The U.S. celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month each year to recognize the influence, culture, and contributions of Hispanic Americans. One generation is blazing a trail and breaking convention – Gen Z. An area in which we see a tremendous impact by this demographic is employment. The U.S. labor force is shifting toward younger workers who favor the trending "work from anywhere" concept. But it's not just their job philosophy that differs from traditional ideologies. Gen Z's consumption habits differ from other generations and will likely evolve as they age. ThinkNow surveyed more than 1,400 Hispanic Gen Z to determine where these differences lie.
About 8.3% of respondents stated earning a salary between $50K-$60K, with 6.7% stating they make between $40K-$50K. Nearly a quarter of respondents are still in their undergraduate careers, so it's no surprise that 40% said they live with their parents/family.
Gen Z is likely listening to the radio while driving to work. Fifty percent of Gen Z listen to AM/FM radio, with 63% listening on traditional radios (not streaming services like Sirius XM, iHeart, or Pandora). For advertisers, this presents a cost-effective opportunity to reach this demographic through a channel competitors may be ignoring.
When they are not listening to the radio, they watch their favorite programs. Sixty-six percent of Gen Z responded that they spend 0-4 hours per week watching Spanish-language TV programming. Nearly 70% of respondents stated they watch Netflix programming. As a bonus for advertisers, 60% of respondents stated they don't listen to top Spanish or Latino podcasts. Redirect that spend to channels more native to this generation.
Finally, we often see Gen Z calling out injustices around the world. But a surprising 83% state they're optimistic about the future. Perhaps that's because they feel empowered to be the change they want to see in the world. Three-quarters stated being satisfied with their current life, and less than one in five responded feeling their life is at least somewhat worse off than their parents'.
Gen Z is on track to fundamentally change the work environment and social norms.
Want more Gen Z facts? Get on-demand audience insights with ThinkNow ConneKt.
Consumption has changed since the pandemic, as consumers consider their lifestyles more deeply. Companies and brands are following suit, studying how their actions, systems, and beliefs impact the consumer dynamic and striving to be more inclusive in their marketing and advertising. However, not all consumers feel seen.
Latinx consumers in the U.S. are not a homogenous group. Marketers are accustomed to segmenting these groups by factors like country of origin but often overlook the biculturalism that exists among niche groups, like Latinx consumers of Asian descent who immigrated from Latin America to the States in the past few decades.
In this episode of The New Mainstream podcast, Silvia Li Sam, founder of Slam Media Lab (Slam), talks about her experience as a Peruvian Chinese American and how marketers must leverage research to understand the complexities of the Latinx consumer market.
About Silvia Li Sam:
Silvia Li Sam is a Peruvian Chinese American founder, published writer, and expert on content marketing, web design, and SEO.
Li Sam was one of the youngest CEOs to start a multi-million dollar agency during the Great Resignation of 2021. Her award-winning agency, Slam Media Lab (Slam), focuses on SEO, Webflow, content marketing, and brand strategy for founder-led and mission-driven companies.
Before starting Slam, Li Sam was the first hire for digital & SEO at the XQ, the nation’s leading organization rethinking America’s high schools started by Laurene Powell Jobs. She scaled XQ’s marketing efforts from 0 to over 650,000 members in 3 years, and skyrocketed their SEO from 0 to 2MM searches. Li Sam has led multi-million dollar advertising and branding campaigns, managed and executed partnerships with all social media platforms, and led two successful TV shows (Graduate Together & XQ Super School Live) on the four major networks. The shows have reached over 2B people.
Li Sam is known for starting one of the largest startup publications in the world in three months, growing it from 0 to 250,000 readers with no budget.
Her work has been nominated for Webby and Peabody awards. Li Sam’s marketing strategies have been featured on Forbes, The Huffington Post, NBC, and more.
She is a Board Member at Wild Awake, a nonprofit that provides immersive outdoor learning experiences for youth and adults that bring us closer to the earth. She also serves as a tech and marketing advisor to two tech-focused nonprofits: Peer Health Exchange and LTX Connect.
Li Sam holds a B.S. in Business & Marketing with a minor in design from the University of Southern California.
