The Data's Take on Diversity in Advertising

Increased public interest in diversity has put the pressure on brands to change their messaging and stay on the “right side of history.” But brands are scared. For every successful, diverse campaign, there’s another embarrassing gaffe that makes it on national news.

If leaders are going to put their brands on the line (even for a good cause), they need certainty. They need to know if diversity is a good bet for brands.

With the help of industry experts, we developed an ad scoring methodology to measure the level of diversity in 30 second ads published by the nation’s biggest media spenders.

Then we used the resulting 17,000 data points to answer the burning questions: How do you measure diversity in 30 seconds? And is diversity in advertising really good for business?

Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.

photo of Lindsay Wade
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