As the advertising industry continues to strive for better representation, there’s a discrepancy between the desire to create inclusive advertising and the final results in the ads we see. Facebook recently commissioned Deloitte Consulting LLP to conduct research to further understand the barriers to representative and inclusive advertising and discovered some eye-opening insights on the way.
Looking at the research, it is clear that the root issue is the relative homogeneity of our industry, especially when compared to the diversity of the customers we serve. Without representation on our teams, it’s hard to meaningfully move the ball forward. However, I am inspired that so many of us want to see change in our industry, and we have the willingness and desire to create more inclusive advertising.
We’re starting to see signs of progress; and yet, we’ve uncovered that there is still a lack of prioritizing inclusion among the leadership ranks across our industry, as well as confusion on how to execute. Feeling like there is a lack of active support from leadership, misalignment of incentives around client demand and a lack of mandate to change the momentum are some of the barriers advertising and marketing professionals talked about in the research. I believe that through truly understanding these barriers, we can collectively work to overcome them.
I discussed my thoughts with Nicole Patterson, a principal at Deloitte and a leader of the Deloitte team that undertook the research, to talk through some of the findings and recommended actions that will lead to more impactful changes.
Katherine Shappley: My first observation from the report was that we’ve reached a point where leadership recognizes the importance of inclusion in advertising but isn’t yet fully incorporating into their core business strategies and practices. The report uncovers a disconnect between leaders’ stated priorities and the way their teams perceive them. What do you make of this gap?
Nicole Patterson: Let me first say that it’s heartening to see that leaders across industries within the U.S. and Canada are acknowledging the lack of representation, which is an important first step. However, to add to your observation, only 27% of respondents to the survey we conducted said they have a formal process or mechanism in place to make sure advertising content is representative. The opportunity is to do the work of building and implementing those formal mechanisms in order to create meaningful, sustained change.
In tandem with creating these processes, it’s critical for leaders to evaluate the composition of their teams. Ask the hard questions: Do we have the right people on our team to create truly inclusive content? Are the people creating our advertising reflective of the audience they are trying to reach? Does our team culture create space for all voices on the team to be heard?
Our research showed that authenticity is a key component of inclusive advertising, and diverse teams are required to create truly inclusive content. The advertising industry has a long way to go here, especially at the leadership levels. I’d like to see the industry come together to make more meaningful and systemic change by looking outside the usual networks to find talent, re-evaluating how they are attracting a diversity of talent, establishing more inclusive cultures to foster talent from diverse backgrounds and deliberately building DEI into company processes.
As leaders, with any change, there are perceived risks. In the report, four out of five focus group discussions highlighted the risk of losing customers as a deterrent to creating more representative and inclusive content. How can industry professionals overcome those fears?
It came through clearly in the research that there are a lot of fears and perceived risks that marketers face when it comes to creating inclusive content. The fear of potentially losing customers, or coming across as inauthentic, too political or just generally being viewed negatively. They also cited concerns about the high cost of change—adopting new tools, bringing in training specific to the marketing department or onboarding new vendors.
While these upfront costs and perceived risks are more apparent to them, there is ample data to say that the benefits are high. But we found in the study that marketers have a difficult time measuring the benefits of representation on their brand and business outcomes. Here, leaders can drive change by sharing and educating their teams on research that articulates the short and long-term positive business impact of representative and inclusive advertising and using industry tools designed to measure the impact of inclusive advertising.
Right, I like to ask my team what happens if we don’t change. Having the right measurement and resources are crucial to mitigating perceived risk. Some of the responses and quotes lend to the idea that creative professionals don’t feel they have access to the right tools at the right stage of the development process to make effective change, but they are very open and excited to embrace inclusion in their work. What can companies and leaders do to help support their creative teams in this process?
The research shows that many professionals are highly confident that they can make more inclusive advertising if they’re provided with the right tools and training. When we analyzed the tools available in the advertising ecosystem, we found many great resources, though awareness and adoption of these resources is still relatively low.
We also found that 68% of the tools we studied are designed to be used during production or later, when it may be too late to make meaningful changes to content. The key here is to embed this inclusive thinking throughout the entire process, starting with building diverse teams and creating an environment where different voices are comfortable speaking up and contributing.
When leaders empower their creative teams to prioritize inclusive content as a sustainable part of their process, they will be more likely to take advantage of the tools available and ultimately be more successful. The industry can work together to further socialize the current suite of tools, build them into their processes, and develop new tools that can be implemented earlier in the advertising process. But it isn’t just about tools; creative professionals also need the support of their leaders and clients to drive meaningful progress.
These are just some of the insights we’ve uncovered in our full report. We hope as you read through the findings, you are inspired to take action with your teams, and we look forward to working together to create an advertising industry that better reflects the depth and breadth of our diverse society.
