Scott welcomed Radha to their virtual fireside chat on the subject of representation in media and the workplace. Scott recalled that at ARF AUDIENCExSCIENCE Conference in 2020, CBS outlined its steps to improve diversity and inclusiveness as both a moral and a business imperative. He asked Radha about CBS’s current thinking.
An analysis by Bloomberg concludes that “AI has a Stereotyping Problem”.
This virtual Salon, hosted by the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council was moderated by Janelle James, Qualitative Research Director, Kantar. Janelle was joined by Kendra Clarke, Vice President of Data Science and Product Development, sparks & honey, and Ola Mobolade, Founder at COCO and Co-author of “Marketing to the New Majority”.
On November 1, 2022, the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council hosted a discussion on ways that brands have gained an edge by focusing their insights and subsequent marketing on traditionally under-represented communities. Speakers from General Mills, Vevo, and muliti-cultural agency Alma shed light on the kinds of research they find helpful in uncovering valuable inclusive insights and the potential rewards of this strategy. They cited examples of those insights and discussed the societal trends that underlie them. The session was moderated by Council Co-Chair Janelle James of Ipsos.
The event addressed how diversity in advertising is evolving. Consumers want to buy from companies that commit to diversity but mere representational presence in ads is not enough. Brands that produce creative that is authentic in context, and elicits emotion from consumers, will garner loyalty and ROI. Leaders from Microsoft and Kantar shared how we can collectively understand nuances better to debunk stereotypes and empower all groups of people.
The ARF’s Jay Mattlin brought together the presenters from Day Two’s Diversity in Advertising track to expand on the common themes and findings from their individual studies. The panel agreed that, in communicating to diverse audiences, mere representational casting or presence in ads and content was not enough. Creative that resonates with multicultural audiences needs to incorporate elements of empowerment, appear in representative programs, and show underrepresented groups in positive, non-stereotypical ways. The following are edited highlights from the panel discussion.
Investing in inclusive content and advertising is essential to connect with customers in demonstrating brand commitment to the causes they care about, according to Nielsen’s Charlene Polite Corley. With Nielsen research supporting how critical representation is to the future of media and brands, Charlene focused on women’s lack of representation to exemplify the missed opportunity in excluding more than half the U.S. population from advertising and content. Nielsen’s findings indicated slow progress in advancements and advertisers were urged to drive inclusion at every step of the production chain, both on screen and behind the camera, and use their media influence to demand more representative programming.
NBCUniversal and Magid partnered to determine how diverse consumers self-identify and how that informed their life experiences in relation to representation and authenticity, particularly in their brand and content choices. Research from clients, consumers and field surveys showed that, while multi-cultural audiences are multi-faceted, they are connected by common threads from shared cultural pillars, shared success and struggle, a sense of community and the straddling of two worlds. These findings led the team to a framework for “ideal representation” as a hierarchy of four distinct levels that define what consumers consider most important in being authentic.
In 2022 the ARF Cultural Effectiveness Council conducted 18 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with senior research executives via Teams and Zoom to understand how the 'Future of Qual' would evolve with rapidly changing qualitative methods and the urgency across industries to understand cultural shifts. Council members Chloe Stromberg of LinkedIn and Anne Kaplan of Paramount, who worked on this project, presented what the Council learned from these interviews. Their presentation was followed by a panel discussion with a mix of Council members (Tony D’Andrea of General Mills and Tristan Marra of GLAAD) and culture-savvy researchers outside the Council (Danie Hemsley of Cassandra and Kendra Clarke, former Senior Director, Head of Experience Research and Design, Core Technologies at Twitter), led by Council Co-Chair Janelle James of Ipsos. The presentation and discussion focused on how qualitative research is evolving, how it can overcome its challenges —particularly those related to diversity and cultural understanding—and best practices for conducting qual research, moving forward.
Member Only AccessDana Sparber of NBCUniversal Advertising & Partnerships, discussed how NBCU created an actionable toolkit to guide their clients on media activations for diverse audiences. This multicultural marketing playbook was based on research with Magid on how diverse consumers self-identity and how that informs their life experiences as well as their brand and consumption choices. They first conducted client interviews to understand challenges and needs as it relates to representation. Then, they set up an online community with diverse consumers, which elicited insights into their thoughts on identity, mindsets around representation in media and their expectations and visions for what really makes something authentic. An online quantitative survey validated these findings. This ultimately led to a framework of representation hierarchy, which was validated through driver analysis.