Carla Kelly of NBCUniversal moderated a panel featuring Monique Nelson from UniWorld Group Inc., Tara DeVeaux from Burrell, and Albert Thompson from Walton Isaacson.
As part of the Advertising as Entertainment and Commerce panel at the Cultural Insights Forum, moderated by Carla Kelly, SVP of Client Partnerships, Advertising & Partnerships at NBCUniversal, the panelists—Tara DeVeaux, CEO of Burrell; Monique Nelson, executive chair of UniWorld Group Inc.; and Albert Thompson, Managing Director of Digital Innovation at Walton Isaacson—highlighted the importance of using artificial intelligence (AI) with the right directives to effectively reach diverse demographics. They stressed the need to understand the audience, recognizing that consumer behavior varies by category.
When asked about the biggest changes in the market and how they help clients prepare for them, Nelson of UniWorld Group Inc. pointed to the growing role of AI.
“If we look at the global footprint, the level of AI usage in places like the European Economic Community and South America is massive. This is the leap we were talking about in mobile technology in the late 1990s. When you think about AI, its influence, and its ability to truly capture and bring the culture of the moment to life, it’s a massive change—the biggest since the internet and mobile telephony. We talk to clients about using it as a tool and a superpower that must be guided with the right directives. You can’t just tell it, ‘Do this like a Black person.’ You need to know in advance who that person is that you’re referencing because the wrong directive will quickly yield a poor response,” Nelson explained.
DeVeaux of Burrell shared that one of the key conversations with their clients this year has been about audience understanding.
“As an agency owned by African Americans, many clients come to us saying, ‘I want to speak to Black people,’ as if all Black people are the same. We’ve spent a lot of time and financial resources over the past year developing segmentation based on socio-cultural factors because these are the kinds of questions clients ask us. Clients typically segment based on the industry they are in. We’ve invested in determining how people identify themselves. While race plays a role in most segments, it’s not universal. There are African Americans in every segment, just as there are Latinos and Asians. This system reveals a fundamental flaw in how clients approach us, and we need to change the conversation. Something as simple as using ‘African Americans’ instead of ‘Black people’ excludes many individuals who weren’t born in this country or don’t have a U.S. cultural background,” DeVeaux explained.
Thompson of Walton Isaacson emphasized the importance of differentiating consumers based on the category they are in.
“You might have an individual with ten identities—who they are when playing a competitive Oculus game versus a card game are very different people. This is the era we’re in now, and people need to wake up, stop being lazy, and stop assuming you can connect two or three products to a single consumer. It doesn’t matter if you’re a brand, a media outlet, or an agency. That’s why the Jordan brand releases a different type of shoe every week. Soon, we’ll have serialized brands with unique designs because those represent the various identities buyers are interested in,” Thompson emphasized.
