News for Authors

A Deep Dive Into the 2025 PRH Multicultural Marketing Summit

by Carolina Merkins|June, 2025

On May 12 and 13, the Penguin Random House Consumer Marketing team presented the Multicultural Marketing Summit, a hybrid event that brought together teams from across the company to learn about the latest trends in multicultural and inclusive marketing. Organized by Susette Brooks and Daniela Ayuso, the summit featured an inspiring lineup of sessions designed to provide marketers with innovative strategies and insights for reaching multicultural audiences.

Kim Shariff, executive vice president of strategy for diversity, equity, and inclusion, set the tone with opening remarks that emphasized the role of books in connecting us to our humanity, fostering empathy, and changing us for a better future to come. “If we can see ourselves [in the world], we will not fear the world. In fact, we will embrace it, and that is what I see us doing as publishers,” Shariff said.

 

To kick off the summit, Bruce Smith, the creator of Hair Love and The Proud Family, presented a keynote on championing diversity in animation. Bruce shared details about his decades-long career as a trailblazing animator, the highs and lows of pushing for representation in animation, and how he conceptualizes his audience. Next, attendees learned about best practices for inclusive design from artist Yannick Lowery and book designer Dominique Jones. These artists and designers showcased their work, from installations to book covers; shared insights on executing creative visions within brand guidelines; and provided tips on how to navigate multiple stakeholders while maintaining the integrity of diverse narratives. The session ended with a thought-provoking discussion on representation versus tokenism and how marketers can navigate these nuances.

 

Madhulika Sikka, vice president and executive editor at Crown, moderated an insightful panel on the changing landscape of book publicity featuring Minda Honey, author of The Heartbreak Years and editor of the Black Joy newsletter; Traci Thomas, host and founder of The Stacks; Kayla Simmons, content creator and founder of Black Girl Book Fest; and Tom Beer, editor in chief of Kirkus Reviews. The conversation examined the fragmented media landscape, emphasizing the role of social media and the importance of publishers’ investing in innovation alongside bookish content creators.

 

In the afternoon, marketers from Penguin Publishing Group, Random House Children’s Books, and Knopf Doubleday presented three case studies exploring successful marketing campaigns that achieved significant sales and audience engagement without large budgets, using both paid and unpaid strategies. Examples included the use of targeted inclusive advertising and influencer discovery, cross-divisional partnerships, and brand collaborations. Following this panel was a conversation on inclusive sales marketing approaches to support educators, librarians, and booksellers.

 

Day 1 ended with a retrospective on All Ways Black, presented by its creators, who shared how the seed of an idea blossomed into the trailblazing brand that changed the way we conceptualize audience-first marketing as publishers. Cree Myles, Anthony Key, and Daniela Ayuso touched on the creative process behind the brand’s biggest activations and emphasized the importance of experimentation and innovation to drive meaningful change in the industry.

 

“There’s this idea of fearless versus reckless. We had a solid understanding of the audience. When you understand the audience, you understand what has to be done and how to serve them. Once you are rooted in the audience and what it is they’re looking for, you can practice fearlessness,” said Key.

 

Day 2 focused on understanding and engaging with specific communities, starting with a keynote from the team behind Storehouse Voices, a new imprint that celebrates readers as writers and aims to disrupt traditional publishing norms. Tamira Chapman, founder & publisher; Porscha Burke, associate publisher; Jennifer Baker, editorial director; and Chelcee Johns, executive editor, discussed how an innovative partnership and volunteer opportunity for PRH staff evolved into a new publishing imprint specifically targeting Black authors and how industry professionals can lean into data-driven innovation to push the envelope on how to reach more diverse readers and develop work by diverse authors.

 

Marissa Romero-Martin from Culturati presented a deep dive into the Hispanic/Latine market, exploring how culture influences consumer behavior. Liat Abada from Bertelsmann’s Fremantle television group presented on how to tap into trends and cultural identities to tell the story behind the story.

 

The final panel challenged the monolithic view of the Latine community, bringing together experts from across fashion, media, and beauty to discuss how to authentically connect with Latine consumers. Kenneth Dorosky, global marketing manager at Nike; Raquel Yvette Reichard, deputy director of Somos at Refinery 29; Debbie Gonzales, creative director of Kids of Immigrants; and Julissa Prado, CEO of Rizos Curls, shared insight from their own experiences as Latine marketing experts, providing a comprehensive look at how cultural identities and trends can drive engagement, growth, and brand loyalty.

 

“The Inclusive Marketing team took great care when curating the MM Summit. We incorporated lessons learned from past events, anecdotal feedback from colleagues around the company, and advice from the Multicultural Marketing Task Force,” said Susette Brooks, reflecting on the summit. “We hope marketers walked away with deeper connections to their work and each other, and a renewed commitment to meeting the needs of our diverse readers.”

 

Looking toward the future, we are excited to turn new insights and strategies presented by the MCM Summit into actionable marketing best practices to better serve our authors and help each reader find the perfect book.