Audio: Your VIP Ticket to Diverse Entertainment Consumers

Kendrick Lamar’s Big Game halftime show. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo “holding space” for the lyrics of Defying Gravity. Beyoncé finally winning Album of the Year. What do all these things have in common? Besides being some of the most pivotal moments in the entertainment industry—they’re all rooted in audio. And no audience surrounds these moments, influences the space, or spends time in the medium quite like multicultural listeners.

So here’s your spoiler alert for what’s to come: The entertainment industry is your all-access pass to aligning your brand with today’s cultural zeitgeist. But if you want to be both aligned and successful, you need to prioritize multicultural audiences in your strategy. And you can (and should) do it with audio.

Why Entertainment Brands Should Roll Out the Red Carpet for Multicultural Consumers

When it comes to impact, relevance, and trend-setting, multicultural listeners lead the pack.

Let’s start with impact: As one of the fastest-growing consumer segments, they command a massive share of spending power, making them an unstoppable force that’s well worth keeping in mind. And when we say massive, we mean it—together, Black, Latino, and AAPI consumers hold $7T in purchasing power.

When it comes to the entertainment industry, they’re flexing that spending power, big time. In 2023, 70% of the top films had opening weekends dominated by people of color.

All that impact is reason enough to adopt a focused multicultural marketing strategy. But they aren’t just spending on entertainment moments and entertainment brands—they’re setting the pace for what’s cool for the community at large.

Especially Gen Z. The generation known for driving the cultural zeitgeist is also one of the most diverse audience segments in the market—nearly 50% of Gen Z identifies as either Latino, Black, Asian, or mixed race.

So, knowing just how powerful this audience is, let’s get to know how they engage with the entertainment industry a bit better.

Multicultural Consumers Are Fully Engaged with Entertainment

From hitting the movie theaters to catching the biggest sporting events on their couch, the engagement habits of multicultural consumers are just as diverse as they are. Black, Latino, and AAPI audiences consume all sorts of content in all sorts of formats. The one thing that is consistent across them? An overwhelming percentage are seeking out entertainment.

Knowing that most multicultural consumers engage with entertainment content makes it easy to understand why brands should leverage ads that speak to these audiences and reach them where they already are.

But if you want to get really personal, look for the moments and habits that are unique to them:

• Comedy & sitcom is the second most watched programming genre on streaming among Black listeners

• Latino audiences are 57% more likely to be horror movie viewers

• Action & adventure is the number one genre for in-theater movie watching among AAPI listeners

Leveraging these moments is the perfect way to ensure a leaned-in environment with your target audience.

Turning to Audio to Stay Connected

For multicultural entertainment consumers, pop culture is more than an interest or something to keep tabs on. It’s a way of life and a massive part of their identities. So much so, that multicultural audiences are near synonymous with culture. Their dedication to adopting and living by these large cultural moments is so infectious and authentic that they often end up swaying the social compass at large, dictating what ultimately becomes the “it” trends and interests of society. And nothing connects them to culture quite like audio.

Whether they’re streaming artists after a major awards show sweep or getting the latest play-by-play sports analysis from podcasters and SiriusXM hosts, these listeners are seeking out an omnichannel experience to stay plugged in to all the latest happenings across movies, television, sports, and more. That’s why 81% of multicultural listeners say music connects them to their culture, and 62% say audio content helps them keep up with what’s happening in culture.

The Opportunity for Brands

All that engagement means ample opportunities to connect and drive influence with an audience base that is both powerful and primed for engagement. Aligning your brand’s message with the content they love, on the platforms they’re most passionate about, is a surefire way to increase positive brand associations, drive consideration, and, ultimately, cultivate actions.

That’s not just marketing talk—audio really does deliver real, measurable results across the entire funnel.

Be a Part of the Action with SiriusXM Media

Those last few stats probably piqued your interest. But there’s one crucial caveat you can’t overlook.

All those enticing actions? They’re being taken by SiriusXM Media listeners. If that weren’t reason enough to consider us the go-to partner for all things audio advertising, we’ve got plenty more proof points to share.

With over 2,500 shows in our podcast network and as the owners of 66% of all streaming inventory in the US, we are everywhere your target consumers are—yes, that even includes the more niche markets like multicultural entertainment consumers.

All that reach and all that content also means we stay connected to the largest moments in pop culture and entertainment.

And then there’s the addressability factor. Simply put, we crush the competition, offering access to:

• The largest addressable reach among Black and Latino audiences.

• Unduplicated Black and Latino audiences you won’t find on other platforms (like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok).

Sweeter than Fiction—the Results One Brand Saw After Adding Audio to Their Media Mix

Remember those full-funnel results we were telling you audio could deliver? We’ve got proof.

A streaming TV advertiser was looking to generate lifts in familiarity, affinity, and intent among podcast listeners ages 18 and up. The brand opted to leverage audience targeting to reach fans of comedy and entertainment with host-read ads on one of the most popular pop culture podcasts around: The Read. The advertiser worked with beloved hosts Kid Fury and Crissle to craft creative messaging that was both authentic and effective, with several brand mentions to keep the advertiser top of mind during and after the advertisement.

We won’t leave you with a cliffhanger—the campaign absolutely nailed it, exceeding benchmarks across the entire funnel:

• +13pts lift in familiarity (exceeding Nielsen norms by +9pts)

• +15pts lift in affinity (exceeding Nielsen norms by +9pts)

• +15pts lift in recommendation intent (exceeding Nielsen norms by +9pts)

• +16 pts lift in purchase intent (exceeding Nielsen norms by +10pts)

Make Your Brand a Blockbuster Among Diverse Entertainment Consumers—Add Audio to Your Media Mix

If you want to keep your brand in lockstep with the latest happenings with the culture at large, targeting multicultural entertainment consumers is a must. And we are your partner to bring it to life.

We don’t just have millions of Black, Latino, and AAPI listeners tuning in across our entire ecosystem—we’ve also got comprehensive targeting capabilities, relevant and impactful content across streaming, podcasts, and SiriusXM, and an in-house multicultural marketing team ready to help you create ultra-authentic, meaningful campaigns. Let’s talk. 

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