EU settlement scheme: Understanding Europeans in the UK
On 31st January 2020 the UK officially left the European Union
EUSS data, provided by GOV.UK as a result of applications made through the EUSS, gives a great insight into where different nationalities are settled in the UK. As a specialist multicultural marketing agency we are able to use this information to target specific audiences in a much more effective way. These are insights we often only see every 10 years within census data. The EUSS data, however, provides a much fuller picture than the census as every transitioning European citizen is captured by this scheme.
We can see this in the large number of Romanian applications for settlement status, for example, which was a key finding not shown in the 2011 census. This information wasn't captured by the 2011 census as Romanian's have only recently started immigrating to the UK. As a result, many brands neglect them when considering multicultural audiences, despite the EUSS data showing that Romanian applications for the scheme were actually the second largest (906,820), just behind Polish applicants (965,340).
Roughly 39% of internationals living in the UK are of European nationality and therefore understanding where these individuals are living and working is key to targeting multicultural audiences in the UK and knowing how to communicate with them.
Understanding where to find your audience
As all marketeers know, understanding where to find your audience is incredibly important when considering where to promote your product or service. With multicultural marketing this is no different; if anything it is more important. The EUSS data provides a great insight into how to find your target audience. For example, did you know that Wales was home to the fewest applications to the scheme? This can help inform marketeers targeting multicultural audiences that Wales is not a great place to target your campaign as it is unlikely to get effective reach compared to places such as Newham below.
From the EUSS scheme data, marketers can inform campaign to specific target areas. For example, the data shows that in London, where roughly one third of applications came from, Newham had the most applications, with 125,620 across all EU states. Looking closer at Newham specifically, most applications were from people of Romanian background. We can also see that Newham is incredibly diverse, with over 1,000 applications from 13 different EU states.
Understanding how to communicate to your audience
Once you’ve used the data to know where to find your audience you can start thinking about how to communicate with them. But how?
To tackle this, you must first understand how your audience engages with media and what their brand discovery channels are. For ethnic audiences we know these are not the same as with mass audiences. These are people where English is potentially their second language and they are not as familiar with the UK. However, this does present opportunity for brands to engage with this audience and encourage brand loyalty.
When considering channels think about the following sources as potential routes to your audience. These are some of our favourites:
- Ethnic media - Often much cheaper than mass media, ethnic media presents an opportunity for brands to place themselves in specific publications for their target audience.
- Ethnic outreach - Ethnic minorities in the UK place great trust in the community of which they are part, utilising key people of influence within those communities to help spread your message is extremely powerful for brand trust.
- Out of home (OOH) advertising - Data such as the EUSS data allows us to understand exactly where to find these audiences in order to inform well-targeted OOH campaigns that don't break the bank.
- Programmatic advertising - Utilising an understanding of location along with behavioural difference in terms of digital journeys and behaviours can help to inform incredibly targeted programmatic campaigns that include bespoke messaging based on geolocation.
After understanding where to find your audience and how to reach them, you can then consider how to communicate with them. Multicultural marketing is not just about reaching your audience, but understanding them and communicating in a way that resonates with them in order to be effective. Just as you do in your mass-targeted marketing, you must consider things such as:
- Tone and voice - As with all your marketing, ensure you are talking to your audience in the correct way by understanding the product / service needs and appealing to this. Across different EU cultures the needs for products / services may differ.
- Language - Are you using language that is clear and concise to people where English may not be their first language? Keep it simple. Consider translating material, but be cautious and don't just use Google Translate.
- Imagery - In many cultures imagery can have a different meaning, and in some cases can offend. Ensure you have researched different cultural beliefs that might affect your campaign. For example, certain symbols in South Asian cultural are considered religious and used in the wrong context can be offensive.
- Colour - Similar to imagery, colours can represent different things amongst different cultures. Specifically, in Chinese culture there is great importance in the different use of colour.
Utilizing data to effectively reach your audience
We have recently produced our EUSS whitepaper that gives an insight into applications by region of the UK. It was important for us to publish this research to further our goal of enabling brands to reach multicultural audiences.
With this data we will be guiding client campaigns and insights into their audience to help drive better and more effective campaigns. If you would like to view our insight, use the link above to discover more.