Marketing Industry Needs to Play Its Part in Healing Divisions, Finds New Report

Society has never been more divided, according to a new report Healing the Divide. Finding the win-win in your marketing published by marketing effectiveness specialist Effie UK and brand and advertising experts from Ipsos, which explored brands’ role in shaping society and healing societal divisions. 

The report details how instability, inflation, and Covid recovery —the convergence of multiple interconnected crises around the world that coincide with and amplify each other, causing hard to resolve systemic challenges, have become the norm over the past few years. As a result, the use of division as a weapon is now a major theme in today’s culture and politics, and sadly 47% of the UK and 49% of the US agree with the statement that “Within my lifetime, society in my country will break down,” according to Ipsos Global Trends 2024.

While some brands have tried to respond to this, the report finds responsible marketing is now threatened by weaponised division. It points to the World Federation of Advertisers’ decision to shut down the Global Alliance for Responsible Media following an antitrust lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s X, combined with DEI rollbacks, as significant setbacks. 

The report says these setbacks underline the importance of marketing in solving collective problems, such as climate change, food security, and harmful online content. It also points to a need for marketers to take more interest in and more responsibility for healing divisions.

Research claims marketers are ideally placed to build and rebuild the antidote to division (trust, empathy, a sense of control, connection and collaboration). According to the Ipsos Veracity index of trusted professionals, society is becoming more trustworthy of advertising executives. Additionally, 57% of Britons agree that brands should communicate their stance on inclusion and diversity issues. 

The report claims unlocking inclusion is an important key to healing division, highlighting that advertising has already made positive progress in showing women and people of colour in a primary role. However, when it comes to reflecting the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities and the over 65s there is a way to go.

Advertising that goes beyond representation into active inclusion (not only showing diverse characters but treating them with respect and nuance) has positive sales lift and equity share gain business effects, according to a meta-analysis of thousands of ads in the Ipsos Creative Spark ad testing database. This is proof that marketing campaigns that take a more responsible line and reflect a more inclusive society can be more effective.

The report includes four of this year’s Effie UK Finalist cases, which bring to life how some of these themes play out in the real world: Boots and HSBC from VML, Ikea from Mother, and Vanish from Havas London.

The report concludes with four approaches to healing division: Lead with empathy and insight, enrich storytelling, normalise, and stay true to the brand. 

Samira Brophy, senior director of creative excellence UK, Ipsos, said, “It’s time to humanise and normalise tensions and politically sown divisions as it is in the best interest of the people we serve as citizens, consumers, stakeholders and ultimately shareholders. We are lucky at Ipsos to have the breadth of research that covers society, business, and marketing effectiveness. This allows us to set the context as well as demonstrate the commercial upside of more inclusive marketing with our partners at Effie UK.”

Rachel Emms, managing director, Effie UK, added, “Marketers can help drive further progress, by taking more interest in and more responsibility for healing divisions. After all, it’s clear that brands have a remit for positive change and a critically important role to play. And, crucially, evidence shows that doing so can have a positive impact on business growth.”