Despite the backlash of “woke” ads in some parts of the media, brands that create good, diverse advertising drive awareness and growth.

The report, titled Feeling Seen, found that diverse advertising unites us all – ads that tell interesting and relatable stories about people’s lives elicit the greatest emotional response.

Compiled jointly by ITV, System 1, the world’s leading advertising effectiveness experts and DECA, diversity media specialists, Feeling Seen examines the importance of diversity and inclusion in advertising and the role of advertising in really understand the needs and lives of the people presented.

The report explored 30 advertisements from the past few years that aimed to be diverse and inclusive. The ads were tested with quantitative samples drawn from the specific group depicted in the ad, as well as a control sample drawn from the UK population as a whole. In total, more than 10,000 consumer interviews were conducted. DECA also set up discussion groups drawn from these various populations to talk about advertisements and advertising in general.

Across all the diverse groups sampled, the report found the same thing: Ads that scored high in general scored significantly higher among the inclusion group, particularly when it came to intensity of advertising. emotion felt. These results show that ads can be both commercially effective, but also emotionally engage those portrayed.

Key takeaways from the report include how good those who feel seen feel. Positive emotional responses were often driven by ordinary people going about their ordinary lives, as seen in advertisements such as McCain’s We Are Family, which achieved a high score of 4 stars (based on validated IPA data from System1 of over 50,000 advertisements) in the control group. and jumped to a near high of 5.8 stars among UK Asian viewers.

Similarly, the ads that were among the top performers across various samples were those that celebrated different lives and cultures, telling great, entertaining, moving or heartwarming stories with inclusion at their core – for example, the story of 30 years of Renault of two women meeting and falling in love or the three real brothers of Tesco cooking a real family recipe in confinement.

Top performing ads across the entire population and various sample groups:

Tesco: Love Stories: “Not Quite” Aunt’s Chicken with Sumac (British Asian)

Malteasers: new boyfriend (disability)

IKEA: Hooray! For the Wonderful Everyday (Black British)

Boots: Let’s Feel Good About Summer (Women’s)

McCain: We are a family (Black British)

Kate Waters, Director of Strategy and Client Planning at ITV, and Chairman of WACL, said: “What this research proves is what we have always known to be true but have not been able to to quantify: seeing yourself on screen, if you’re in a generally underrepresented group, makes you feel good and that translates into an efficiency dividend for advertisers.”

Jon Evans, CMO at System1, says: “The results of this study clearly show how important representation can be and how much more enjoyable advertising is when it reflects you rather than rejects you. Feeling seen feels good. While we steadily saw the level and intensity of emotion increase for our diverse groups of attendees, we all reacted in exactly the same way to each announcement, showing how diverse advertising unites us all. What is good for society is also good for business.

Shane MacRory, Senior Media Consultant at DECA, said: “As the faces and lives on our screens become more diverse and better reflect the world we live in, the advertising industry has a duty to lead and reflect change. . When compiling this research, we took ads that highlighted people from groups that we felt advertisers might not be serving well and looked at whether they created positive emotions – not simply from the sample groups of the targeted communities, but by the population as a whole. What we found was incredibly uplifting – it confirmed that those who felt seen felt good and celebrating different lives and cultures unites us.