3AF Summit Archive - 2019

The 3AF was founded by a group of multicultural marketing pioneers in 1999 who felt there were significant business opportunities by marketing to Asian American consumers. Fast forward 20 years, much about what we know about multicultural marketing and the media landscape have changed. In this 20th anniversary summit, we have invited the founders back to share with us their observations, experiences and lessons of multicultural marketing and Asian American marketing over the past 20 year and their visions for the future.

Panelists:

Eliot Kang (Kang& Lee), Shelley Yamane (Muse), Zan Ng (Admerasia) and Julia Huang (InterTrend)

Moderator: Bill Imada (IW)

The Asian American tendency for early tech adaption also carries into the automotive space, where the segment highly over-indexes in ownership of hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles. As a leader in the industry, Toyota sees the value and opportunity of the Asian American segment for its future growth and leadership position. To continue this momentum, Toyota kicked off a unique, Asian American consumer focused hybrid brand effort this year. Joe Min, Account Director, InterTrend, will speak on the importance of the Asian segment and how they reach this key audience.

Speaker: Joe Min, Account Director, InterTrend

While multicultural marketing in the U.S. is primarily focused on the Hispanic and African-American consumers, Asian populations continue to boom and marketers need to understand the opportunities and challenges. As such, we can look to Canada for inspiration. Why Canada? Canada will be welcoming over 1 million new immigrants in the next 3 years alone with the majority coming from Asia. By the year 2036, Canada’s multicultural consumers will represent 34% of the population and according to Statistics Canada, other urban centers across the country can reach over 80% with South Asians and Chinese quickly becoming the “visible majority”. Canada is increasingly becoming an Asian-influenced country and brands have taken notice.

Join Canadian Multicultural Marketing veteran Bobby Sahni who will share key insights and opportunities relevant for the U.S. market, along with examples and learnings gained by marketing to Asian consumers in Canada.

Speaker: Bobby Sahni, Co-Founder and Partner, Ethnicity Matters

Iris Yim, 3AF Vice President and President, Sparkle Insights, will share results from the 3AF’s second media consumption study. What media mix should you have when targeting Asian Americans? Which social media platform is the most effective for your specific Asian target? What language should you use in your Asian American campaigns? What are some cultural and language nuances for major Asian nationalities as well as Asian American media consumption habits for both traditional and digital media?

Speaker: Iris Yim, 3AF Vice President and President, Sparkle Insights

Mariko Carpenter shares insights from the latest Nielsen research report on Asian American consumers – Family is a key influencer; Digital offers many entry points; Shopping is a reimagined experience.

Speaker: Mariko Carpenter, VP, Strategic Community Alliances, Nielsen

As Asians become the fastest growing ethnic population in the US, the need for Asian media to start conversations with this audience becomes more important. But how do we embrace the media options that we have to talk to the Asian consumers? This panel will discuss the current power of Asian media and how it plays an important role for businesses that focus on local audiences as well as how the strategies compare and contrast against national audiences. We will also discuss how we can increase accountability and enhance Asian media in the future.

Panelists: Danny Wong, Skylink TV; Susan de los Santos, The Filipino Press; JaideepJanakiram, Sony Pictures Networks; and Brian Jun, The Korea Times.

Moderator: HL Gan, GP Generate.

In 1994, ABC aired the first episode of All-American Girl, a show featuring a Korean American family starring Margaret Cho. The show was cancelled after one season, failing to capture praise from critics and audiences. Fast forward, and, 25 years later, we have seen more Asians on television and movies thanks to Fresh Off the Boat, Master of None, Selfie, and Crazy Rich Asians. While we have some great strides in Asian media representation, Asian Americans still have a long way to go. Join Frances Rubio, Multicultural Marketing Analytics, GroupM, as she shares insights and the latest research on the social and cultural impact of Asian representation in the big screen and in television and social media and how the rise of Asian representation affects the rest of mainstream America.

Speaker: Frances Rubio, Multicultural Marketing Analytics, GroupM

Asian Americans have been able to find and consume media from their home country for decades. However, new and second generation Asian Americans are increasingly looking for content that reflects their outlook as consumers who straddle multiple cultures and countries. This change has shifted dramatically in the past five years, with no end in sight. In this segment, Liz Riemersma will review what has changed in the global media landscape to drive these new behaviors, how companies like Sling and DISH have adapted, and what changes we might see in the future.

