What’s The Gender Balance Like In Your Social Media PR?

When it comes to your advertising, marketing and social media PR, not doing your utmost to gain a deeper understanding of what women are actually looking for and representing them appropriately in your campaigns could see your profits take a serious nosedive.

New research from Kantar as part of its WhatWomenWant exhibition (celebrating the centenary of female emancipation in the UK) shows that brands all over the country are risking customer relationships and their brand value because they’re not reflecting, representing or championing women in their advertising strategies.

It was seen that brands that do follow a more gender-balanced initiative or are even slightly skewed towards a female audience outperform those brands that focus on men more. Some two-thirds of women actually said that they would skip ads if they felt they negatively stereotyped women, while 85 per cent said they think film and advertising is poor when it comes to depicting women in the real world.

In order to better connect with customers, brands need to promote five self-esteem contributors – financial autonomy, freedom of thought and expression, sexual and body autonomy, accessibility/visibility and social connections and networks.

Bart Michels, UK country leader for Kantar, commented on the findings, saying: “Our research shows the work is not over for addressing feelings of inequality. By engaging with women meaningfully and understanding their priorities, brands will not only contribute to their commercial success, but to society as a whole.

“Making tokenistic efforts that don’t feel authentic, will mean brands missing out on a very significant business opportunity, and they simply won’t be part of the new society women are building for themselves.”

The 2018 exhibition featured standout examples of brands who focused on issues that matter to women consistently, giving them a voice, power and confidence – posing a challenge to the rest of the marketing industry to uphold these lofty standards to achieve a future of true gender equality.

By connecting with women on a more meaningful level, brands will be able to achieve better results and gain an even more loyal customer base.

For more advice on social media pr , get in touch with us to find out more.