She lives in the East Bay with her partner and her labradoodle and frequently bounces between San Francisco, Lima, Honolulu, Los Angeles, and New York.
Even though the sunset of cookies by Google has been pushed out by another year to 2024, marketers are still looking for alternatives to reach their customers online as third-party cookies have helped agencies create targeting for their ad campaigns for over a decade. More and more agencies have begun to look for a replacement, specifically, zero and first-party data.
Another more important trend that has coincided with the sunsetting of cookies is the rise of the multicultural consumer in the U.S. According to the Brookings Institution, “nearly four of ten Americans identify with a race or ethnic group other than white and suggest that the 2010 to 2020 decade will be the first in the nation’s history in which the white population declined in numbers.”
Furthermore, “The unanticipated decline in the country’s white population means that other racial and ethnic groups are responsible for generating overall growth.”
The sunset of cookies and the rise of the multicultural consumer in the U.S. puts digital marketers at a turning point, making zero-party multicultural data an imperative rather than a nice-to-have.
What is zero party data?
The term zero-party data was coined by the market research firm, Forrester. Zero-party data refers to data that is voluntarily shared with companies and organizations via surveys, online forms, online applications, polls, etc. Often times respondents are incentivized to share their data through cash, sweepstakes, or other types of rewards, but sometimes respondents share their data for a chance to just share their opinions.
Zero-party data is arguably one of the most accurate forms of data as it comes directly from customers. By directly asking consumers what their opinions and preferences are, marketers are able to better tailor their marketing messages and create a two-way relationship with customers. This also enables better product recommendations as marketers aren’t making assumptions based on cookie data, but rather asking customers directly the types of products and services they are interested in.
Who are multicultural consumers?
The word multicultural can be confusing as it literally means many cultures. In the context of marketing, multicultural means non-Hispanic White consumers. This term is also most commonly used in the United States as other countries look at race and ethnicity differently. The most common audiences the term multicultural refers to in the U.S. are Hispanic, Black, Asian, and increasingly Indigenous, and Mixed-Race audiences. Multicultural is also starting to encompass audiences beyond race and ethnicity to refer to LGBTQIA audiences and Disabled audiences.
What is zero-party multicultural data?
It’s a term coined by market research company, ThinkNow and refers to the intersection of zero-party data and multicultural consumers. As the U.S. becomes a multicultural majority, the need to authentically reach multicultural consumers is a business imperative. Connecting authentically with multicultural consumers is difficult to do with the current digital marketing tools available. But zero-party data can help. By asking multicultural consumers their identity, preferences and cultural touchstones directly, digital marketers can now craft culturally sensitive online campaigns that avoid stereotypes.
The rise of zero-party data comes at the perfect time for marketers as identity is at the forefront of what is important for multicultural consumers.
This blog post was originally published on MediaPost.
The 2022 World Cup is scheduled to run from November 20th till December 18th. The tournament was moved from its usual June/July slot because of the intense summer heat in host-country Qatar. The temperature, however, is not the only heat surrounding the tournament. Human rights abuses by the firms building the stadiums and infrastructure to host the event have gotten as much, if not more, coverage than the qualifying matches that lead up to the tournament. Qatar's laws against homosexuality are also creating tension at a time when World Soccer is trying to become more inclusive.
These controversies, however, do not appear to have diminished fans' interest in the quadrennial event, especially here in the U.S., with athletes returning to the tournament after failing to qualify in 2018. This, along with an overall increase in interest in soccer in the U.S., will likely result in strong viewership. To gauge interest in the tournament and measure how the controversies might affect viewers' opinions of sponsors, we conducted a nationally representative survey of 1,550 respondents. We found that 44% of U.S. adults are either somewhat or very likely to view at least some matches. This is an improvement over the last time the U.S. qualified for the tournament, when 37% of respondents in our 2014 survey said they would be watching.
Download the report here.
As usual, Hispanics are the most likely to say they will tune in. Mexico's national team, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and (technically not Hispanic) Brazil, will be playing in the tournament. Those teams, along with Team USA, are expected to draw Hispanic viewers who would like to see the FIFA World Cup Trophy return to the Americas.
