Diversity 101: Here are 5 areas to start considering in your campaigns (if you haven't already)

Consumers are no longer keeping silent in their fight for diverse representation. In fact, they are more than willing to hold brands accountable for their choices should they fall short. Today, diversity in marketing is crucial for brands to authentically connect with audiences around the world, said Shutterstock's 2021 Diversity Report. 

From celebrating one’s culture to showing the different walks of life, advertisers and brands have to play their part to move the needle to create inclusive advertising. Moreover, brands need to embrace the fact that being inclusive is not just about plastering on a simple image, but rather goes much deeper into understanding your consumers and creating products that fulfill their needs.

“Despite the widespread lockdowns, content creation has excelled, and the resilience of creativity has prevailed. There is no denying the world’s media has paid more attention than ever before to cultural movements and raising much-needed awareness. However, we wanted to understand to what extent this has been truly mirrored in content choices," said Meeckel Beecher, global head of DE&I at Shutterstock.

As such, the team at Shutterstock outlined five areas brands must consider when planning a campaign. 

1. Representation on gender identity

First and foremost, transgender, gender-fluid and non-binary representation matters. As society moves towards breaking barriers and challenging old norms, the media should reflect a gender landscape that incudes his, hers, and theirs. According to the report, most marketers who surveyed agree that gender equality is an important factor when it comes to marketing, with Brazil leading the pack at 74% and Germany trailing at 53%. 

However, of all the markets surveyed, Australia and the United Kingdom reported that over 20% of marketers have used more content featuring transgender, non-binary, gender-fluid, or androgynous models, with South Korea reporting just 4%. Nonetheless, more work needs to be done to translate that sentiment into wider action, said the report. 

2. Representation on sexuality

Companies are now past the post of adding a rainbow icon to ads during Pride month. In fact, members of the LGBTQ+ community are no longer limited to being "loud and proud" just during Pride Month, but all year long. According to 60% of marketers surveyed in the United States, United Kingdom, Sprain, France, and Italy, they agreed that LGBTQ+ representation matters when it comes to targeting campaigns.

Rising above the pack are countries such as Brazil and Australia, where 73% of marketers agreed that LGBTQ+ representation mattered to them when considering ad campaign targeting.

3. Representation on race

Racism has existed for a long time and still happens everyday throughout the world. All around the world, racial issues such as "Black Lives Matter" and "Stop Asian hate" have made headlines, and many brands have also been swept into the conversation willingly or unwillingly.  As such, marketers need to ensure that their brand's content is inclusive to support diversity and take a stand against injustice, said the report. 

In Brazil, the country had the highest numbers (76%) when it came to agreeing that racial and ethnicity are important factors in marketing campaigns. In terms of action, nearly a quarter of all respondents reported using more ethnically diverse models in their campaigns, ranging from Spain at 30% to Germany at 22%.

4. Representation of disability 

According to the report, there is a wide range of people with disabilities who want to have their stories told, in ways that both empower them and normalise their identities. The addition of visuals showing people with disabilities has faced some of the steeper paths to achieve. Australia, representing the highest response rate of all survey groups, has said that up to 27% of its marketers report using more visuals depicting this group over the past 12 months. Whereas Italy reported a similar high mark, with 21% stating that they have included people with disabilities in marketing campaigns.

In fact, a marketer's primary reasoning for representing disabilities is to accurately represent the world we live in, said the respondents from Brazil (85%), the United Kingdom (68%) and the United States (60%). The only country with different primary reasoning is Australia, where 44% said they want to avoid criticism for not representing diversity.

5. Representation of age

From Boomers to Zoomers, people of all ages want to see their faces reflected in the media, said the report. In every country surveyed, over half of the respondents agreed that it mattered to the brands or marketers to have representation of the older generation when it comes to marketing materials. Among the countries surveyed, Brazil is on top leading the way with 69%. 

However, for the most part, less than a fifth of their campaigns have featured models over the age of 50, on average. In Brazil, 29% of marketers admitted to using less content featuring 50+ models in the past year, along with 26% of marketers in France and 15% in Italy. 

The research was conducted by Censuswide among 2,723 marketers in the United Kingdom, USA, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Brazil, Australia, and South Korea between 13 April and 27 April 2021. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society to operate, according to the ESOMAR principles.

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(Photo courtesy: 123rf)

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