Why celebrating diversity is a triple win for brands, and how to do it right with marketing
Guess who’s not looking forward to Christmas this year?
Millions of people.
We’ll admit that we’ve had our Christmas lights on since the 1st of December. But there are so many other traditions, cultures, ethnicities, genders, abilities, ages, beliefs, professions, and ways to be in the world. So why aren’t we celebrating them more? Here’s to walking the talk in 2020, by allowing for more diversity in marketing.
What do we mean by diversity in marketing anyway?
Embracing diversity means being open to understanding what ‘the norm’ might be for others.
This doesn’t mean that brands need to advertise to everyone. In fact, marketers are taught to narrow down their targets to the segment that is most profitable to them. But they still need to understand the many forms of being and thinking out there, so they can get their message across to their target audience while being sensitive to others.
Besides, open-mindedness makes business sense. Generation Z and Millennials are the most numerous generations in the world and, according to Deloitte, also the most diverse. They’re online, and they’re spending, and they’re critical of how brands talk. So much so, that 70% of millennials say they’ll choose one brand over another if it displays diversity and inclusion in its marketing. So how can marketers do that?
Start from the inside out. By having a team that is diverse from the outset, brands are more likely to see diversity shine through to their final products and marketing campaigns. At Google Next UK 2019, Asif Sadiq, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at The Telegraph, emphasised a sense of belonging as one crucial factor in this equation. “Diversity and representation are about numbers, and inclusivity doesn’t necessarily mean you have a voice,” he said. “But belonging brings about motivation and, consequently, more efficiency and even more innovation – because you’re free to be yourself.”
In other words: belonging and open mindedness take diversity from a box to be ticked to a value brands actually live by. And audiences are able to spot that, as the fallout from Dove’s 2017 soap ad taught us. The ad shows a black woman taking off her shirt to reveal a white woman, which social media users interpreted as racist. In 2011, Dove had already committed a similar mistake by placing three women in a colour gradient line for a moisturiser ad; the one with the most melanin stood in front of a “before” sign, and the one with the least in front of “after”, leaving it open for interpretation which one has the most desirable skin.
What brands can learn from these tone-deaf ads is that being diverse in marketing isn’t just about including diverse people in your campaign, but about how you do it too.
Reflect the society we’re in
Marketers should seek diverse models that appeal to a variety of people and audiences – but instead of stopping there, they should aim to touch them on a personal level too. In 2016, deodorant brand Axe celebrated different forms of masculinity with a video showing men as brainy, sexy, adventurous, cuddly, gay, straight, divas rocking high heels on the dance floor, and music nerds. The campaign is a great example of diversity and inclusion, but it didn’t just reach a wide variety of people – it created a deeper connection with each of them by inviting viewers to “find their own magic”.
By making individuals feel valued, brands can earn a space in their lives. Harjot Singh, Chief Strategy Officer for McCann Worldgroup EMEA, defended this idea at Pride AM’s Brand Makeover event, which advocates for LGBT+ representation in advertising. Singh urged brands to use their communication channels to create value with fair and accurate representation. “If brands want to move us,” he said, “they need to represent and include our community in a way that enriches our culture.”
Procter and Gamble did inclusivity right in 2017 with a hard-hitting commercial about racial bias. The video invites viewers to step into the shoes of black families in the US as mothers prepare their children to face lifelong discrimination. The commercial, which ends with a strong call to action (“Let’s all talk about ‘the talk’, so we can end the need to have it”), brings home Singh’s idea of diversity in marketing that enriches our culture with accuracy and fairness.
A diverse marketing campaign highlights how your brand can understand, help, and appeal to all sorts of people while also respecting their uniqueness.
So when it comes to capturing authentic diversity, look at consumers themselves: how can you celebrate their differences while uniting them over a common interest?
Coca-Cola has found an answer to this question, and acts on it to lead consumers to identify with its brand and feel good about it. Its 2013 Share a Coke campaign is a simple example: it involved replacing the Coca-Cola logo on bottles and cans with people’s names. By including names from 70 countries, and inviting consumers to personalise bottles, Coca-Cola succeeded in making “a global brand personal” and appeal to all kinds of people, who gladly shared their names on bottles online.
A personalised campaign is a triple win: it shows diversity without overdoing it, helps brands create connections that last, and makes content more shareable than ever.
Savvy brands like Coca-Cola recognise that personalisation is no longer an add-on for modern advertising, but one of its foundations. We’ve created a tool for helping more brands adopt this approach: Voundry, by distillery, is a personalisation engine that renders videos and GIFs in real time, at scale, so you can connect with as many fans as you want, while giving each one of them the undivided attention they deserve.
Want to know more about turning your audience into fans through diverse and personalised marketing? Read our article on mastering the art of personalisation - or get in touch now.