APAC consumers don’t find enough diversity in ads: survey

Advertisements are key to building a brand's image but a new global survey by YouGov shows that advertisements are still failing to be fully effective when it comes to diverse representation, with a significant number of APAC consumers in Australia (43%), Hong Kong (38%), China (38%) and Singapore (35%) who do not feel represented in ads.  

Why it matters

Consumers worldwide are looking for diversity when it comes to adverts and given this consumer expectation to see people that look like them in ads, brands can approach advertising as a way not only to sell products and build their image, but also to shape and impact society. 

Key insights

• Globally, two in five consumers feel that they are not fully represented by the people they see in advertisements.
• European consumers are more likely to disagree with the notion they are represented by the people they see in ads. 
• This view is most pervasive in Germany and Sweden, where three in five respondents say so (60% and 59% respectively).
• More US men than women believe that they are not fully represented by the people in advertisements (42%). 
• A similar attitude also persists among respondents in urban Mexico (44%). 
• The share of adults in the UAE and urban India who feel that people like them are fully represented by the people in advertisements significantly outnumber those who say the opposite (34% vs 22% in UAE and 38% vs 21% in India).   

Background

The data is based on online interviews with adults aged 18 and over in 17 markets. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples.