The Business Case for Inclusive Advertising is HUGE

This week I went to Channel 4’s Mirror on the Industry event. There were some really good speakers and a helpful update on consumer responses to efforts to make UK advertising more inclusive (topline is progress in some areas, more work needed in others). But it was in the panel discussion that my personal lightbulb went ‘ping’. 

For the first time I heard a really compelling, data driven, business case for inclusive content, based on work done by the Unstereotype Alliance with Oxford Said Business School.

The top line is in the shorter term, campaigns scoring higher on inclusive advertising metrics on average had 3.46% higher sales lift than lower-scoring campaigns. And in the longer term, brands with higher average scores see 16.26% greater sales performance. 

These are extraordinary results. 

And the stats just get better the more you delve into it. Inclusive campaigns have:

• 33% higher strong consideration

• 62% higher likelihood of being a consumer’s first choice

• 8% higher incidence of being trialed

• 23% lower chance of being abandoned after trial

• 54% higher pricing power

• 15% higher loyalty

In case you’re worried about where this data came from and how it was collected, the work was done with Kantar and the study examined brands in the portfolios of Bayer Consumer Healthcare, Diageo, Mars Inc, Mondelēz International, and Unilever.

A total of 392 brands across these companies were included in the study, with brands’ data spanning 58 countries and four years from 2020 to 2023. Several broad product categories were represented, such as confectionery, snacks, personal care, beauty, pet care, pet food, alcohol, consumer healthcare, and household products.

You can see all the details here.

And all the details of the excellent event here.

Sarah Newman

APG Director