This weekend saw the 22nd edition of the Rotterdam Summer Carnival, one of the largest Caribbean Carnival parades in Europe. Although the Summer Carnival started as an event organized by and for the Dutch Caribbean population, it has developed into one of the largest multicultural festivals in the Netherlands.
Participants come from a wide variety of communities, such as the Caribbean, Brazilian, Bolivian, Surinamese and Cape Verdean community while even a Moroccan girl was this year’s first runner up at the Queen Carnival election. With an estimated crowd of 900,000 the Rotterdam Summer Carnival has become a massive event.
As one of the Netherlands largest public events, the media exposure is huge and the involvement of the participants intense. As soon as the Summer Carnival is finished, participants already start preparing for the 23rd edition in 2007.
Then why are most of the large brands still ignoring the Summer Carnival as probably one of the most attractive sponsored objects in the Netherlands? Why is the very small Ortel Mobile Telecom company this year’s main sponsor instead of KPN, Vodafone, T-Mobile or Orange? Why do big brands invest heavily in the Amsterdam Uitmarkt or North Sea Jazz and ignore this massive Carnival event that attracts visitors from all over the country and abroad?
Provided it fits your brand and the strategic choices you have made, the Rotterdam Summer Carnival is a sponsor’s paradise. The event offers massive crowds, intense involvement of participants, huge media exposure, professional organization and unique and emotional content to be fully exploited by your brand.
The popularity of YouTube is growing at an astronomical rate, as web traffic to the video-sharing site grew 75% just in the week ending July 16, from 7.3 million to 12.8 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Traffic to the site has grown nearly threefold since January, making it the fastest-growing site online. Still without an ad model, YouTube is signing sponsorships as its web traffic soars. 
In about a year and a half, founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen have watched YouTube go from a video-sharing site for their friends to the most-visited video service online, attracting more than 20 million U.S. users in May - compared with 11.1 million for Microsoft’s MSN Video. The two have become the envy of every media company from New York to Los Angeles, as evinced by Mr. Hurley’s belle-of-the-ball status at last month’s elite Allen & Co. media summit in Sun Valley, Idaho. 
The Home Depot, the second-largest retailer in the United States after Wal-Mart with annual sales of $81.5 billion, is making its biggest push yet to reach out to Hispanic shoppers. 
Adding to this, how-to clinics are being taught in English and Spanish and the retail chain is partnering with national Hispanic organizations to recruit employees. 
Where does the Turkish Dutch population do their shopping? What do Surinamese Dutch consider attractive promotions? How does your brand perform in shops with a high number of shoppers from ethnic minorities? And how does that compare to shops in predominantly white areas? What are the drivers behind decisions made by the culturally diverse populations in the Netherlands on the shop floor? 
In the days after the World Cup final, news headlines have not been dominated by Italy’s celebrations over it’s World Cup victory over France. It is Zinedine Zidane and his now infamous headbutt dominating the world’s front pages.
Some 13 per cent of UK 16- to 24-year-olds have ethnic-minority backgrounds. In London, it is 41 per cent. With even higher proportions of black, Asian, and mixed-race under-16s, this trend is set to grow significantly. Starcom research among black, Asian, mixed-race and white youths between 16 and 24, uncovered a number of trends that should influence how to communicate with the UK’s modern youth.
The research shows that youth media consumption is best understood by looking at the context in which they consume it. Occasions have different patterns for different ethnic groups but, overall, they fall into three main categories: family, peer and community.
With disengagement a real issue, marketers need to understand how to break through by offering something to young people – whether it is stand-out creative, valued content or the opportunity to interact. There is also a need to understand the social and ethnic context of youth media and establish what occasions are most relevant by brand and message.
‘Ethnic diversity in French media becomes a reality as soon as we can watch a black person opening a fridge to take out white yoghurt’, says Amirouche Laïdi, President of ‘Averroes’, an organization attempting to encourage ethnic diversity in the media. ‘Not a chocolate yoghurt, or vanilla with coco nuts’. Mohammed Dia (see photo), President of clothing company Street Wear agrees: ‘Until now, media don’t seem to able to depict blacks or Arabs as ordinary customers’.