Black Americans are 43% more likely than other American demographics to say that they like to have a lot of gadgets, according to the Nielsen report “It’s In The Bag: Black Consumers’ Path To Purchase.” This should give advertisers more peace of mind knowing they have a ton of options when advertising to Black Americans and tapping into Black American spending power.

Attracting Black American Spending Power Using Advertising

Digital

96% of Black Americans own smartphones and 46% own internet-​connected devices, both of which come in at 1% more than Americans as a whole. This demographic's consumers also owns tablets (65%), video game consoles (54%) and computers (74%). On a weekly basis, Black Americans spend hours on numerous devices:

• Smartphones (app/​web): 29 hours and 46 minutes (reaches 81% of the Black American population)
• Tablets (app/​web): 13 hours and 36 minutes (42%)
• Internet on a Computer: 6 hours and 16 minutes (46%)
• Video on a Computer: 2 hours and 40 minutes (21%)

Advertisers can reach this demographic and tap into Black American spending power through ads in these formats.

Traditional

This isn’t to say Black American spending power isn’t also influenced by traditional ads. On the contrary, traditional ads have quite the reach in this demographic:

• Television: 50 hours and 38 minutes per week (reaching 91% of the Black American population)
• Radio: 13 hours and 41 minutes (92%)

Radio has more of a reach among Black Americans than any other medium, even smartphones. Their favorite radio formats are urban AC, urban contemporary, rhythmic CHR, adult contemporary and news/​talk combined. Also, Black Americans love TV, with a weekly watch time that is 11 hours and 32 minutes longer than the average American population as a whole.

“African Americans are more likely than the total population to agree that advertising provides them with meaningful information about the product use of other consumers on most platforms including on mobile phones (42% higher), television (23% higher), radio (21% higher), and on the internet (18% higher),” says Nielsen. 

Black Americans aren’t the only demographic to be heavily influenced by TV, radio and digital ads. AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel has audience profiles on a variety of TV watchers, radio listeners and digital media users. Using the profile information in AudienceSCAN about consumers who respond to specific ad formats, your clients can boost response to their marketing campaigns.