Hyundai accelerates its DEI commitment because rainbow dollars are still valuable.
Earlier this week, the multinational automotive company made headlines after announcing it would NOT be dismantling its DEI efforts, despite mounting pressure to do so.
Yes, you read that right. Unlike countless other brands who walked back their initiatives amidst pressure from the Trump administration, Hyundai is buckling down.
As Erik Thomas, Hyundai Motor America’s director of experiential and multicultural marketing told Digiday, audiences targeted by DEI measures (including the LGBTQ+ community and people of color) “represent an estimated 30%” of their sales.
Considering Hyundai’s revenue increased 7.7% in the last year, they see no reason to leave this sizable audience behind.
Notably, their new campaign geared towards Black shoppers with Culture Brands, an “independent, minority and female-owned agency,” will have prominent spots in NBA games throughout 2025.
Plus, they put their support for the queer community front-and-center as a “presenting sponsor” at last year’s 35th Annual GLAAD Media Awards.
“In terms of the creative that we’re doing and the work that we’re doing with Culture Brands, it’s born from a recognition that it drives sales, drives the bottom line for the company,” Thomas explained.
That said, there’s still a “finite” amount of dollars available to these initiatives, but as long as they continue helping “[drive] business goals,” these campaigns are presumably going nowhere.
