GroupM Launches “Multicultural Marketplace” In The United States With 300 Publishers

Marketplace is Comprised of a Comprehensive and Growing List of Black and Hispanic Owned and/or Focused Publishers 

NEW YORK (July 6, 2020) – GroupM, WPP’s media investment group, today announced the launch of The GroupM Multicultural Marketplace in the U.S. This marketplace is currently live with 300 publishers, representing a comprehensive—and growing—list of Black and Hispanic owned and/or focused publishers that create, curate and distribute content specifically for these audiences.

The Multicultural Marketplace mission is singular: provide an available-now, diverse and delivery-accountable marketplace media offering that ambitiously sees 100% of clients participating over the next 6-18 months.  

The marketplace is determined by GroupM’s proprietary 20-point eligibility criteria, clustered across five categories, including GroupM’s industry-recognized brand safety guidelines. Analysis points include, but are not limited to, traffic & targeting capabilities, content relevancy and recency, privacy policies, ad rendering, clutter and ownership. 

This new marketplace expands and scales existing and in-progress initiatives by GroupM and agencies in support of multicultural owned and focused media and journalism. In 2020, Mindshare created its ‘Inclusion’ PMP series comprised of private marketplaces, starting with the LGBTQ Community and now the Black Community (the latter launching in another announcement shortly). In June, GroupM became the first holding company to join TripleLift’s “Help Journalism” programmatic initiative, which drives clients’ ad dollars to local news publishers.

Accessible to clients, the Multicultural Marketplace provides critical support to independent publishers owned by and/or serving these communities. Additionally, it takes into account the following:  

• Many of the Black and Hispanic owned and/or focused media are under financial pressure with the consolidation of digital spending around giant platforms.  
• In an increasingly price-oriented marketplace, the levels of effectiveness and audience engagement of these publishers may not be wholly recognized.  
• These publishers are often overlooked due to perceived complexities of buying them in a non-automated environment. 

Gonzalo del Fa, President of GroupM Multicultural: “These publishers provide essential voices and content to the Black and Hispanic communities and society and maintain the overall diversity health of the media marketplace. Our Multicultural Marketplace will allow clients to plan and buy Black and Hispanic owned or focused media in an automated way, including programmatically, directly and at scale.”

Susan Schiekofer, Chief Digital Investment Officer, GroupM: “At times, especially in a price-driven environment, media ‘value’ is distilled to efficiency alone, and audience engagement and content relationships may be overlooked. The current and future marketplace demands an accountable, accessible-now, and focused investment strategy that better balances efficiency, engagement and effectiveness in reaching the Black and Hispanic communities. The GroupM Multicultural Marketplace is our mechanic to achieve greater equity, while supporting the voices, content and editorial written for, by and/or owned by these communities.”