Customers are showing up for minority-owned brands—and willing to pay more for them.

In the U.S., more businesses are showcasing their minority-owned status, such as being Black-owned or women-owned.

Does it pay off?

New research says yes. Most customers recognize the challenges minority owners face, making them more likely to support these businesses, overlook mishaps, give better reviews, and even pay more for the same product.

Why customers care

According to the study's researchers, knowing a brand is minority-owned makes us aware of the structural disadvantages, like gender and racial discrimination, that minority owners face.

How much this affects us depends on our sensitivity to social inequalities.

Brands setting the standard

• Google Maps lets businesses identify as minority-owned.

• Miiriya serves as an online marketplace for Black-owned businesses.

• SaaS brands like Calendly and Flutterwave showcase their minority ownership in their branding.

The fine print

While minority ownership can make consumers more forgiving of product or service failures, the researchers suggest it must be authentically woven into your brand story. A reactive mention, such as after making a service mistake, may backfire.

The research primarily focuses on Black-owned businesses in the U.S., so results may vary across different countries.

The Top Three 🥉

The industry’s most important stories today.

🥇 McSNITCHING

After a McDonald's employee tipped off police about a suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the internet fired back. Review-bombing several McDonald's locations in the area with one-star ratings, users branded them as "rats" and "snitches." more

Meanwhile, Amazon today yanked merchandise inspired by the incident, including clothing, glasses, and other items with the phrase "Deny, Defend, Depose." more

🥈 AMAZON’S 15-MINUTE (!) DELIVERY

Next-day delivery? Hold my beer. Amazon is testing 15-minute delivery in India for groceries and household items. This move pits Amazon against rivals like Swiggy, valued at $14B, and Walmart-owned Flipkart, as rapid delivery grows in popularity across the country. more

🥉 BIG WORDPRESS FORMS BUG

WordPress users are being urged to update their WPForms plugin immediately due to a vulnerability affecting up to 6 million sites. The flaw, caused by a missing capability check in the wpforms_is_admin_page function, lets attackers modify subscriptions and issue refunds. more Yikes.

The Google Ads Platform

Jyll Saskin Gales reviews what’s happened in the last month.

Today’s Other News ☑︎

Everything else that matters.

Advertising 📣

• Google has expanded its Product Studio tool to 15 new countries, including Ireland, Mexico, and New Zealand. Key features include background removal, video generation, seasonal overlays, and more for creating product images. more

• Adobe has teamed up with Amazon Web Services to expand its Adobe Experience Platform, offering tools like Real-Time CDP, Journey Optimizer, and Customer Journey Analytics to AWS subscribers. more

• Linear TV might be losing viewers, but it's still the heavyweight champ for ad time, accounting for 90% of TV ad viewing in Q2 2024. more

Social Media 📱

• This is pretty cool. Instagram is testing a new feature that lets brands and creators test reels on random users before posting to followers. Trial reels will gather engagement data—views, likes, comments, shares—approx. 24 hours after publishing to help you decide if it’s worth sharing with your audience. more

• Yelp rolled out 20+ new features for business owners, including:

  • Review Insights

  • Enhanced Business Pages

  • Personalized Discovery

  • Advertiser tools

Omnicom/IPG Merger Fallout 🤝🏻

• Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG could lead to larger AI investments. Combined resources may help the merged company stay ahead in AI, with benefits for both clients and agency employees, according to executives from both companies. more

• If Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG goes as planned it could reshape the ad industry. ADWEEK reports key impacts include Publicis Groupe potentially losing its top spot, increased agency consolidation, and bringing more tech, creative and PR chops to the table. more

• The ripple effect: The proposed acquisition could ignite a massive mergers and acquisitions wave in the agency world. The deal raises questions about layoffs, client impacts, and the future of smaller agencies. more

• Digiday's case for and against the acquisition: It could create the world's largest ad holding company, cutting competitors and boosting scale. But with it comes fear of client churn, talent loss, and (this week's buzzword) consolidation. more

• eMarketer’s take: The merger would create the world's largest ad agency, overtaking WPP. With global digital ad spending expected to hit $1 trillion by 2028, or sooner, the consolidation will reshape the ad industry and position the combined company for greater market share. more

Search 🔗

• It's not you, it's Google. Google Search experienced indexing delays yesterday, where new content was not showing the index for some sites. The issue has now been resolved. more

• Copilot is now in Beta within Bing Webmaster Tools for select users. Instead of showing data in performance reports, Copilot lets you ask questions about your site and data. more

• Google is updating Search Console Insights to focus exclusively on Search Console data, removing Google Analytics metrics. Analytics data will now need to be accessed separately through Google Analytics. The update is rolling out now.

  • 🤦🏻 So now you’ll have to get your data in 2 places instead of 1. Great. more

Commerce 🛒

• You can now buy an entire car on Amazon. In partnership with Hyundai dealers across the U.S., the e-commerce site lets customers browse, order, finance, and arrange delivery.

  • 🤣 What’s next? Temu cars? more

• The U.S. holiday season is 5 days shorter this year, pushing retailers to adapt to a tighter timeframe between Black Friday and Christmas. Amid supply chain disruptions, including a port strike, many retailers prepped with contingency plans, like moving cargo early or rerouting shipments. more

Analytics 📊

• Oracle's shares fell 7% despite a 9% revenue boost and 25% growth from its cloud computing unit, which includes AI model training services. The new Meta deal, involving Oracle’s cloud for AI agents, wasn't reflected in this quarter’s RPO, but is expected to boost it next quarter. more

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Spotted on Social 🔍

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