According to Statistics Canada, 1 in 5 Canadians are born outside of the country, ranking Canada as the 4th highest immigration country in the world! Understanding cultural diversity within the Canadian landscape has become an important focus for brands as they seek to capture and grow their audiences. Ensuring that the right creative, tone and language used within their platforms of choice is of utmost importance.
This week we had double-header Community Uninterrupted sessions and were joined first by CBC’s Andrea Sharkey, PhD., Director of Enterprise Research and Market Insights, and then Vividata’s Rahul Sethi, Director of Insights, along with Ethnicity Matters Co-Founder Howard Lichtman, to unpack the topic of newcomers and opportunities that exist in Canada today.
Vividata and Ethnicity Matters provided a deep dive into the multicultural opportunity that exists within the financial sector, covering aspects like real estate ownership, investment opportunities, financial institution preferences and credit card spending. They also covered unique attitudes and opinions of finance, shedding valuable light into the opportunities to reach Chinese and South Asian newcomers to Canada.
CBC walked us through Media Technology Monitor’s (MTM) first-ever Newcomers Report, which speaks to those who have arrived in Canada in the past five years. A brand-new study that includes 8 languages and over 500 variables, Newcomers (deemed those who are 18+ and immigrated to Canada in the past five years) media and technology consumption habits were identified.
For brands looking to effectively communicate with these important segments in Canada, here are only some of the many key highlights from the presentation:
- The top five visible minorities in Canada are: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, and Arab.
- The most common language spoken at home is English (33%), followed by: Punjabi (11%), Mandarin (10%) and French (9%).
- Most ‘newcomers’ reside in Ontario (42%) and Quebec (17%). However, it’s interesting to note that Chinese and South Asian newcomers tend to reside in Vancouver and Toronto.
- Language + culture is not mutually exclusive. Instead, they complement each other.
- Newcomers are 3x’s more likely to use Whatsapp and TikTok, and WeChat continues to drive significance (learn more about the app here).
- News is important! 29% of newcomers are tuning in with 42% of them leveraging social media channels to do so, as information – how they want it, is readily available.
When it comes to content, newcomers are consuming content across multiple platforms in their own language, with 51% suggesting that this keeps them connected to their home.
- 44% are consuming content through TV and Video, and 9% are subscribing to a foreign language SVOD such as: Hotstar, iQiyi and Shahid. Moreover, newcomers are 3x’s more likely to subscribe to YouTube Premium when compared to Canadian-born respondents, as they can find content in their preferred language.
- 21% know exactly when to tune into Radio to hear the news in their preferred language.
Understanding how and where to reach them, and in what language, becomes integral. So too is ensuring that the content they are searching for is available to them. IAB Canada continues to support our rich multi-cultural market and is developing a diversity-owned media inclusion list to help advertisers reach broader Canadian audiences.
In other DEI news, IAB Canada is excited to have joined forces with the ACA/WFA to participate in the first-ever global marketing census survey. The study is designed to get an understanding of how individuals identify themselves (race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.) and better understand their experiences (sense of belonging, inclusiveness) at their respective companies. Watch out for the confidential survey link to come your way next week and we would like to thank you in advance for participating in this important, benchmark-setting body of work.
To learn more about the MTM report, please click here, and to listen to the recording, please click here.
To learn more about Vividata and Ethnicity Matters report, please reach out to [email protected]