By Parker Morse, CEO of My Code
2022 brought many new beginnings and chapters to our company’s history and I am incredibly proud of our team and their continued dedication to elevating what multicultural marketing means in the world today.
When the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2022, there was only H Code: the company I founded in 2015 to forge authentic connections between brands and Hispanic consumers. Ten days later, we formally announced the launch of My Code to bring together a traditionally fragmented media market and simplify the complexities of the multicultural marketing landscape. By June, we’d expanded our work to include the AANHPI community (A Code), Black community (B Code), women (W Code), and LGBTQIA+ community (Pride Code). By November, My Code was named a finalist by Digiday as one of the Most Innovative Media Agencies in 2022.
OVERVIEW
In 12 short months, we have bolstered our media holdings with strategic acquisitions, expanded our executive team, conducted extensive audience research, received five industry award nominations, and were rated as the No. 1 partner for Hispanic, Black and multicultural consumer reach by Comscore and Google DV360.
Our talented and diverse team of marketers, sellers, researchers, and storytellers represent the very audiences we reach. 60% are women and 85% of our employee base self-identify as Hispanic, Black, AANHPI or LQBTQIA+. My Code has proven to be the best multicultural platform to reach diverse audiences and offers unparalleled scale. Our clients saw a 26% lift in brand awareness, 18% lift in brand affinity and 29% lift in purchase intent. The My Code team executed nearly 300 creative campaigns, worked with 200+ advertisers and secured 3.2 billion ad impressions in 2022. It has been a busy year, but all of these moves ladder up to a single purpose: to reshape the future of media where everyone is authentically represented.
ACQUISITIONS
My Code acquired a pair of renowned and highly regarded publishers this year, building our portfolio to a total of 12+ owned-and-operated media properties and increasing our overall audience reach to over 60 million monthly uniques and 800+ publishers in our network. The addition of Impremedia, a leading Hispanic news and information company, cemented My Code as the owner of the most widely read and No. 1 Spanish-language daily newspapers and digital media outlets in the U.S. These media additions not only improve the reach of our partners’ ad inventory, but allows them to deepen their understanding of multicultural consumers. The additional media properties have provided more data for our cutting-edge Intelligence Center, which published over 20 research reports this year with over 67K interviews conducted.
Six months later, we extended our offerings in the connected TV space by adding Veranda Entertainment, a leading technology and entertainment company that houses the largest Spanish-language CTV inventory with over 15 million hours of content watched monthly across platforms. Expanding My Code’s connected TV offerings has long been a priority; upfront CTV spending increased 35% over the past year as brands shifted advertising away from linear TV. The category is expected to climb another 27%—for a total of $8.14 billion—in 2023. Acquiring Veranda is a critical first step in our goal to establish a leadership position in the CTV market.
MULTICULTURAL INSIGHTS AND RESEARCH
My Code’s Intelligence Center research provides valuable guidance for brands looking to decode and connect with diverse audiences. Below are some of the research highlights executed by our team:
- The Power of Values-Driven Marketing to Black Consumers
- Demonstrating culturally nuanced consumer understanding builds long-term brand equity among Hispanics
- Multicultural women are more likely to use the Internet for entertainment than non-multicultural women
- Black audiences find culturally relevant creatives more compelling than mainstream creatives
- Openly LGBTQIA+ adults are more likely to identify as gamers and use gaming consoles
STRATEGIC HIRES
The hiring of Veronica Gilton as My Code’s Chief Technology Officer was a key step in driving new intellectual property, building technology to scale business development and elevating service for My Code’s publishers and clients. With more than 25 years of adtech and media experience, Gilton has played a significant and immediate role in developing My Code’s proprietary technology to collect and share media insights about multicultural consumers.
Our executive team was also strengthened by the addition of Moises Magana, who has decades of experience as a CFO enabling us to optimize the financial performance of the company and providing strategic leadership as we grow organically and integrate new businesses.
Ginny Yang, who has defined the roadmap for new category offerings as VP of Marketing, brought an elevated level to our marketing efforts as we introduce new products and verticals to our portfolio. She leads a talented team responsible for Product Marketing, Research, Events, PR, Content Marketing and Design to tell My Code’s story in the marketplace.
This past November, Victoria Jordan, joined our team as General Manager of Branded Content and Creative. Her wealth of experience and talent has complemented our in-house team of multicultural storytellers, delivering branded content that is not only compelling, but also informed by data-driven insights. 100% of My Code’s campaigns are assigned to minority-owned, led and operated production companies, creatives and consumers.
INDUSTRY RECOGNITION
Our excellence in creative and media was recognized amongst our peers with nominations for the following awards:
- 2022 OMMA Award Finalist – Leyendas by GMC Sierra
- 2022 Campaign Live BIG Award Finalist – Leyendas by GMC Sierra and Everyday We Hustle by Toyota
- 2022 Shorty Award Finalist – Covid-19 Disinformation by CDC
- Impremedia’s El Diario, La Raza and La Opinión received a total of 30 awards by the National Association of Hispanic Publications
LOOKING FORWARD
Marketers are seeing that they can no longer have a blanket approach to advertising when engaging with diverse communities, especially when today’s consumers now identify with increasingly diverse backgrounds. My Code will continue to evolve in 2023 and beyond to empower our advertising partners to accurately identify, reach, and connect with their multicultural audiences.
