From cars and furniture to bank accounts and mobile phones, newcomers are making significant purchases as they settle into Canada. This presents a valuable opportunity for brands to connect with these new customers online.
Sonia Carreno, President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada, sat down with Claudia Worms Sciama, Managing Director of Automotive, Consumer Goods & Telco at Google Canada, to discuss how brands can best leverage this opportunity. Claudia and her family immigrated to Canada five years ago experiencing firsthand the challenges and triumphs of building a life in a new country, giving her a powerful perspective on how brands can best connect with this growing segment of the Canadian population.
Sonia Carreno: There’s a misconception that the newcomer population is a digitally disconnected segment of Canada’s overall population. Can you tell us any trends Google sees around their use of digital?
Claudia Worms Sciama: The idea that newcomers are a small, digitally disconnected group is simply not true. In fact, they’re incredibly digitally savvy, often coming from countries with high digital adoption like India, Nigeria, and the Philippines. What’s key for brands and advertisers to understand is that their journey begins before they even arrive in Canada, and it begins with online research.
According to research we commissioned with Angus Reid Canada, YouTube and Google Search emerge as the primary information sources pre-arrival[1]. This presents a crucial opportunity for brands to connect with this audience early, building awareness and establishing trust before they even set foot in the country.
Through my work at Google, I’ve witnessed firsthand the incredible power of digital platforms and AI-driven solutions to help businesses successfully engage and welcome newcomers in ways that they might have struggled to do previously.
And, post-arrival, YouTube remains dominant for entertainment and connection to their home culture. If we dig a little deeper, what we see is that 76% of new Canadian viewers identify YouTube as the first app they open on their Connected TV.[2] This makes it an ideal platform for brands to build early awareness and maintain engagement long-term.
SC: Can you tell us a little bit more about the Google and YouTube trends you’re seeing in Canada, and how that may help brands connect more with newcomer audiences?
CWS: Both Google Search and YouTube data tell us that multicultural artists, events, and sports are hugely popular in Canada. Musicians like Karan Aujla and Diljit Dosanjh frequently out-trend mainstream stars on the YouTube Music charts, even beating Taylor Swift from July 26 to August 1, and the T20 International Cricket World Cup drew more search interest than the NBA Finals.
Cultural events also offer significant opportunities for brands to connect with newcomers in Canada, with holidays like Chinese and Lunar New Year searches exceeding Thanksgiving, and Ramadan and Eid on par with the fall holiday.
SC: How are newcomers reshaping various sectors in Canada and what trends should brands be aware of?
CWS: Newcomers are reshaping Canadian sectors with their unique cultural perspectives and high digital engagement, calling on brands to ensure their marketing strategies reflect this. In auto, 54% of newcomers to Canada buy their new car within three months of arrival, and they’re more open to new brands and technologies than established Canadians, with only 6% of car purchases based on prior brand experience[3]. They’re also twice as likely to favour new over used cars and 38% more likely to consider EVs.
Retailers should note newcomers’ active search for culturally relevant products like “rice cooker” are outpacing “toaster oven,” and “kurta” surpassing “men’s dress shirt” according to Google Trends. This tells us that culturally relevant language in ads is crucial for discoverability.
In financial services, newcomers are twice as likely to open accounts via apps. This presents a valuable growth opportunity for brands to introduce themselves for the first time and build loyalty with this segment online.
SC: How can AI help brands connect with this set of Canada’s population?
CWS: Newcomers represent a large and growing market segment with high digital engagement and openness to new brands, offering significant growth potential. Unlike established Canadian consumers, newcomers are less influenced by pre-existing brand loyalties. Additionally, two-fifths of newcomers (40%) have clicked on an online ad in the past month, and nearly half of those (48%) made a purchase after clicking.[4] This presents a unique opportunity for brands to acquire new customers and build loyalty as newcomers gain familiarity with the Canadian commercial landscape.
Understanding newcomers’ distinct cultural preferences and needs also allows for tailored messaging and offerings that resonate deeply. By tailoring their digital strategies, brands can effectively connect with this growing consumer segment, build lasting relationships, and drive conversions.
Google AI can allow brands to do that at scale. With a campaign type like Performance Max, which uses Google’s AI – an advertiser only shares their campaign goals and creative assets, and our technology automatically produces and runs a highly effective ad campaign across all of Google’s channels. Google AI tests audiences, creatives, formats, channels and placements, to discover the best return on your investment, even discovering new customers. To speed up the development and relevance of your creative, you can also use AI to format, trim, and resize your existing assets for different channels. It can add captions, dub your videos, and even learn from your creative library to generate entirely new ads.
IAB Canada is committed to focusing on this in the coming year and looks forward to collaborating with our members to effectively engage new Canadians through digital advertising. Join the conversation, reach out to committees@iabcanada.com.
[1] MTM 18+, National Spring 2023 New Canadians are defined as residing in Canada 10 years or less
[2] Google/Talk Shoppe, Canada, whyVideo 2022 study, New Canadians based on n=523 A18-64 video users who have lived in Canada 5 years or less; Survey in field April 1st to May 2nd, 2022.
[3] Google-Kantar, Gearshift Canada 2023, n = 2432
[4] MTM Newcomers, November 2024