As businesses grow more transparent, customers are placing increasingly high demands on the brands they buy from, including on how they represent themselves visually.
At Getty Images, our VisualGPS research has found that 72% of global consumers expect brands to support diversity and inclusion, with 80% loyal to brands whose business practices support their own values. These numbers are even higher among the younger generation.
My role as head of the Creative Insights team within Getty Images is to research how visual content is evolving, both in terms of how it is created but also what is represented within moving and still imagery. For the last 20 years, we have been tracking the need for authentic representation in commercial communication. What is clear is that there is a growing demand from both companies and consumers to visualize the world more authentically.
Our own data also shows that the world is shifting and that our customer base is looking for a more inclusive view of people. People have searched for diversity and inclusion themes on our website three times as much in the last two years than ever before. After specific news-related themes such as COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 and the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, we have seen companies searching for and using more inclusive content every year. This is a clear indication that companies are attempting to connect with their audiences in a way that is contemporary and meaningful.
In this series for I by IMD, I will be examining how organizations can build a roadmap for improving inclusion in imagery and video in the future. As a starting point, here are three tips for how to think about making your visual communication more representative.
While our own customers do still use search terms such as “diversity” or “inclusive” or “diversity and inclusion”, in 2022 “diversity at work” has been trending for the first time. However, this does not solve the problem of what the visual looks like. For example, who should be featured in the image or video and how to represent “diversity” without showing a large group of people?
To improve our own knowledge and to push ourselves and our creators to lead the way when it comes to representation, we have looked at identity in more detail.
We all have many identities that reflect who we are in a myriad of daily situations, and that combination of identities is what gives us pride in ourselves as individuals. However, we also know that there are dominant identity groups in society and those who do not belong to these groups can be subject to bias and often discrimination (this is further compounded if an individual or group has multiple minority identities). We know that when it comes to visuals, dominant identity is by no means linked to how the demographics of a population are balanced, which thereby has traditionally created an imbalance in who gets to be represented.
To break down how we might represent people authentically, we have started with looking at identities through the lens of:
Like any seemingly insurmountable task, the best approach is to break it down into smaller chunks. This also applies to diversity and inclusion in imagery and video.
If a brand has pledged to improve the balance of race/ethnicity in their content, the first thing to look at is what ethnicities the brand is looking to represent. Are they are looking to improve the mix of people across ethnicities or promote certain ethnicities above others to bring attention to where they have previously been unbalanced in their representation?
As a next step, it is important to determine what other aspects of their identities should be included – gender identity, age, or body shape, for example – and this is where it becomes more complex. Intersectionality is another important aspect of identity to consider, and certain intersections of the seven (or eight) identities highlight where there is a lack of inclusion in visual content. For example, in all countries we have analyzed, disability is under-represented – but even where there is representation, people of color and people from the LGBT community are less visible. This level of detail is important to make a difference and to bring more diversity to content.
To get a sense of where authentic representation is working, we have looked at our proprietary data in context of demographic data and cultural nuances, enabling us to build out a view on which stereotypes exist. Who is missing from representation – and how are those represented being visualized?
Organizations should ask themselves whether they have fallen into the trap of depicting certain groups only within some contexts. For example, are certain ethnicities only seen at work? Are certain age groups more likely to be using the latest technology? Who is taking care of their well-being?
Over the coming months, I will examine each identity in more detail – specifically, the stereotypes that currently exist, but more importantly the opportunities available for companies to fill the visual gaps and create visual brands that meet the expectations of the current and future customer.
Until then, we have made all our D&I guides available to download here.
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