In this week’s episode of the Affiliate Marketing Podcast, Lee-Ann is looking back over some highlights of our ELEVATE Summit in July. She is joined by CJ Senior Client Development Manager, Simone Charles, Cashblack CEO Matthew Addai, and Expedia Director of Retail Partnerships, Matthew Long, to discuss the importance of diversity in the affiliate marketing world.
Listen in here for all the insights:
What steps should you take internally in teams to promote diversity?
The panel kicks off with a discussion around the first steps to creating a more diverse team. This can then be reflected in the marketing campaigns that the brand is pursuing. The theory appears to be that if the roots are healthy, the flower will blossom.
Simone had some very practical first steps that might not have even occurred to brands, explaining: “I think this is the question that more affiliate managers need to ask and I think it starts by identifying where the gaps are.”
“So, when we talk about diversity and inclusion, there’s so many different categories you can go down. I think one of the first things you need to ask yourself is who is the target audience? And then also if the target audience wasn’t viewing this, are they being included? Are they being included in the messaging? So, it’s not just thinking about who you’re trying to target, but think about who you’re not trying to target.”
What groups should you be targeting?
Expedia has a robust education program for internal teams that saves them from wrongly assuming the demographic they should be targeting.
As Michael explains: “It started out very employee-led. There were some early groups focused around women leadership and learning. The Pride group was one of the first ones. So generally, it kind of started organically from those communities’ kind of saying, ‘Hey, we need a forum.’ So that’s how they’ve then created each of the individual groups as well, but then made sure that there are forums where they all come together and are working in unison.”
Inclusive for all, or focus on a niche?
Matthew, CEO of Cashblack, has taken a different approach with his branding which is both inclusive and exclusive. It’s there in the name: supporting black-owned businesses and aiming for black empowerment in its branding.
Matthew said: “There’s so many different black-owned businesses and after the events of the global anti-racism movement in 2020, my brothers and I were doing a bit of research, looking for something entrepreneurial to do. We found that there’s a direct correlation between the lack of support for black-owned businesses and many of the systemic issues with regards to racism in the black community, both in the United Kingdom and throughout the world.”
“The bigger problem, because there will always be pushback, unfortunately, and there will always be like PR screw-ups from companies who are trying to do good, but [the customers] know that they’re going to upset one side of their customer segment. And, yeah, we are very much just trying to be on the right side of that because ultimately the customers who are really aligned with your beliefs will be able to support you in the long run for it.”
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Listen to find out more about:
- What research does diversity take?
- Key takeaways from the panellists
Key segments of this podcast and where you can tune into go direct
[09:00] – Wide demographics versus niches
[15:00] – Box ticking in diversity
[20:00] – How to market gaming to all
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