The ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) is holding its Diverse Owned and Targeted Media GrowthFronts, an inaugural industry media upfront event hosted at DotDash Meredith headquarters in New York City. The event is bringting together diverse owned and targeted media entities with buyers and advertisers, increasing visibility and access for media entities including Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+, who as AIMM states “own video, digital, print, audio and/or content integration platforms.”

A preliminary benchmark by AIMM in partnership with Media Framework and Standard Media Index reveals that 1.2% of the media dollars held by the largest media holding companies currently go towards diverse owned and diverse targeted media entities across the following segments: Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, People with Disabilities, and LGBTQ+. A groundbreaking event, GrowthFronts will increase visibility and access for diverse owned and diverse targeted media entities, providing a stage where they can engage and transact with leading national brands, media buyers and advertisers. AIMM’s goal is to increase investment into diverse owned and targeted media to a minimum of 4% by its 2025 GrowthFront.

“This event promises to change the industry’s expectations, closing the gap between intent and action and ultimately, making the industry stronger by providing more investment and equity,” says Bob Liodice, CEO, ANA. “We are grateful for the support from our incredible members and sponsors whose passion enabled this momentous event to happen.”

GrowthFronts panel discussions will be hosted by John Leguizamo, actor and partner, NGLmitu and Richard Lui, MSNBC anchor and bestselling author. The event is centered around networking and one-on-one meetings for dozens of advertisers and forty diverse owned and targeted media entities. More than 550 individual meetings have been scheduled during the GrowthFronts so that all 40 diverse owned and targeted entities can present, transact and connect. The event includes panel discussions from CMOs and industry leaders and performances by celebrated drag artists Lagoona Bloo, Castrata and Peachez.

“We are thrilled to spotlight forty diverse owned and diverse targeted media entities today,” says Gilbert Davila, Co-Founder, AIMM. “This revolutionary event allows us to achieve business growth and equity in the marketplace, and together, we can begin to take steps to prioritize increased investment levels in diverse owned and diverse targeted media entities with advertisers who have the potential to connect with critical audiences.”

“As one of the largest minority-owned media companies targeting a culturally diverse audience, Fuse Media’s purpose has always been to create a multi-platform ecosystem where everyone can see themselves represented. We thank the ANA and AIMM for supporting our mission, and for creating opportunities, like the GrowthFronts, to help increase visibility and access for media companies like ours,” says Miguel Roggero, Chairman and CEO of Fuse Media.

The value of the LGTBQ+ consumer is an important part of this inaugural event as they represent $1.7 trillion in spending and have the least investment from advertisers who, according to the ANA, typically fear making a mistake when advertising to the queer community. Working with an LGTBQ-first media partner such as, GrowthFronts participant, Revry can ensure that advertisers are meeting the inclusive and representational expectations of the queer community.

“The GrowthFronts are a massive step in getting advertisers to start investing into diverse owned businesses that have an authentic connection to their audiences,” says Damian Pelliccione, Co-Founder and CEO of Revry. “LGBTQ-first media like Revry entertain and empower our queer community which helps brands reach these amazing consumers at scale.”

Diversity within the LGBTQ+ community signifies that by reaching the LGTBQ+ consumer you are also reaching the underrepresented Black, Hispanic and Asian consumer as well. According to Revry, over 50% of their programming is for multicultural audiences including bilingual Hispanic and Latinx audiences with their hit new series Drag Latina, which premiered to 1 million viewers across the US.

AIMM’s core GrwothFronts objective is to achieve long-term equity and increase investment in diverse owned and targeted media. The increase in dollars should also be evidenced in targeted/endemic platforms where about 14% of linear TV and radio ad spend dollars are spent to reach ALL diverse segments through those platforms, according to a Santiago Solutions Group and DMI-Consulting analysis of Nielsen AdIntel data for AIMM.

AIMM is reporting that the GrwothFronts have been made possible with the support of P&G, Publicis, Target, Verizon, DotDash Meredith, Anheuser-Busch, Omnicom Media Group, AARP and Nielsen.