NEW YORK, March 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Strategic and creative agency, Berlin Cameron and consumer insights platform, Perksy are today releasing a national study that reveals that women want brands to drive change, not just sales on International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month. The study, which polled over 1,000 females aged between 13 and 75 found that women believe they are not being portrayed accurately in marketing, noting the biggest misinterpretation brands are making is overly sexualizing women (38%) or showing them in stereotypical contexts (27%).
“Every year around International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, marketers rush to create campaigns and initiatives in hopes of showing their advocacy of women. Yet, these efforts often fall short of meaningfully supporting women,” said Jennifer DaSilva, President, Berlin Cameron. “This study proves that one month of women’s focused initiatives aren’t enough to make women feel seen and heard. If brands want to show real support for women, they must find ways to celebrate them every day of the year.”
Key findings from the study include:
Women Want More Than Brand Gimmicks on International Women’s Day
- 90% of women think women’s issues should be talked about year round.
- 30% of women think brands advocating for women in ads is just an excuse to drive sales.
- 17% of women think these moments are just used by marketers to talk about themselves and that they really don’t do much to help women’s initiatives. Yet half of women think brands should still address these key moments in their ads and marketing, because 37% believe brands have the power to solve some of women’s most pressing issues. This is driven by Millennials and Gen Zers, who’ve grown up with brands taking a leadership role in key issues they care about.
Women Say Brands Aren’t Portraying Them Accurately
- By far, the biggest misinterpretation brands are making is overly sexualizing women (38%) or showing them in stereotypical contexts (27%).
What Keeps Women Up At Night
- The biggest issues women worry about is sexual harassment and equal pay, with 56% and 53% respectively agreeing it’s a top concern for the next generation.
- Gen Zers and Millennials find reproductive rights more important that equal pay.
“This study shows that women, across generations, want companies to do more than just spotlight women once a year. It’s great that companies are so involved in International Women’s Day each March, but I think for more meaningful change to take place, it needs to start within the boardrooms of these companies. Having a day of awareness is a start, but it shouldn’t be a surrogate for the continuum of change that needs to transpire the other 364 days in the year.” said Nadia Masri, Perksy’s Founder & CEO.
The study found that there are a few brands getting it right. Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign is a favorite, as it represents diverse women in an inclusive way year-round. 64% of respondents said that accurate representation of women is important in the ads they see. Brands can also use their voice to bring awareness to women’s issues and donating to causes that help them, like Secret does in its “All Strength, No Sweat” campaign addressing pay inequality for US Women’s Soccer.
About Berlin Cameron
New York-based Berlin Cameron is a strategic and creative lead agency that is well known for accelerating the growth of iconic and challenger brands by building their cultural relevance. Owned by WPP, Berlin Cameron has the agility of a small boutique agency with access to the global scale of the much larger WPP. For more, visit http://www.berlincameron.com/ and Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About Perksy
Perksy is a next-gen consumer insights platform that powers real-time research with Millennials & Gen-Z through an interactive and gamified mobile app that rewards users for answering questions. Using our DIY enterprise platform, we enable top brands and agencies to create bespoke research campaigns with media-rich content, target precise audiences, and analyze response data in real-time. With a typical turnaround time of 24 hours, Perksy brings hypertargeted, hyperlocal, and contextual insights from the hardest-to-reach audiences at an unprecedented scale to help organizations make better, faster decisions.
Perksy works with the world’s leading brands and agency networks, such as Target, Pepsi, Colgate-Palmolive, Smucker’s, IPG, WPP and is backed by leading venture firms like Bain Capital, Torch Capital, and Founder Collective.
Contact: Katie Burger katie.burger@digennaro-usa.com
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