Diversity is no longer just a marketing buzzword. It is a critical requirement in most campaigns. It should be a consideration whenever your brand presents itself through ads or content.
Despite its importance and its great appeal, especially to young audiences, many brands still struggle to find the right tone for their diverse marketing campaigns. As a result, many ads lack the authenticity required to make an impact. Or worse, they are tone-deaf, insensitive, and ripe with stereotypes.
The top creative agencies in London know how to include diverse casts in their campaigns to create a sense of inclusion and community. Below, we’ve listed a few examples of when an ad agency has done this well.
Take inspiration from these diverse advertising campaigns for your own future projects!
Cocoa Cola – #AmericaIsBeautifull, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGC2E7GP52U
“America is Beautiful” was Coca Cola’s 2014 ad for the Olympics. The brand has always successfully invoked feelings of community and togetherness as one of its core values. The video ad shows a great variety of aspects of America, honing in on the many different cultures and people inhabiting it. We see people of all ages, shapes and colours participating in activities with their friends and families.
The ad highlights the true beauty of humanity worldwide and celebrates what makes us the same underneath it all. Cola itself isn’t represented through a sales pitch. It merely appears as product placements throughout the ad.
This campaign is so successful because it appears to want nothing but to celebrate what is already there, thereby feeling authentically inclusive rather than like a forced, diverse sales pitch.
Heineken #OpenYourWorld
Heineken’s ad agency undoubtedly took a few risks with its 2017 “Open your World” campaign. The ad presents a social experiment in which two people of very opposing views come together and complete the task of building a bar. Anyone who has undertaken such a project before knows how much collaboration and patience are involved. Throughout, the pairs are encouraged to answer some intimate questions, exploring their upbringing, what they have in common, what they like about one another, etc. Through this line of questioning, the ad shows how each pair forms a connection and starts to get along, admiring the other for their unique accomplishments.
In the end, they are confronted with the others’ more extreme viewpoints and can choose to either have a beer and discuss or go their separate ways. In the end, the ad shows that we have much more in common than what separates us and that our most controversial opinions don’t need to divide us. The ad doesn’t prove any viewpoint right or wrong – it allows a diverse cast of people to simply exist.
Apple’s “Open”
Apple’s Open ad communicates one of its core values as a company. The ad shows close-ups of a vastly diverse cast of characters worldwide, each looking into the camera. In between these snapshots, we see people in action doing what they love most, at work and at leisure, contributing to Apple’s innovation.
“Humanity is Plural” is one of the most empathic statements the campaign leaves its audience with, promising a new generation of Apple that’s more diverse than the last. The ad positions apple products as a part of everyone’s life and workflow, no matter their background.
We hope you enjoyed these examples of effective diverse advertising. If you’re ready to be more inclusive with your advertising, why not work with one of the top creative agencies in London to see your mission completed? ZAk is an ad agency with a focus on diversity in brand storytelling. Get in touch with us today to discuss your next project.
