2025: Unlocking brand growth, RISE, Trump 2.0 and more
Welcome to 2025, the year of inclusion... yes, let's go!
As we wrote for the World Federation of Advertisers, this year inclusive marketing will emerge as a critical growth driver for CMOs ready to build powerful brands. It's irrefutable; the world is becoming more, not less, diverse.
Inclusion is the architect of growth through its five 'Rs': this increases relevance, drives reach, enhances reputation, prompts referrals, and provides resilience in a fast-changing market.
As economic and cultural shifts accelerate, brands investing in inclusive marketing will enhance their social impact and achieve measurable business outcomes. That's the 'Return on Inclusion’: everyone wins. Make 2025 your brand's year, driving marketing for good, and for growth.
Save the Date: May 15 for RISE 2025
RISE, our global conference for marketers: Inclusive brands, inclusive leaders is BACK!
Our flagship event that brings together progressive marketers, innovators, creatives and sustainability experts to learn how to drive inclusion for good and for growth. We spend the day building leadership capability within this space with leaders who are at the cutting-edge of building powerful brands.
Last year, over 77 companies joined us, and in 2025, we’ll be diving into subjects like AI, sustainability, sport, humour, and inclusion as a growth lever, with more themes to come.
Our 2024 line-up was stellar, and we're already in conversations with big names for 2025.
Want to get involved? We're looking for speakers and sponsors...
What story could you tell?
The business case: it's here!
Savvy know marketers know this is growth’s ‘best kept secret’, as well as being a key driver for social impact and driving employee engagement. Gen Z want to work at companies that align with their values. That’s why we put together the ultimate business case for ISBA.
Inclusion = income and impact, so in a time of Trump, what now?
Looking back at last week -what a week in politics and policy! The new USA president is working at speed to cull 'woke' programmes: withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement (again), exiting the World Health Organization (WHO), declaring the USA will only recognise "two sexes, male and female" putting trans lives at risk, deploying troops to deport immigrants, halting all DEI initiatives within federal government, and more. To join the MAGA club, Meta rolled back DEI and joined the X's ranks of allowing 'free speech' where it's not a take-down to call someone who is LGBTQ+ mentally ill. The new $100 billion AI hub in Texas is set to be built at a time when AI regulations were removed from the US Government website.
Does this impact inclusive, sustainable brand building? No. It will be more business critical than ever to understand culture (and counter culture), align media spend with brand values, support community media, drive material action for the communities you serve and stay true to your purpose.
Smart brands will stay the course for the long game.
Study after study shows: inclusive campaigns consistently outperform their less inclusive counterparts. Unstereotype Alliance in partnership with Oxford University’s Saïd Business School showed progressive advertising drives a sales uplift of over 16% compared to less progressive content, and it positively impacts consumer loyalty and brand pricing power. Facts.
Costco, Apple and Sephora are doubling down on their commitments, knowing this matters to their employees, customers and shareholders.
If your marketing isn't inclusive, it's exclusive.
For us, we will stay true to what we believe it right. That's why we're looking forward to bringing our DisableCreatives programme to NYC in September, knowing recruitment is never based on 'merit' but access to opportunity. And, we look forward to working with some of the world's top brands, reviewing their key campaigns, building inclusion and sustainability as a core capability, driving unbiased AI, unlocking growth strategies with diverse audiences, creating material action platforms/partnerships and building inclusion as a foundation creative effectiveness and excellence to serve ALL potential customers.
Most importantly, we believe in times of division, it's the power of brands to tell inclusive stories that connect us all. It's time for the UK ad industry to lead the way.
Unlock brand growth with Inclusive Comms Reviews
Research by Kantar shows 52% of all consumers "trust a brand more if their ads reflect my culture." In the same study, ads that positively portrayed under-represented groups had +23 point increase in short-term sales and +45 point increase in long term brand equity. The business case for inclusion is loud and clear.
If you want to grow your audience with inclusion, but aren't sure what under-represented groups to target, or the best strategy to win them over, we can help. We run inclusive comms reviews that look at your campaigns - whether that's for a single spot or a year long retrospective across markets and categories. Yes, we work with creative agencies and brands, checking narratives are inclusive, portrayals are positive and strategies are robust through a DEI lens.