as its annual Equity Upfront.
~ ~ ~
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported that the linear TV viewership data would be provided for over 35 diverse-owned media networks. Roku and UM declined to specify the number of media partners.