Speaker: Liz Riemersma, Director, International, Dish/Sling

Ten years ago, the media landscape was dramatically different. Local TV, cable and satellite ruled the day. Streaming platforms and social media apps had not come into their own. But with the change in the broadcast television standard from analog to digital, local television stations began to multicast and Asian-American programmers in particular led the movement now known as ‘cord-cutting.’ Kapur will speak about this sea-change in community coverage on the local level that did not exist a decade ago.

Speaker: Ravi Kapur, CEO, Diya TV

Asian Americans are defining the future of communications and brands are starting to recognize. With deep connections to global technology and trends, their behaviors are providing a predictor of where the general market is headed—not the other way around. State Farm is among the brands upping their game and redefining the rulebook on how to successfully capture a market that leads, and doesn’t follow. Join State Farm and Admerasia as we explore strategies at the intersection of creativity and technology, and make some bold predictions about where we’re headed next… spoilers: It’s not backwards.

Speaker: Jessica Peres, State Farm and Julia Kang, Admerasia

Moderator: Earnst Smyth, KTSF

The landscape of content production and availability has changed drastically in the last decade. The demographics of audiences has also shifted so that more than half of younger audiences are multicultural. For media partners, there is a general lack of emphasis on capturing AAPI consumers in the areas of TV, film, advertising, VR/AR spaces, social media, and so forth. In this panel, we will explore ways in which various media partnerships can help facilitate better targeting of AAPI audiences and consumers. We will discuss how creators can help educate their respective fields on the need to reach AAPI.

Panelists: Jenn Lee Smith, Director/Producer of Faithful, Jane and Emma, Robert Lundberg, COO at China Lion Film Distribution and Yoshi Sudarso, Indonesian American actor, model and stuntman

Moderator: Michelle Sugihara, Executive Director of CAPE

How is brand or business building evolving the US and implications for Asian American brand or business? Moving from multi-culturism to micro culturasim, big mass brands to smaller local brands, mass advertising to influencers and word of mouth may be trends. Also, how is the China & India market evolving and its implications? Digital life, Cultural pride, new retail, etc., are some of the topic that will be discussed from perspective of Colgate Palmolive.

Speaker: Kalindi Mehta, Director, Consumer and Market Insights, North America Division at Colgate Palmolive

Asian American audiences represent a growing and influential consumer demographic with a projected purchasing power of $1.3 trillion by 2022, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth. However, this does not seem to translate into a proportional ad spend or consistent representation of their tastes, consumer behavior, and diversity within the demographic when targeting Millennials and Gen Z generations.

Our panel will discuss what it takes to reach this young demographic with meaningful content and effective culture-first activations that cannot be accomplished with a total-market approach.

Panelists:

Roslynn Alba Cobarrubias, ABS-CBN Head of Music & Talent, Global,

Eljay Feuerman,Director of reDEFINE, an IW Group Initiative,

Tiffanie Marie, influencer and creative mind without a filter

Moderator: Nita Song – President and Chief Momentum Officer – IW Group

In the search for new audiences and driving innovation, studios, production companies and start-ups have experimented with gamification, interactivity and immersion for well-known franchises and original content in the emerging Virtual Reality market. VR technology is being used for both marketing extensions and standalone businesses. Joanna Popper is the Global Head of Virtual Reality for Location Based Entertainment at HP Inc, and was previously EVP of Media and Marketing at Singularity University and VP of Marketing at NBCUniversal. She highlights global case studies of what’s working and what’s not in Location Based Entertainment & Virtual Reality, and the technology that drives these compelling new media experiences.

Speaker: Joanna Popper, Global Head of Virtual Reality for Location Based Entertainment at HP Inc

The 2020 Census is less than a year away, with the important task of counting everyone living in the U.S. beginning early next year. The responses collected from the census serve statistical purposes that will impact the visibility and representation of all Asian American communities for the next 10 years.

For the Asian American advertising industry, consider how census data is used every day to inform critical business decisions and identify needs and opportunities. If multicultural communities do not respond accurately, these gaps of information will serve as an undercount of the diversity, the size, and the unique characteristics of our audiences for the next 10 years. The panel will discuss why a complete and accurate count is essential to our industry, and ways in which we can participate.

Speakers:

Julie Lam, Los Angeles Regional Director, U.S. Census Bureau,

Daphne Kwok, Vice President, Multicultural Leadership – Asian American & Pacific Islander Audience Strategy, AARP,

Neil G. Ruiz, PhD, Associate Director, Global Migration & Demography Research, Pew Research Center, 

Moderator: Tim Wang, Founder & Principal, TDW+Co, 3AF Board Member.