In May, the Toronto Blue Jays hosted their annual Cricket Day at the Park inside the Rogers Centre. The event may seem unusual for a baseball team, but it reflects the Jays’ efforts to connect with the city’s South Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities, while promoting a sport that has historically excluded racialized groups. 

Cricket, by contrast, is a beloved and widely followed sport within these communities. Through the event, the Blue Jays sought to make South Asian and Afro-Caribbean fans feel represented in baseball by highlighting the similarities between the two sports, and acknowledging cricket’s cultural significance and emotional resonance. The event was a resounding success, landing coverage in both mainstream and ethnic news outlets, and garnering over one million video views online. 

While the latest event was run by the Blue Jays, the idea for it was originally co-conceived by Ethnicity Matters, the marketing firm I founded in 2013 to help companies connect with Canada’s multicultural audiences. In many ways, it illustrates multicultural marketing in action–a strategy that tailors campaigns to the cultural values, traditions, and interests of diverse communities. Even amid stricter immigration policies, it remains vital for connecting with consumers. Population growth in Canada has long been driven by immigration, and a 2022 Statistics Canada projection indicates it will remain the primary driver for decades to come. By 2041, immigrants and their Canadian-born children are expected to make up half of the population.

Marketers play a crucial role in engaging consumers in culturally relevant ways to drive growth while showing that these audiences’ needs and preferences are valued. A 2023 Google Business report found that newcomers often seek reminders of home, with many drawn to brands that evoke familiarity from their countries of origin. Nearly 70 per cent also feel a stronger sense of belonging when brands advertise in their language. Celebrating cultural events and holidays offers another valuable way for brands to connect authentically with these communities.

This understanding inspired me to co-found Ethnicity Matters. My journey in marketing began in the early 2000s at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) in Sault Ste. Marie, where I noticed that both game formats and advertising often failed to reflect Canada’s cultural diversity. One memorable example was a lottery ticket called “Live Large”, an idiom that could confuse English-as-a-second-language speakers. I set out to change this by developing OLG’s first strategy to effectively market to Ontario’s increasingly multicultural population–a practice that has since gained traction across Canada, reflecting a growing recognition that culturally informed strategies are essential for engaging diverse communities.

At Ethnicity Matters, one of our recent successes was working with fast food chain A&W to create the Masala Veggie Burger, designed to appeal to the growing number of Indian immigrants, many of whom are vegetarian. The burger features paneer, a staple of Indian cuisine, and A&W reinforced its cultural relevance by partnering with Nanak Foods, a brand familiar to many South Asian households across North America. Originally a limited-time offering, the burger quickly became a permanent menu item in several provinces, demonstrating that effective multicultural marketing is about meeting consumers where they are. The advertising campaign ran for just 10 days, ending once stock sold out. 

Successful multicultural campaigns start by engaging communities and stakeholders early in the process. Companies often make the mistake of working in isolation, assuming they fully understand the needs and perspectives of the cultural groups they aim to reach. At Ethnicity Matters, we engage communities directly to ensure campaigns are culturally informed, relevant, and respectful. One approach we call “friendraising” involves connecting with communities with genuine curiosity and respect, building trust before any transactional relationship. We also run focus groups, attend local events and festivals, and consult cultural experts to gain deeper insights into the communities we serve.

A diverse marketing team is also critical to success. At our firm, 97 per cent of our staff are racialized, and 75 per cent are foreign-born. This diversity gives us a unique advantage as team members bring lived experiences and cultural insights that allow us to craft campaigns that resonate authentically. They can spot cultural touchpoints, language nuances, and storytelling approaches that outsiders might miss. For example, a colleague from Barbados suggested creating a fundraiser called “Cricket to Conquer Cancer”, a variation of Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation’s “Road Hockey to Conquer Cancer” event. He recognized that, much like road hockey in Canada, street cricket is a beloved pastime in South Asian, Caribbean, and African communities. That cultural awareness helped make that event into a highly successful fundraiser. 

With these considerations in mind, we approach multicultural marketing campaigns through five key steps. It starts with defining the organization’s goal–whether that’s driving sales, improving perception, or growing market share. Next, we collect audience information through our “brain up” process, which involves in-depth qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research explores a group’s core values, beliefs, and social norms, while quantitative research examines shopping and media consumption habits. Once collected, the data is analyzed to uncover insights that are then translated into actionable steps across advertising, PR and media planning, or product launches. Finally, results are reviewed, and the campaign is refined and repeated. While the process is similar to any marketing campaign, we pay special attention to cultural touchpoints, significant holidays, and authentic tone and imagery, avoiding stereotypes to ensure the campaign resonates respectfully and meaningfully.

Related: How Supplier Diversity Strengthens Supply Chain Resilience

As I like to say, there is diversity within diversity—every cultural group in Canada encompasses a wide range of experiences. Yet a common misstep in representing these groups is relying on a single community member’s perspective and assuming it reflects the entire group. Campaigns must account for that complexity to avoid tokenism. Factors such as age, gender, and religion all shape how someone engages with a brand or interprets a message. Avoiding tokenism goes beyond translating an ad or including diverse faces–it means treating diversity as more than just a checkbox. Consulting multiple multicultural marketing experts, community leaders, and cultural specialists ensures campaigns capture a community’s nuances and avoid broad generalizations. 

Just a decade ago, flavours like Sriracha and butter chicken were considered niche. Today, they appear everywhere—from chips to burgers. This shift reflects Canada’s evolving market and underscores the need for marketing that connects authentically with various communities. While recent government policies and lower immigration targets may have slowed the flow of newcomers, immigration continues to drive Canada’s population growth. For companies, that means multicultural marketing is not just an option—it’s essential for staying relevant and driving growth.

– As told to Alice Boyle