According to 2021 census data, 16.1% of Canadians identify as Black, Chinese or South Asian. Vividata’s latest report sought to find the social passions, consumer voices and media behaviours of these audiences to provide guidance on how to connect with them in more meaningful ways.
The research firm polled 1602 Black Canadians, 1863 Chinese Canadians and 1914 South Asian Canadians for its survey.
Black, Chinese and South Asian Canadians are all more likely than the average Canadian adult to view online video content and more likely to be viewing content on small screens such as computers, laptops, smartphones and tablets. The top social media properties for these Canadians are Facebook and Instagram. South Asian Canadians are the most active on each platform in an average month, except for Pinterest, where Black Canadians rank highest.
Like the average Canadian adult, Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube rank as the top video streaming services for Black, Chinese and South Asian Canadians. Netflix is the top service for all three groups, YouTube is more popular with Black Canadians and Prime is more popular with South Asian Canadians.
Compared to the average Canadian, Black Canadians are the more active across all media, spending at least an hour more than the national average on TV viewing (20 hours), streaming (14 hours), mobile internet (18 hours) and social media (14 hours). On the other hand, Chinese Canadians are the least active on almost any media. South Asian Canadians are active, but more so on digital formats than more traditional media, like TV and radio.
Advertising awareness among these populations is strong with 91% noticing advertising in an average week. Vividata attributes this, in part, to how young and digitally active Black, Chinese and South Asian Canadians are. But with two in three Black, Chinese or South Asian Canadians living in either the Greater Toronto, Greater Montreal or Greater Vancouver Areas, outdoor and transit advertising is likely to gain their attention as well. For ads in TV and radio, Black and Chinese Canadians were just as likely or slightly less likely to take notice, while South Asians 35 and older were slightly more likely than the average Canadian.
