NJ Advance Media creates post-pandemic programme to boost minority businesses

Ideas Blog | 12 September 2023

By Kim Alvarez

Chief Revenue Officer

NJ Advance Media

Iselin, New Jersey, United States

Connect

Since the beginning of the pandemic, NJ Advance Media Cares provided over US$1.6 million in marketing support to help New Jersey businesses through one of the most economically devastating times in our history.

To build on our corporate mission to strengthen and empower the communities we serve, the Mosaic Empowerment Program was born. Mosaic focuses on helping small- to medium-sized, minority-owned businesses in underrepresented communities, as they historically face more economic and systemic challenges to achieving success.

Recipients of the grant received media coverage across Advance Media's diverse digital platforms as well as in print.

A bold start

The inaugural effort in 2022 supported minority-owned businesses by providing a free, six-month marketing campaign to help them recover, grow, and succeed. The Mosaic Empowerment Program launched in March 2022 with these core objectives:

Present grant recipients with a marketing/advertising programme valued at US$25,000. To be eligible, participants must be in business for at least three years, have gross annual revenues of at least US$100,000, and be certified as a minority-owned business with the state of New Jersey. No minimum spend or commitment for future marketing investment is required.
A dedicated sales account executive will be assigned to manage their programme from strategy to execution and help them achieve their unique goals in a meaningful way.
Partner with knowledgeable organisations to help us craft a sustainable programme, including the African American Chamber of Commerce, the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey, the Newark Regional Business Partnership, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
Leverage our robust media platforms, including NJ.com, The Star-Ledger, The Times of Trenton, and Jersey’s Best magazine to tell the stories of the underrepresented communities we serve to over 3.6 million readers within the NJ Advance Media digital and print footprint.

Effective results

For 2022, we selected 10 recipients and launched a multifaceted effort that achieved the following results:

Digital display strategy yielded over 1,265,618 impressions served on our flagship news site, NJ.com, with 1,559 clicks and a .12% CTR (on par with our other house campaigns).

Engaging print ads placed in our suite of print products reached 534,000 readers over a two-month promotional period.

We provided programme participants with targeted visibility opportunities across our print and digital news platforms, with a combined reach of 53% of adults in the two counties of focus (Essex and Mercer counties) for the inaugural program.
Inspiring organic social media posts provided recipients with added exposure to NJ Advance Media’s 4,000+ followers on LinkedIn and over 65,000 followers on the Facebook page of Jersey’s Best magazine. Sponsors provided support by sharing news of the programme to their membership bases and participated in editorial features published in multiple editions of Jersey’s Best magazine.

Building on this success, we’re growing the programme in 2023 and building a sustaining platform through which we can continually help define and support success for minority-owned businesses. The plan is to expand the programme further to include more counties and audiences (including businesses owned by women and LGBTQ+ members), and to align with professional service partners who can provide hiring, accounting, legal, and other types of ancillary advice or support to recipients.