Win over Diverse Parents with Audio This Back-to-School Season

Another year, another back-to-school season. As families pack their busy summer schedules and kids focus on fun, the whispers of the upcoming school season linger in the back of parents' minds—only growing louder as the weeks roll by. Just as parents aren’t buying their children one-size-fits-all clothing, your back-to-school campaigns shouldn’t be one size either. 

As you plan your campaign, your audience likely includes parents and college students. But are you getting even more specific and targeting multicultural parents (and their children)? If you’re not including this critical audience, here’s what you’re leaving behind: $7T in multicultural spending power. 1 And with diverse audiences consuming audio more often than the average listener, there’s no better platform to reach them than music and podcasts. Some multicultural parents are hunting for a deal for items on classroom supply lists. Meanwhile, others are planning to shop ahead of campus move-in day. The almost never-ending checklist means plenty of opportunities for brands to help simplify routines and shopping with their messaging. 

For head-of-the-class insights on consumer behaviors, key shopping timelines, and how audio influences audiences, download our Back-to-Class Advertising Guide.

Listening more than average audiences 

Multicultural audiences have a unique relationship with digital audio, which serves as a vital lifeline to their cultural identities. From reggaeton helping a Latino listener feeling closer to their roots, to a Black consumer being reminded of their childhood with sounds of jazz and soul, music is what connects them to their culture—and 81% of multicultural listeners agree. 2

It comes as no surprise that diverse audiences spend more time with audio than the average listener. In fact, with Black and Latino audiences combined, multicultural listeners spend an additional hour and 14 minutes with audio daily compared to total audiences. 3 With a power pairing like diverse consumers and digital audio, it’s all the more vital to incorporate both into your campaigns. 

The power of co-listening 

Co-listening means your ads reach more ears. When your message is played through smart speakers or in-car audio systems, your ads may reach more listeners. Nearly half of Latino parents (45%) co-listens to music or audio content because they want to share the music they love with their children, and one in three co-listen to pass down their cultural heritage. Black parents are motivated by similar sentiments, with 50% of them streaming music with their children daily and 45% co-listen to music or audio content because they believe it introduces cultural diversity and understanding. 4

Anticipating co-listening can influence your messaging, especially if you’re speaking to both parents and their school-age kids, and college students and their friends. This could look like a humorous ad where a parent mentions back-to-school shopping at the height of summer, evoking groans from their kids. Or, you might acknowledge the fact that parents are more focused on classroom supply lists, while college students may pay more attention to clothes and electronics. 

Music sets the tone for diverse listeners’ daily life 

Music is the soundtrack for diverse households, whether they’re setting the mood for an activity, passing the time as they do chores, or feeling closer to their heritage. Latino parents of children under 18 are +26% more likely to say they couldn’t get through the day without music. To reach them, appeal to their favorite genres, including Latin, family, rap, and hip hop. 5

Meanwhile, Black parents of children under 18 are +13% more likely to say they use music to set the mood or atmosphere for different activities. Get in their ear with their favorite genres like Afrobeats, rap, reggae, and Christian and gospel. 5You might directly incorporate these sounds into your ads or sponsor Pandora stations dedicated to these genres. 

Understanding why diverse consumers listen to music and what their favorite genres are—and incorporating these elements into your ads—gets you that much closer to motivating consumers to hit “place order.” 

Podcasts spark awareness, healing, and action 

Podcasts are just as much a part of diverse parents’ routines as music. Over seven in 10 (74%) Black parents of children younger than 18 listen to podcasts, most commonly genres like parenting, kids and family, finance, and sports. 5 To reach them with the SiriusXM Podcast Network—where two in five listeners are parents—you might sponsor shows like The $100 MBA Show, The Fantasy Footballers, The Mel Robbins Show, and much more. 6 Black parents don’t just passively consume podcasts, 70% of them have researched a product they heard advertised on a show, while 50% have purchased the product/service at a store or online. 7

For Latino parents of children under 18, 69% of them listen to podcasts, over-indexing for genres like parenting, kids and family, finance, and news. 5 To target them, you’re not limited to the SiriusXM Podcast Network alone. We have powerful partnerships with Spanish-language and Latin-culture-focused podcast networks like reVolver, Pitaya, and Sonoro. In fact, reVolver is the #1 Spanish-language podcast network, covering diverse genres like comedy, news, and more. 8 When audiences listen to hosts they trust in the language of their choice, they’re more likely to act. And when you partner with trusted hosts, listeners are likely to be more receptive to your brand. After all, 73% of Latino parents researched a product they heard advertised on a podcast,​ while 48% of them purchased the product/service at a store or online​. 9 

With the podcasting industry being largely white- and male-dominated, when diverse listeners see hosts that look and sound like them, they feel even more connected to their culture—and more trusting of their recommendations. 

Do your homework by adopting these best practices 

As you gear up your multicultural marketing campaigns for back-to-class season, here are a few pointers. 

Prioritize authenticity 

As you plan the execution of your campaigns, keep this in mind: 77% of multicultural consumers are willing to spend money to support an authentic brand over one that’s not. 10 Prove your authenticity by prioritizing your budget dedicated to multicultural efforts—and not pulling back just because your competitors are. Additionally, prove your commitment by teaming up with diverse partners—and maintaining a diverse team. These voices offer invaluable insight and can serve as a sounding board for creative and messaging. 

Lean into their culture and understand their values 

When you show an understanding of diverse consumers’ values, you get closer to establishing a long-term relationship. Take the first step by creating culture-specific ads. Over eight in 10 (83%) of multicultural consumers show a stronger attachment to culture-specific ads. 11 And in a past study, we saw a 8.5% sales lift when leveraging Latino targeting with in-culture creative compared to just 4.1% lift for total audience. 12

Leverage advanced targeting 

Whether you’re reaching Black or Latino audiences, we offer advanced targeting to reach them. With audience targeting, you can tailor by demographics, geography, multicultural affinity, and more. With contextual targeting, you can narrow down your consumers based on real-time activities and moods, their preferred language, and their favorite content categories. 

Show up for multicultural audiences this back-to-school season and beyond 

Multicultural audiences are an ever-growing, unstoppable force, simultaneously defining trends,  pushing conversations forward, and growing their consumer power. Targeting them effectively requires tailored campaigns. With back-to-school season rapidly approaching, audio is the way to get through to them, and partnering with SiriusXM Media is how you can pull it off. Let’s chat. 

Tap into back-to-school season