Across gender, language, race and ethnicity, ads with high gender equality metrics scores overall delivered 60% improved sales performance

IRI^®, a fast-growing, global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and media companies, today released findings from its 2021 GEM® Lift Study in partnership with SeeHer, the largest global movement for accurate representation of women and girls in advertising and media. The study analyzed the social and financial incentives associated with the depiction of women and girls — across language and race and ethnicity — in advertising campaigns to determine if an accurate and positive portrayal of women in advertising could drive incremental sales lift and impact consumer behavior.

The study linked the depiction of women to offline sales by leveraging SeeHer’s GEM (Gender Equality Measure) score, an index representing consumer reaction to the depiction of women in advertising and programming, with IRI’s media measurement and optimization solution, IRI Lift™. The 2021 study measured 29 ads across six brands representing food, beverage, beauty, health and home care categories and 837 aired programs across platforms.

Key findings of the study include:

• The bar is rising. The baseline GEM score for brands to see an incremental sales lift was increased to 106 in the 2021 study, compared with a baseline of 100 in the 2019 study. This change reflects a raising of the bar in terms of representation across media of diverse women, indicating the movement to more accurately portray women and girls is both enhancing representation and translating to more meaningful growth for marketers.
• Doing well by doing good. Ads with GEM scores above the baseline overall delivered 60% improved sales performance on average across gender, language, race and ethnicity.
• An Intersectional Lens Delivers Sales Performance. Creatives that meet or exceed GEM baseline saw sales lift increase for Black women by 80% and 41% for Hispanic women.
• Men Are Allies. Equality also is an important issue for men, with 73% citing it “personally important¹.” Results show that accurate portrayal of women leads to a 120% sales lift among Hispanic men and a 196% lift among Black men.

“The results of our 2021 study show a clear and significant sales lift for ads that accurately portray diverse women, proving that meeting consumers’ rising expectations of gender equality in advertising is critical for brands seeking growth,” commented Jennifer Pelino, executive vice president of Global Media Solutions for IRI. “IRI is pleased to have conducted this significant piece of research along with the ANA. Equality starts with cultural perceptions and media plays a key role in ensuring appropriate character depiction, but quantitative evaluation is key to moving the industry in an upward direction.”

“The GEM metric is an increasingly important dimension for evaluating ads for gender equality,” said Latha Sarathy, chief research officer, ANA. “We are very proud to see the needle moving, driving improvements to advertisers’ bottom lines and greater equality in media.”

“Today’s consumers are expecting companies to do the right thing and lead with purpose. It’s no surprise that brands with high GEM scores have higher sales lift. Gender equality is good for society and good for business growth. The results of our study are once again conclusive: Accurate representation is good for brands, and good for society,” concluded Jeannine Shao Collins, president of ANA’s SeeHer.

The full 2021 GEM^® Lift Study can be found on IRI’s website here. This report is an update of “Accurate Portrayals of Women and Girls in Media: Proven to Be Good for Business” published by IRI and SeeHer in April 2020.

GEM^® scores for this study were provided by SeeHer, generated by SeeHer syndicated research partner ABX.

About IRI

IRI is a fast-growing, leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC health care organizations, retailers, and financial services and media companies grow their businesses. With the largest repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated into an on-demand, cloud-based technology platform, IRI is empowering the personalization revolution, helping to guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quests to remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with consumers, collaborate with key constituents and deliver market-leading growth. For more information, visit www.iriworldwide.com.

About SeeHer:

SeeHer is the leading global group of media, marketing and entertainment leaders and influencers committed to the accurate depiction of women and girls in advertising and media. While strides have been made in recent years to authentically portray women and girls, unconscious bias persists throughout advertising and entertainment. The average age, race and body type, among other characteristics, of women shown in media still represent only a small fraction of the female population. The SeeHer movement was launched by the Association of National Advertisers in partnership with The Female Quotient in 2016 at the United State of Women. To help marketers benchmark success, SeeHer spearheaded the development of the Gender Equality Measure^® (GEM^®), the first research methodology that quantifies gender bias in ads and programming. GEM^® shows that content accurately portraying females dramatically increases both purchase intent and brand reputation. Once complete, the GEM^® methodology quickly became the industry standard, winning the prestigious ESOMAR Research Effectiveness Award in 2017 and leading to its global rollout in 2018. Since 2019, the movement has expanded its verticals to include sports (SeeHer In Sports) and music (SeeHer Hear Her). To learn more, visit SeeHer.com and follow SeeHer on social media @SeeHer (Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn) and @SeeHerOfficial (TikTok and Twitter).

¹ Perceptions of Progress, State of Women’s Equality in the US, SeeHer & dentsu, 2021

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