Hero Media and AdTheorent Launch DSP to Target Diverse Audiences

The platform, Hero One, helps advertisers target diverse audiences across an array of media, including Hero Media’s Black-owned media network, as well as the full swath of inventory monetized by supply-side platforms (SSPs) like PubMatic and Magnite. The platform will use proprietary tech, algorithms and data from DSP AdTheorent and contextually relevant signals developed from Hero Media.

“We want to not just limit the inventory we target to Black-owned but we want to reach Black and diverse consumers regardless of where they are,” said Joe Anthony, founder and chairman of Hero Media. “That helps us overcome some of the issues around scale.” Anthony added that Black-owned media will still be prioritized, even if all media is eligible for advertising.

Hero One is unique among ad-tech solutions in the multicultural marketing space to take a buy-side approach and a rare Black-owned DSP. Private marketplaces (PMPs) and SSPs like Colossus SSP have been more popular recently, sources told Adweek. These solutions help buyers reach publishers owned by members of underrepresented communities, instead of more directly targeting diverse populations.

Hero One, which will introduce a self-service function in the second quarter of 2024, comes at a time when brands say they want to engage in multicultural marketing, as the non-white population is growing. At the same time, efforts to diversify spend have often resulted in one-off campaigns or only benefitted the biggest publishers.

Hero Media and AdTheorent are aiming to make it easier for brands to reach diverse audiences in a thoughtful way, and early data shows promising results.

A major oil and gas company used Hero One to target Black luxury auto shoppers and drove click-through rates of 0.25%, exceeding the 0.15% benchmark and video completion rates of 87.2%, exceeding the 79% benchmark, according to the company.

The checkered history of audience segments

Part of the reason buyers have soured on audience targeting to reach diverse audiences is that data firms can use biased signals to create segments.

It’s common for ad-tech firms to identify Black or Latinx audiences based on last names and zip codes, and preferences like being a fan of Reggae, two buyers said.

“There are some tools to target audiences already and we have found they’re not the most ethical way to do marketing,” said Campbell Williams, senior manager of programmatic operations at performance marketing agency Tinuiti, who has worked on multicultural media buying initiatives.

Hero One aims to be more thoughtful, basing its audience on 56 million records of self-reported race and ethnicity data, which makes sure the platform is targeting actually diverse audiences rather than guessing. The data set is decoupled from any names or sensitive information, according to AdTheorent, which owns the data set.

“We don’t make assumptions based on where someone is based or their interests or what content they consume,” said Jim Lawson, CEO of AdTheorent. “We do have this additional data insight … so that we can connect dots and we can tie it back to race and ethnicity in a way that can be useful.”

Bolstering Hero One’s targeting ability is cultural insights data from Hero Media around various lifestyle interests to further inform targeting, which can then be used in AdTheorent’s machine learning models.

“You can’t have great qualitative insights without professionals that are from the culture,” Anthony said.

Publisher-centric versus audience-centric

Low-quality audience segments have led some advertisers to prefer finding diverse audiences by buying diverse-owned media either through PMPs or working with specialized SSPs like Colossus.

“Understanding the context and the purpose of that [media] property is the best way to identify certain audiences without always defaulting to race and creed and sexuality,” said Mark Walker, CEO of Colossus owner Direct Digital Holdings.

Hero One believes it has a different value proposition than sell-side solutions.

“We’re not in the where business, but the how and the who business,” Anthony said.

Encouraging cautious media agencies to use solutions like Hero One can be tricky, said Iesha White, a consultant on diverse and multicultural media who has worked at brands and agencies.

“When Google comes out with new products, no one needs case studies,” White said, noting multicultural solutions are often held to a higher standard. “When it comes to a new challenger in the [multicultural] space, they need a case study.”

“Programmatic media buyers are going to need to be brave,” White added. “We owe it to ourselves to give it a try. If it doesn’t work, we can always turn it off.”