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TV news is and has always been a staple part of our media diets. Our collective interest in news heightened last year amid the trifecta of the pandemic, rising social unrest and the U.S. presidential election, and continued this year as protests took over Washington, D.C., in early January. While primetime news engagement was notably high on Jan. 6, viewership included an unlikely demographic: Black children ages 2-17.

No one could fault children for gravitating to kids programming on the day or the riots, but a recent analysis of TV viewership among kids 2-17 found that 40% of Black children were tuned into cable news instead of something more expected for their age group. Comparatively, 90% of all children 2-17 did just that: watch kids programming.

The behavior speaks to the unique way in which Black families are navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing racial injustice. Family is critical in the Black community, and without the ability to gather and socialize in the traditional ways, such as through family meals, worship services and visits to the salon, television has taken on a deeper meaning, especially when it comes to celebrating Black culture and Black identity.

While television means more to Americans than entertainment, the sentiment is particularly relevant for Black families, who are readily engaging with TV as a source of information at a time of spiraling crises around racial tolerance, justice and equity. And compared with all children, Black children are spending more of their time engaged right alongside their parents. Rather than shielding their children from this content, Black parents are watching with their young, allowing the news to serve as a catalyst for family conversation. And when the recent riots were taking place during the week of Jan. 6, four of the 10 cable programs that Black children viewed were news programs. 

The importance of news among Black households is a clear factor driving engagement among all ages, but there are other factors as well. One-third of Black households are home to kids under 18, and 5% are multigenerational. Both of these factors embed an additional level of influence and support into Black homes with kids. It also encourages an abundance of co-viewing among family members. 

Given the high percentage of Black households with children, it should come as no surprise that there is a growing appetite for new and fresh content, especially with much of our lives, including school, taking place at home. So while broadcast and cable are prominent in Black homes, their content offerings don’t always offer what African Americans are looking for. 

Importantly, Black families are finding more of their favorite content from virtual cable and video on-demand services, as these platforms often provide a curated balance of network programming from familiar services. And while TV has significant reach, Nielsen has found that the technology people have in their home has the greatest influence on what people watch. 

A year into the pandemic, we’ve seen some of the largest gains in the reach of internet-connected devices among Black Americans, and usage within these families continues to grow. At the height of lockdowns last year (Q2 2020), internet-connected device penetration among Black households increased by 8%. More notably, African Americans spent the most time with these devices than any other demographic group. And today, 17% of Black families that report having access to an SVOD service actually have combined access to at least four major SVOD providers.

Black Americans looking for diverse stories on TV find SVOD programming delivers more than the traditional networks. They are seeing more of themselves in representative content across different genres and story arcs. Think Netflix’s recent hit, Bridgerton—where else can you watch Black characters in Regency England?

For additional insights, download our recent The New Black Family Culture: Navigating Culture Through Content report.

For a culture often defined by coming together, such as through family meals, worship services and visits to the barbershop or salon, 2020 presented Black families with shared and unique obstacles, especially families with kids. As a result, many Black families found new ways to engage with content celebrating Black culture and about Black identity in America.

Today, perhaps more than at any time before, television is a primary engine of information gathering, ideology formation and community connection. As our nation continues to confront the challenges of COVID-19, systemic injustice and an unprecedented political transition, the content Black families consume can be a resource and a refuge, providing equal parts escape from reality or comfort in isolation.

In this Diverse Intelligence Series report, we invite you to join us as we explore the influence of content access and representation on today’s Black family. Brands and media companies may benefit in understanding how to meet the demand as Black families are accessing more content than ever and leaning into programming where they can feel seen.

If you’re still planning your media the way you did a year ago, you’re a bit late to the party. Just like it has done to everything else, COVID-19 has thrown traditional media norms for a loop, forcing a massive reset amid rapidly evolving consumer behaviors. So in that way, banking on yesterday’s data and processes to succeed heading into 2021 is a recipe for dubious budget allocations, missed opportunity and wasted spend.

The depth, breadth and duration of the pandemic will have lasting effects on consumer behavior, as many of the shifts that have taken place over the past 10 months have now solidified into full-fledged, ingrained habits. Advertising, unsurprisingly, paused during the height of the first wave of lockdowns, but media usage skyrocketed. Shortly thereafter, media engagement normalized to seasonal levels, but the share of time spent with platforms and channels had shifted. Those shifts, and the ones ahead, are what brands need to be on top of—so they can appropriately plan and optimize their spend accordingly.

With change coming more quickly than ever, planning and optimizing might seem like a dizzying prospect. It absolutely doesn’t have to be. Importantly, brands need to re-focus their efforts on people—the north star for any marketing message, advertisement or campaign. Additionally, they need to maintain that focus 24/7, not just once or twice a year. By focusing on people and approaching the planning process continuously, campaign efficiency and effectiveness will assuredly improve.

FUTURE SUCCESS HINGES ON PEOPLE, NOT DEVICES

The marketing landscape has many nicknames for people: audience or customer segments, consumer groups, targets. By adopting a people-based lens, marketers can set aside words with variant meanings and focus on truth. Syndicated third-party and first-party data alike need to work together to ensure that campaigns are effective and successful. That success hinges on people, not impressions, devices or bots. Connections with real people have never been more important, and marketers who design their planning around people, then adjust to changing behaviors and habits, will reap the benefits for years to come. The connections marketers make with their customers will be true, authentic and meaningful, and so will their bottom lines. 

Unlike in times past, modern marketers need to adopt agile practices and stay nimble. Static marketing proposals and plans based on data from six months ago are no longer viable for successful media planning. Pandemic aside, people change, as do their behaviors, so media plans need to be able to follow suit. To accommodate uncertainty, fluidity and the unforeseen, brands should use a flexible and continuous framework for all media planning.

CONNECTED SYSTEMS IMPROVE ACCURACY AND EFFICIENCY

In thinking about ways to remain people-focused and continuously planning, brands should use the same demographic profiles across their software solutions to ensure that their planning and buying stays accurate. This requires broader collaborations across the media landscape, yet facilitates true connections between targets and plans. The days of relying on spreadsheets are over. Data-driven solutions help marketers connect the same key demographic from refinement to optimization to buying. Specific demographics are just that—specific. So when data isn’t connected or aligned, it’s very easy to confuse moms who are shopping for SUVs with women aged 25-54 if all you’ve got to go on is a spreadsheet. Both groups are similar, but similar isn’t good enough anymore. For example, if you’re aiming to reach women 25-54 in your media buying system and you accidentally substitute the right value for moms shopping for SUVs, your target reach will be off. 

When your systems are connected, accuracy and efficiency will improve—without question. Time is another benefit. When a marketer loads competitive intelligence data into a reach and frequency planning system, brands can optimize a previous schedule for a future scenario with a click of a mouse. 

The future is people. Center your plan on people, plan around people and connect your data around people. That’s the blueprint for media planning success, and the data, complemented by an agile approach  to it, will pave the road for effective marketing plans today and tomorrow—regardless of any unforeseen uncertainties.

For additional insight, view the recording of our recent media planning webinar with Forrester. Or if you need help with your ad spend and media planning, you can learn more about Nielsen’s Ad Intel, Clear Decisions and Media Impact solutions.