Omnicom Media Group’s Diverse Content Creators Network (DCCN) is a cross-platform planning and activation system targeting minority-owned and diverse publishers and content creators.
PHD and its sister agencies, Hearts & Science and OMD, will be the exclusive media agencies handling activation and execution.
Expected to go live this summer, the network has signed three major platforms as partners: Twitter and two others yet to be announced, with hopes of expanding the reach to other platforms in Q3 2021.
With a projected universe at the launch of over 10 million creators, the DCCN plans to plug clients directly into content from Asian, Black, LatinX, and LGBTQ+ creators horizontally across platforms. The goal is to eliminate barriers to investment rather than establishing quotas to fill while building new pathways for clients to access and activate on this inventory.
The media agency group will house and operate the network through its Omni data platform, tapping into its newly launched 2 million person consumer panel, OMG Signal, to eliminate bias at the inception point of planning.
Scott Hagedorn, North American CEO of OMG, explained: “We’re expanding the definition of a diverse publisher to include a new generation of self-publishing media entrepreneurs. In making these creators’ content accessible and actionable, we’re exponentially expanding the reach and impact of our clients’ media investments.”
Creators range from stars such as actor Will Smith (53.8 million Instagram followers), director Ava DuVernay (2.7 million Twitter followers) and singer Jason Derulo (46.2 million TikTok followers), to internet-famous creators including Spencer Polanco Knight (@SpencerX on TikTok with 53.4 million followers), Shayla (@makeupshayla on Instagram with 2.7 million followers) and Ali Kabbani (aka Myth, a Twitch streamer with over 7 million followers).
There is also a programmatic twist to the rollout of the DCCN, as OMG looks to overcome the built-in bias toward major publishers among the major supply-side platforms. So often, smaller minority publishers end up at the bottom of the programmatic bidding consideration set. So OMG is also partnering with SSPs like minority-owned Colossus SSP, and others, to aggregate diverse digital publishers into a programmatic private marketplace where they will sit at the top of the heap.
“Omnicom has a keen appreciation of our inclusive approach to supply – connecting savvy marketers with a cross-section of audience who value brands supporting their community and diverse content,” said Lashawnda Goffin, CEO of Colossus SSP.
“Our goal is to go beyond the agency spending target solutions that have been offered to date,” added Hagedorn. “While well-intentioned, they don’t address the critical need: removing the structural barriers in the media ecosystem that have kept diverse publishers and creators at a disadvantage for far too long.”
