Not just politicians, online advertisers too are recognising the value of Indian Americans
In an interview, Senthil Govindan, the CEO of online advertising company Datawrkz, describes how companies and states are strategically targeting the community. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP
It was still February of last year, months before soapboxing by the two candidates reached a fever pitch. Donald Trump, recognising the importance of Indian American voters to his re-election chances, launched a five-figure digital ad buy targeting them. Not to be left behind, his Democratic rival Joe Biden too poured in the greenbacks. The ad blitz by the two competing campaigns was testament to the clout of the community that is among the wealthiest and most educated of all immigrant groups in the US.
Takeaways
Mariko Carpenter, Nielsen’s vp/strategic community alliances, told delegates at the 2020 Virtual Asian Marketing Summit, an event held by the Asian American Advertising Federation (3AF), that:
The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in the US will control $1.3 trillion of spending power by 2022, up from $1 trillion in 2019.
There are an estimated 23.1 million AAPI people in the US. And that total is anticipated to rise further.
Sixty-nine percent of AAPIs are between 13 and 34 years old - and 86% of the AAPI community born in the US are below 18 years of age.
The big idea
“There’s a signal that says we are a consumer segment that marketers really can no longer afford to ignore,” Carpenter said.