#BreakTheBias: Three Ways You Can Make Your Marketing More Inclusive
The theme for International Women’s Day 2022 is #BreakTheBias. The official International Women’s Day website explains that the hashtag is to be used to share content linked to the disuse of bias and stereotypes and encourage diversity and inclusivity. With each International Women’s Day, we are that much closer to living in a world with gender equality.
To do our bit to help #BreakTheBias we’ve put together three recommendations to help ensure you’re not being unconsciously discriminatory in your advertising. There are some actions we, in marketing, can consciously and simply put in place so we are held responsible for the advertising we put out there.
1. Use Women from Multiple Age Groups in Photography
Females, when used in advertising, are more likely to be in their 20s and 30s but brands need to make sure they are also representing older women. Persons between 50-54 make up the largest age group in the UK. Despite this, women in older age categories are rarely represented in advertising. If they are, it’s for anti-aging products and rarely do you see a 50 something year old woman in a work setting. This leads quite nicely to the next action…
On #InternationalWomensDay as we continue to #BreakTheBias 🙅🏽♀️ our focus equally is on much-needed #solidarity with #UkraineWomen and girls caught in conflict. Please mobilize your community for #IWD2022 to donate to the considerable relief efforts underway https://t.co/EfeG3mCmpI pic.twitter.com/JhPB0S1pR7
— Women's Day (@womensday) March 8, 2022
2. Show women taking part in a variety of activities
In an analysis conducted by Google they revealed that females, in adverts, are more likely to wear revealing clothing and are often shown shopping, in the kitchen or cleaning. Male characters, on the other hand, are shown driving, working or attending a sporting event. Most recently in fact, while nearly 50% of those who watched the Super Bowl in 2022 were female, the majority of adverts were centred around what are considered to be male focused products with male protagonists. It’s therefore vital that brands consider women in different settings such as at work, weight lifting, playing football and on construction sites.
3. Step away from advertising based on demographic data
We recommend using intent based marketing efforts rather than relying solely on demographical data. This means instead of advertising to ‘women between the ages of 25-40’, advertise to ‘professional people looking for a quick solution’, ‘parents who are finding it hard to juggle parent/work balance’ or ‘single adults with high disposable income who care about luxury’. By making this simple change to intent based marketing it’s clear that the marketing message is more likely to land with the right audience and there’s not a discriminatory audience in sight.
Want to know more about how we could help improve the inclusivity of your marketing? Get in touch today by clicking HERE.
