Measuring Brand Lift from Multicultural Audiences

Merging culture and data to unlock consumer loyalty.

As brands prepare to tackle the complexities of 2025, one thing is clear—authentic connections with diverse audiences are no longer optional; they’re essential. Today, consumer loyalty is harder to earn and easier to lose. Advertisers must go beyond surface-level insights to build meaningful relationships that capture the hearts and minds of their audiences. This requires a shift toward inclusivity, cultural insight, and integrating data-driven strategies.

During our 2025 Consumer Trends Webinar with Adweek, DISQO sat down with David Iudica, General Manager of Research and Insights, at multicultural media company, My Code, to explore the key challenges and opportunities shaping advertising today. With over two decades of experience in media strategy and a personal commitment to multicultural representation, Iudica shared how brands can embrace inclusivity, cross-platform strategies, and robust measurement frameworks to foster lasting consumer loyalty and achieve measurable success.

Q: How does My Code's mission to empower multicultural and inclusive media align with your journey and expertise in connecting brands to diverse audiences?

I’ve spent over 20 years working in media strategy, marketing, and research, consistently focusing on important emerging consumer trends that drive meaningful business impact. Multicultural and diverse audiences have always been a key priority in my work—both as a professional focus and as a personal commitment. As a second-generation Hispanic, the importance of fostering inclusivity in media is deeply important and personal for me.

At My Code, we create authentic connections between brands and their audiences through our data capabilities and the expertise of our cultural specialists. This mission allows me to combine my professional experiences and personal passions to contribute to a platform that prioritizes authentic representation and inclusivity while delivering measurable value for our clients.

Q: What feedback are you receiving from advertisers about their 2025 strategies, particularly as they adjust from 2024?

Advertisers are focusing on building loyalty to address ongoing economic challenges and increasing competition. With a growing number of new entrants in many markets, the critical question is: how do brands cultivate loyalty within their consumer base?

The answer lies in forging authentic connections. This requires brands to thoroughly understand their audiences—what matters to them, what they value, and what drives their decisions. It also requires committing to practices like testing, learning, and delivering on the promises made through advertising. It’s about offering meaningful experiences that add value to consumers' lives and reinforce trust in the brand.

In today’s data-rich environment, there’s a growing opportunity to examine consumer behavior and motivations. Despite the disruption and uncertainty of recent years, we remain optimistic about the possibilities ahead. If 2025 provides a more stable environment, it will allow brands to focus on refining their understanding of their audiences and fostering lasting loyalty through tailored and impactful strategies.

Q: DISQO’s 2025 Consumer Trends report highlights the critical importance of knowing your audience and ensuring relevancy. As a multicultural media company, how does My Code help its clients stay relevant to better understand  their audiences?

At My Code, we’ve developed comprehensive diversity and multicultural frameworks to empower our brand partners with a deeper understanding of their audiences. These frameworks help brands assess audience expectations and perceptions of their own identity in the market, providing a clear diagnostic foundation to build upon.

From there, we use our in-house data capabilities and cultural expertise to uncover the trends shaping our audiences. These insights act as strategic entry points for building authentic connections between brands and their target consumers.

On the back end, we ensure continuous improvement through robust testing and measurement. By analyzing campaign performance, we identify what resonates most effectively and refine strategies accordingly. We aim to help brands integrate cultural insights organically, creating meaningful and lasting connections. Ultimately, this approach not only drives relevance but also allows us to demonstrate the value of these connections in tangible, measurable ways.

Q: My Code has a diverse portfolio of media brands across nearly all platforms. What strategies are you seeing the most successful advertisers employ across your brands?

The most successful campaigns we’ve measured share a few key strategies. First, they utilize diverse media placements to achieve broad reach, maintaining an reach and frequency balance. Language alignment is critical for the Hispanic community, whether through creatives entirely in Spanish or a mix of Spanish and English content.

Another effective approach is converting custom content into digital media creatives, which has consistently delivered strong results. Additionally, campaigns that demonstrate authentic cultural representation or align with audience passions, such as sports or other entertainment genres, tend to perform above benchmarks.

Ultimately, the common denominator among these successful campaigns is a holistic connection between media strategy and creative execution. When these elements align seamlessly, campaigns resonate more deeply with audiences, driving meaningful results across platforms.

Q: The balance between brand and performance has been a significant focus in 2024. Do you anticipate this focus continuing in 2025, and how are you helping clients build cross-platform campaigns to address it?

The intersection of brand and performance will remain a critical consideration in 2025, particularly as disruptor brands continue to emerge in sectors like CPG. For many of these brands, the challenge is establishing brand identity while also driving measurable performance. Success in these efforts often hinges on reaching the right audience and fostering authentic connections.

Brand-building, typically associated with the upper funnel is also essential in the post-purchase phase. Beyond delivering quality products or services, brands must focus on maintaining and deepening customer relationships after the purchase. This is where brand messaging and media strategies become vital. By cultivating strong, authentic connections during the post-purchase cycle, brands can redefine their value to consumers, enhance loyalty, and stand out in a crowded marketplace.

For advertisers, the primary challenge is retaining customers amidst market disruptions. By prioritizing strategies that blend brand-building with performance goals, brands can not only acquire new customers but also ensure long-term engagement and loyalty.

