On Friday, March 30, Nielsen (No. 32 on the Fair360, formerly DiversityInc Top 50 Companies list) gathered more than 300 influential Millennials, Black women and corporate leaders, for The Power of She LA, a half-day conference designed to empower and galvanize citizens and brands to leverage public policy and creativity to advance the causes and/or projects that are most important to the African-American community.
The agenda consisted of multiple panels, headlined by a unique dialogue between Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Mara Brock Akil, creator, television producer and executive at Akil Productions. The conversation was moderated by Angela Rye, political commentator and CEO of Impact strategies.
The event follows Nielsen’s recent year-long investigation into the consumer strengths of multicultural women in the company’s annual Diverse Intelligence Series reports. The reports provide insights on how multicultural women are the main purchase decision makers in their homes, leaders in education and entrepreneurship, tech enthusiasts and devoted users of social media.
To keep the conversation going about multicultural women and their impact on the US economy and pop culture, Nielsen’s community engagement and diversity & inclusion teams have hosted client- and industry-focused events in New York and Los Angeles, dubbed ‘The Power of She.’
Cheryl Grace, SVP, U.S. Strategic Community Alliances and Consumer Engagement at Nielsen, opened the midday session with an overview of “Our Science, Her Magic,” Nielsen’s 2017 report on African-American women. She paid special attention to how Black women are more likely than total U.S. women to spend three to five hours on social networking sites, and how Black Millennial women (18-34) spend more time using apps and the web on their smartphones than their total U.S. female peers.
Grace then shared data on Black women’s use of social media to impact social change and move catapult beloved products and content into the mainstream. These insights helped set the tone for the dialogue between Congresswoman Waters, Ms. Rye and Ms. Akil.
“Not only does Nielsen data help quantify the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the social movements we’ve seen originate in the Black community, it proves to our clients that when they think about ‘what’s next,’ they need to be considering the power of Black women,” said Grace.
“Our conversation with Maxine and Mara proved that Black women—in tandem with our community leaders—can leverage our insights to affect positive change. It also showed that in order for companies to earn our business, they have to put in the time to truly learn and understand our preferences, desires and stories.”
The a key component to the day’s events were concurrent breakout sessions, which took deep dives into three topics designed around Black women’s engagement in current political, social and economic trends. The first featured best practices for leveraging social media to impact public policy.
Another session featured storytellers and brand developers who advised attendees on the most effective personal storytelling techniques. In the third session, financial experts talked about how building financial literacy can help Black women make healthy consumer choices that work best for them and their families.
For more information on Nielsen’s African American consumer data, visit www.Nielsen.com/AfricanAmericans.
