Minority-Owned Broadcasters Left Out of Federal Ad Spending
The federal government spends close to $1 billion a year on advertising, but very little of that is going to minority-owned broadcasters, said panelists at the FCC Office of Communications Business Opportunities roundtable Wednesday. “Our purpose is not to indict but to understand why federal government ad dollars are not more spread out,” said OCBO Director Thomas Reed.
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Government agencies don't appear to track in detail how their advertising dollars are spent, said National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston. He said federal agencies are required to direct some contracting dollars to minority-owned businesses. But NABOB obtained some information about spending through Freedom of Information Act requests and the assistance of Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, showing the government doesn't specifically track eventual destinations of that money, Winston said.
A lack of communication about how minority broadcasters can best be positioned to take advantage of those contracts could be part of the issue, said panelists, who work on directing government contracts to small business for the DOD and the departments of Transportation and Veterans Affairs. DOD requests for information about available contracts often don't get small business respondents, even though the agency is empowered to reserve a percentage of it's contracting for them, said Alice Williams, associate director of the DOD Office of Small Business Programs. DOD is the largest purchaser of advertising in the federal government, Winston said. The VA is also rarely contacted by minority- and women-owned businesses, said Chanel Bankston Carter, director-strategic outreach at the department's Office for Small Business Utilization. “I'm not getting any of those calls.”
Broadcasters don't directly pick up government contracts when deciding where federal ads will be run, Winston said. A federal entity such as the DOD typically contracts out ads to a large advertising agency, with the directive that the larger agency subcontract some of the work to a minority-owned business, Winston said. That subcontract typically goes to a minority-owned advertising agency rather than a broadcaster, and the actual placement of the ads remains up to the initial ad agency, which typically will make national ad buys with longstanding broadcast partners, Winston said. That process leaves minority-owned broadcasters out, he said. “It's a pipeline we aren't in.”
Ad agencies believe they can target advertising to minorities through ad buys on large stations that have minorities in their footprint, said broadcaster Steve Roberts, CEO of Roberts Cos. “That's blanketing the black community, not targeting the black community.” Army recruiting ads and other DOD advertising efforts would be better served to buy time on minority-owned stations, he said.
Federal entities could direct more ad dollars to minority-owned businesses by asking ad agencies to make such buys, said Sherman Kizart of Kizart Media Properties. All of the federal procurement panelists said they would be available to meet with NABOB and minority broadcasters about a more even distribution of ad money. The constituency served by the VA is diverse because the military is diverse, Carter said. “If we aren't advertising with communities that look like us, we are missing opportunities,” she said. “These budgets are our tax dollars; there should be a place for us," said Kizart.