Q: What are some key measurement challenges you anticipate for 2025?

A major challenge for 2025 will be achieving consistency in measurement. Defining a clear north star—identifying which metrics truly matter and ensuring alignment across various media—is critical. For example, many advertisers still rely on last-click attribution, but transitioning to more advanced frameworks like incrementality remains a significant hurdle.

Another challenge is fostering patience and understanding around the long-term effects of campaigns. While short-term performance metrics are important, upper-funnel activities can substantially influence lower-funnel outcomes over time. Brands must recognize how top-of-funnel efforts contribute to long-term success and invest in the right testing and learning approach to refine strategies.

Addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive measurement framework that accounts for today’s complex marketing environment and emphasizes the cumulative impact of diverse touchpoints over time.

Q: With the rapid shift toward digital and CTV, what measurement challenges are your clients facing, and what are their expectations regarding measurement and efficacy?

A recurring challenge we see our clients encountering is achieving consistency in measurement—particularly understanding the impact of exposure across cross-media campaigns. CTV often operates alongside multiple channels, yet there remains a disconnect between measurement expectations for CTV and more traditional digital platforms. Bridging this gap requires aligning expectations and establishing a common framework that ensures consistent and reliable measurement across channels.

Clients increasingly expect comprehensive insights, which means leveraging all available data—not just parts of it. At My Code, we prioritize building upon first-party data to identify cultural trends that enable brands to foster authentic connections with their audiences. This data comes from a wide range of sources, and it’s essential to remain agnostic about its origins while rigorously challenging its validity. Especially for multicultural audiences, ensuring data accuracy and relevance is crucial to crafting meaningful campaigns.

Emerging technologies, such as AI, introduce additional complexity. While AI can enhance data processing, biases in training datasets can skew results. To address this, we take a rigorous approach to ensuring the data we use reflects the diversity and realities of the audiences our clients aim to reach. Ultimately, successful measurement involves diligently stewarding data and delivering actionable insights that align with clients’ goals. 

Q: How has DISQO’s fully consented, identity-based platform helped My Code measure performance across platforms and throughout the funnel? What value led you to partner with DISQO for your clients?

The decision to partner with DISQO was driven by our commitment to delivering full-funnel measurement capabilities for our clients. Our goal is to inspire confidence in their decision-making by providing clear, tangible results that demonstrate the impact of their marketing and advertising efforts. Achieving this requires working with exceptional measurement partners, and DISQO's platform aligns perfectly with that need.

DISQO’s expertise in identity-based, cross-platform measurement allows us to provide clients with actionable insights that span the entire customer journey. This partnership has been invaluable in ensuring our clients feel assured that their strategies are effective and measurable.

Personally, having been in the market research and measurement field for many years, it’s a privilege to work with DISQO's team, whose deep expertise and commitment to innovation are evident. Fostering the DISQO and My Code partnership was a top priority for me, given the value it brings to our clients and their campaigns.

Q: What are the most significant challenges in ad effectiveness measurement, and how can the industry collaborate to address these issues?

One key challenge is the lack of a unified measurement approach. Moving away from outdated models like last-click attribution toward more advanced methodologies, such as incrementality and client-driven outcome measurement, is table stakes. These approaches require patience to fully understand the impact of each component of the marketing funnel and how they work together to drive results.

At My Code, we’re actively engaging in initiatives to address these challenges, including participating in trials with AI-driven solutions. These efforts span ad creative testing, concept testing, and building AI databases. Our involvement ensures that as the industry adopts new tools and methodologies, representation and inclusivity remain integral.

The broader solution lies in fostering industry-wide collaboration to establish shared standards and frameworks that reflect the evolving media landscape. By prioritizing holistic and responsible approaches to data, we can create models that deliver actionable insights while addressing the needs of diverse audiences. This focus will be critical as we move into 2025 and beyond.

Q: What advice would you give to brands aiming to balance short-term performance goals with long-term brand-building in their media strategies?

To effectively balance short-term performance goals with long-term brand-building, brands must move beyond viewing the marketing funnel as a linear process. Instead, think of it as an ongoing, dynamic conversation with customers that extends into the post-purchase phase. Each touchpoint in this journey holds value, and understanding that value—through precise measurement—is crucial.

It’s important to avoid leaning too heavily in one direction. While performance metrics are vital for driving immediate results and informing bottom-line decisions, brands must also invest in activities that build lasting connections with their audience. Reestablishing the value of brand advertising requires focusing on authentic, customer-centric messaging that resonates across every interaction.

Ultimately, achieving this balance involves recognizing that brand and performance are not competing objectives but complementary strategies. By integrating both into a cohesive approach, brands can drive sustainable growth while maintaining meaningful customer connections.

Q: Do you have any predictions on the most surprising changes or trends in ad measurement over the next decade? 

One of the most transformative trends in ad measurement is the ability to quantify traditionally qualitative insights. Advances in AI will enable the synthesis of vast amounts of data, allowing brands to derive deeper, more actionable insights from what was previously considered subjective or anecdotal. This evolution will not only enhance the precision of measurement but also expand its scope, making it possible to engage a broader audience and evaluate impact more comprehensively.