Forty percent of Millennials are soccer fans. They are twice as likely to be a soccer fan than Gen X and 25% more likely than Gen Z. Major league soccer matches in Atlanta, Seattle and Cincinnati regularly draw larger crowds than baseball games. Millennials are also the age group most likely to watch the World Cup.
When asked how they plan to watch, streaming edges out broadcast television by 52% to 48%. This holds true across racial groups, except for Hispanics who are slightly more likely to view on T.V. (56% vs 54%).
The only group to report a higher likelihood to watch games on regular T.V. over streaming are Baby Boomers at 69% vs. 34%. The rise in streaming's popularity is evident across all types of content. Sports, however, has been a holdout in that the major networks are generally viewed as the best place to view live events. However, the fact that the World Cup audience skews younger is bolstering streaming over broadcast. Fox Sports and Telemundo and their respective streams have the U.S. broadcast rights for the U.S. Likely viewers, however, are not yet aware of that since 52% of respondents said they would watch on ESPN vs. 35% on FOX and 21% on Telemundo.
Awarding the World Cup to Qatar has been controversial. Accusations of bribery being the reason the tournament was awarded and the fact that the country could not host the tournament in the summer because of excessive heat are concerning but their poor human rights record has garnered the most attention. Building the soccer stadiums in a country with summer highs of 108/109 °F and weak worker protections has caused the death of 6,500 foreign workers. Additionally, homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and punishable by up to three years in prison and death under sharia law for Muslims. This has led some brands who normally sponsor the tournament to pull out of this year's event. Others have issued statements condemning the human rights abuses but have stopped short of pulling their sponsorship.
Fans, however, generally support brands that sponsor the World Cup. Fifty percent say that sponsorship positively impacts their impression of the brand while only 7% say sponsorship would negatively impact their opinion. Negative opinion towards sponsorship is in the single digits across all demos except for Gen Z. 22% of Gen Z say that sponsoring the World Cup this year would diminish their perception of a brand.
While controversy surrounds the 2022 Qatar World Cup, viewership in the U.S. is likely to remain strong and the potential for backlash against sponsoring brands will remain low. The fact that it will be played in the fourth quarter makes it difficult for brands to stay away since it's when most Holiday ad spending takes place. However, brands that choose to sponsor World Cup events this year should also demonstrate their support of the LGBTQ+ community and workers' rights to make it clear where they stand.
In a time when U.S. viewership of international sporting events like the Olympics is declining, more attention will be placed on the expanding World Cup audience. Americans will be tuning in, or more precisely, logging on. Brands that care about staying relevant need to be there with them.
Download the report here.
If you’re old enough, when you think about commodities, you may think back to the 1983 film Trading Places in which Randolph Duke and his brother Mortimer tried to explain commodities to Billy Ray Valentine. Coffee, wheat, bacon, and frozen orange juice were cited as examples. Fast forward nearly 40 years and commodities are still all those things, but commoditizing products now goes beyond plants and animals. Commoditization can also occur in the digital economy, and we see that play out in the sample industry.
When products have been commoditized, buyers assume the quality of the products is just about equal, so they look to pay a lower price for that good or service. In the case of online sample, all sample providers supply survey respondents, so the choice of which vendor to go which typically comes down to price. But what is often not considered is the respondents’ shelf life and future value, or the source of these respondents.
Most commodities expire. Once opened, a bag of coffee beans may last you six months. Frozen orange juice has an indefinite shelf life, but once it’s thawed, it’s best consumed within two hours. Online sample is not much different. With sample, a person volunteers to respond to a question via an online survey. [bctt tweet="You may not know that panelists typically have a life span of one or two surveys, and then they are gone forever." username="@ThinkNowGlobal"] The average respondent only responds to a couple of surveys in their lifetime. Going back to our commodities example, the only way to get more orange juice is to plant more orange groves. Similarly, producing more panelists is the only way to get more responses. To produce more panelists, the online panel must have well-developed panel technology from the point of recruitment to delivery. However, online sample platforms are not SaaS software but more like digital farms. Let me explain.
