Adland should view disabled representation as a commercial necessity, otherwise brands will lose money, according to Elliott Millard, chief strategy officer at Thinkbox.
Speaking on a panel hosted by inclusive marketing agency Purple Goat, Millard said industry leaders have sales targets to meet, and making their advertising inclusive is a better way of hitting those targets.
He said: “If you frame it like that, it is not just a moral imperative. It is both the right thing to do and a commercially good thing to do. We have to frame it like that. I wish we didn't, but we do.”
Millard was speaking alongside Dani Roberts, campaign director at Purple Goat, and Charlotte Stavrou, founder and chief executive of SevenSix Agency. Dom Hyams, global client director at Purple Goat, moderated the panel.
Huge spending power
Roberts said: “It’s so important that brands acknowledge the commercial value of working with the disabled community and targeting them. It's so untapped, and when you actually look at the stats, it's crazy that brands aren't tapping into that sooner.”
Roberts added that people with disabilities have huge spending power and that this community wants to spend their money with brands that value them. She said: “The brands that do tap into the disabled community and are accessible and inclusive, they're going to see so much better ROI than brands that aren’t being inclusive and aren't willing to go on that journey.”
Stavrou agreed, adding that it was imperative that the industry start talking about disabled representation in a “commercial and economic sense”.
She added: “If you don't, then there's no other way to talk about it, because it's not in the conversation.”
The SevenSix Agency founder launched her business in 2019, just before the Black Lives Matter movement was launched in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in the US. She noted that this was a time that diversity was pushed to the forefront. “Over the last five years there has been a decline in these conversations,“ she said.
'If you're not talking to the disabled community, it's like not talking to London'
Millard urged brands to conduct audits on their audience and their competitors’ audiences in order to establish what groups they aren’t reaching.
He said: “If you're not talking to the disabled community, it's like not talking to London,” comparing the size of the UK disabled population (around 24%) to the size of the capital.
In order to tap into this excluded group, Stavrou urged the industry to stop talking about diversity like it’s a slogan. Instead, DEI should be naturally embedded into the DNA of the business.
Roberts added that disabled representation in ads often goes as far as casting a “white wheelchair user”.
She said: “We have to take [clients] on a real journey to explain that the disabled community is so much broader than that, and actually the intersectionality of overlapping identities is key to telling the nuanced conversation that exists within the community.”
Road maps are essential
Roberts said that her dream client is one that has a road map. “It's not just doing an awareness piece to get eyes on the brand,” she explained. “It's actually having that road map where we know we're going to be working with them over a year so we can lay the foundations and build upon that.
“It's not just doing a flash in the pan activation and saying, ‘OK, cool. Done our bit, job’s done,’ and forgetting about it.”
Roberts warned that audiences will see through those one-off activations and will want brands that are committed for the long haul.
Stavrou, meanwhile, noted that smaller businesses tend to own the space more than bigger brands, praising charities for making it integral to their operations. She added that disabled representation can sometimes feel like a “look at us, we’ve done this” exercise, when really the best representation is “talent, being talent, and just being part of the campaign”.
When discussing brands that are performing well in this field, Millard cites brands including Channel 4 for its "Considering what?” campaign for the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games, ITV’s silent ad break during Code of Silence, and Currys.
'There is money to be made, and that's how we fight back'
Millard also contended that one of the reasons why brands are reluctant to work with disabled talent is nervousness, and that it is viewed as a risk. “It's not a risk. It's a commercial necessity,” he said. “If you don't do it, you will lose money.”
Roberts advised adland to lean into the data to see where inclusion has improved a brand’s performance, while Stavrou added that research, knowing the brands that are doing it well and what tools are out there to help, is also integral.
Millard concluded: “Inclusivity is under attack. The advertising industry is very good at holding up a mirror to society. That's great. I think the advertising industry can also change and create society. The only way we can do that is to demonstrate that it is not just a moral imperative. There is money to be made, and that's how we fight back.”
