It is certain that the Summer Olympics 2008 is generating tremendous excitement amongst sport fans, spectators, TV viewers, all forms of media, marketers, advertisers and ad agencies. Beijing Olympics is also broadcasting the sense of multiculturalism in all countries.

In Canada, the Chinese Canadian media is having a field day in reporting insightful news and updates on the outstanding performance of Beijing as the Olympics host, and the China team as the leading medal winners. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and mainstream English media in general are actively introducing China, Beijing, and the Chinese culture to Canadians that strongly respects multiculturalism. Many advertisers injected Chinese touches in their Olympic related ads to promote relevance. I believe these are very positive contributions to our multicultural industry.

For a marketer to succeed in culturally diverse markets , one has to be sensitive to the specific needs of ethnic groups, respect their unique culture and values, which could be very different from the mainstream market. Special occasions including cultural festivals and world class events such as the Olympics, World Cup soccer, or Cricket to South Asians …..provides unique marketing opportunities. The function of a multicultural agency is to offer solutions to help ‘mainstream’ marketers understand ‘cultural’ and help make their messages relevant.
I see the Canadian cultural ad industry entering an exciting new phase in the coming years.

This industry is still so new. To provide some perspectives : Despite the Chinese and South Asian Canadian market has grown to over 2.5 million, (Canada has 31 million people) there were hardly any advertising agency specialized in cultural marketing in the early 80’s. Marketers, mostly retail based, were promoting their products within their ethnic communities. Seldom were there any marketers target at multiple groups at the same time.
Then in early 90s, the provincial telephone companies like Bell Ontario (now Bell Canada), and BC Tel (now Telus) practically started multicultural advertising in Canada, when they promoted their long distance services to multiple ethnic groups. They targeted the groups with high population growth or high return in revenue. Italians, Chinese and South Asians were the main targets.

Take the Chinese market as an example. It was the must-have market at the time because the total immigrant population that came from Hong Kong, China & Taiwan up to 1995 was at 400,800. The next 10 years, the three places supplied another 300,000 Chinese immigrants to Canada. In 2006, there are 1.35 millions of people of Chinese origin in Canada. Their languages and culture made significant impact to many aspects in Canada, e.g. dragon boat racing has become an international event.

In mid 90s, more companies, like the automobile makers, joined the wave to promote their products to immigrants. Although these early adaptors were limited in numbers, they saw the potential of the newly emerged markets and were willing to invest. The investment from these companies, coupled with the growth in Chinese population, gave birth to advertising agencies that specialized in cultural advertising to the Chinese market in the mid-late 90s.

While Chinese is still the must-have market now, other cultural groups, such as South Asian and Filipino, also grew in great numbers over the last 15 years. Marketers finally realized the true potential of the cultural markets and led to the emergence of the cultural advertising industry in Canada.
I believe events such as the Olympics galvanises the spirit of a country, its people, and also plays an active role in promoting multiculturalism….an important ingredient that our industry thrives on. I look forward to The Winter Olympics 2010 that will take place in Vancouver Canada…. A city that is also distinctively multicultural.