Online sample is a form of ResTech, a marriage of research and technology. Panels cannot, however, become software as a service or SaaS because they require the digital farming of sample. [bctt tweet="To put it another way, quality sample must be cultivated." username="@ThinkNowGlobal"] You could certainly build a service that scrapes the internet for names and loads them up in a database for people with subscriptions to access. However, doing so almost always results in poor client results and violates consumer privacy. Clients pay a CPI (cost per impression) per completed survey. When data integrity is compromised, the response rate hovers near zero.
A survey programming platform, however, is an example of a SaaS technology because it licenses the software needed to build out the survey. Still, it does not provide or require a platform to cultivate or curate panelists.
When you consider panel recruitment, data quality, and data delivery, online sample might not be as commoditized as you think. Sample providers are not all created equal, and the one you choose could impact your survey response rate.
The patient journey starts with vulnerability. There is a need yet all too often within minority communities, that need isn’t met with adequate resources. Latinos, in particular, face several obstacles to accessing health care, from difficulties finding information in their native language to a shortage of Latino or bilingual doctors. Additionally, lack of transportation and reluctance to take time off work, alongside the fear of deportation for undocumented Latinos, further exacerbate the problem. As a consequence, some Latinos forgo care, and that decision could prove fatal.
To address these barriers and improve health outcomes for Latinos, it’s essential to understand their patient journey and identify the friction points, one being the lack of community navigators. Community navigators, more commonly known as community health workers, are the bridge between the healthcare system and patient care. Community health workers are essential to underserved communities as they attempt to simplify and demystify the complex systems that have historically ignored the needs of minority communities.
In Latino communities, these navigators are known as promotores de salud (promotoras). Promotoras play a critical role in educating Latinos and directing them to resources, like primary care physicians, which is in stark contrast to them relying on informal information sources like social media or family. These individuals, seen as trusted messengers, are often Latino and understand the plight of Latino families and make recommendations that align with the Latino lifestyle in efforts to close the health equity gap.
Zócalo Health has its finger on the pulse of Latino health care and champions the use of promotoras. Through its innovative virtual-first family medicine service for Latinos, it’s committed to helping remove barriers to healthcare by offering convenient, transparent, and culturally-aligned care to members.
In this episode of The New Mainstream podcast, Mariza Hardin, Co-Founder, Head of Strategy and Operations, and Erik Cardenas, Co-Founder, CEO of Zócalo Health, share the importance of promotoras (community health workers) in improving health care outcomes for Latino communities.
More than 10 years ago, the pioneers of online panels in Latin America began to break new ground in the region by offering online sample methodology. Slowly, market research companies began to see the advantages. Once they finally adopted the methodology, they faced a new challenge in convincing their clients that the result of online sample would be similar, if not better.
For years, the market research industry was devoted to face-to-face research methodologies like pen and paper surveys, which were very time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous in some Latin American countries where, to this day, recruiters are kidnapped or extorted by organized crime. To achieve better results more efficiently, mitigate the risk to recruiters, and be more competitive, research agencies sought ways to educate their clients on how online methodology works, which was already generating good results in the United States and Europe.
The industry took a giant leap forward during the pandemic. What online panel companies failed to achieve in a decade, confinement achieved in two years. Faced with the need to continue collecting data responsibly, research agencies and end-customers in Latin America began requesting online sampling services.
Researchers say that the adoption of the online methodology accelerated by at least four years. This evolution, in record time, ushered in new panels, diversified data collection methods, and consolidated large insights marketplace exchanges.
Now that stay-at-home orders have expired and people are starting to get back out, there has been some regression to traditional methodologies (face-to-face). While not surprising considering some of the challenges surrounding the online methodology like reaching participants with low socioeconomic levels, unconventional regions for the consumer industry, the need for very specific profiles, and data integrity, it's disheartening to see the industry take a step back.
Is the gap closed in Latin America? Perhaps it's too early to tell. We may see this expansion and contraction in the use of online sample for some time as agencies and end clients work through their process of adoption. It's unlikely that online sample will be phased out, but there may be a period of hybrid use of face-to-face intercepts and online panels to bridge the gap.