International Women’s Day: How to ‘Inspire Inclusion’ in your PR and marketing activity
International Women’s Day in 2024 should need no explanation. March 8th has been earmarked to celebrate and promote equality for women – all four billion of us. This year’s IWD theme is #InspireInclusion, intended to inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion. With this in mind, let’s break down some ways you can make sure PR and marketing activity is inclusive to all.
Avoid stereotypes and bias
This seems like an obvious one, but it’s 2024 and stereotyping still happens. I recall once sending a journalist a press release about my property client who had hired a new starter, a young black female, to a senior role. Instead of using the headshot provided, they opted for a stock image of two white men in suits shaking hands. Once called out, the image was immediately changed, however this is just one example of the underlying bias that still exists in the corporate world.
Be inclusive as well as diverse
Vernā Myers once said, diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance. When brainstorming marketing, PR and campaign ideas, it can be easy to listen to the loudest person in the room. However, when we employ a diverse workforce and then take onboard everyone’s ideas, creativity is increased tenfold and there’s certainly much less of culturally insensitive campaigns.
Use subtitles and captions on videos
Video is a must in any social media or marketing campaign but it’s also important to make sure that video can be understood by all. Including captions helps those who cannot hear the video, or may not understand the language to do so.
And as a bonus, adding a textual transcription to videos will almost certainly have a positive impact on the video’s metrics.
Know your audience and read the room
Perhaps one of the first and most important elements of any PR or marketing campaign is knowing your audience. It’s important not to be caught out being short sighted or not completely understanding the audience that the PR or marketing is aimed at. Tone deaf campaigns (2016 Gap Kids campaign, anyone?) can do serious damage to a brand, so high quality research and conducting a persona workshop, in some cases, can be vital.
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It’s clear that inclusion is key when it comes to creating a successful marketing, comms or PR campaign. If you’d like to talk to Source about how we can help with this, then get in touch!
