Over the past 18 months, American Express has learned how to resonate better with women through its advertising messaging using metrics generated by the #SeeHer initiative. Informed by #SeeHer’s Gender Equality Measure (GEM) scores, AmEx has progressed from “good, average ratings in our past campaigns into excellent ratings over the course of the last year in our most recent work,” says VP of US Media Jill Hamilton.
“We’ve been actively supporting #SeeHer for the past year and a half,” during which time AmEx “got to know a lot of the best practices in understanding gender bias,” Hamilton adds in this interview with Beet.TV.
The Association of National Advertisers launched #SeeHer in 2016 as an outgrowth of its Alliance for Family Entertainment’s drive for more family friendly TV programming. #SeeHer’s goal is to more accurately portray all girls and women in media by 2020.
AmEx has used the data-tracking GEM to identify best-in-class advertising and programming that supports girls and women so that it could “more accurately portray women and move them into hero positions in our messaging,” Hamilton explains.
Within the company’s most recent campaign, AmEx focused on how it could use GEM “as an additional measure to” achieve greater breakthrough and effectiveness.
“The increased focus on gender equality and diversity of thinking and perspective as we work on our messaging and advertising is really critical,” says Hamilton. “We’ve long embraced diversity and inclusion but I think really focusing on women in particular in that has been an important area of focus for us.”
Asked how to communicate to creative teams the value of diversity, she says that in a data-driven organization, “certainly case studies are really effective when you can tangibly show the impact of pulling diversity into our messaging or accurately portraying women and the impact that can have on our overall effectiveness.
“It’s very easy to get people engaged and excited about that. Featuring best practices and really effective case studies was a helpful way to bring additional focus to the need.”
You are watching Gender Equality Means Business, a Beet.TV series presented by Meredith Corporation in partnership with #SeeHer. For additional videos from the series, please visit this page.
