Vodafone joins Association of National Advertisers' (ANA) leading global movement for gender equality

Brings GEM™ groundbreaking bias-measuring metric to ads

CANNES, France-Tuesday 18 June 2019 [ AETOS Wire ]

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- International telecom and technology service provider Vodafone Group plc is the newest member of SeeHer, the Association of National Advertisers’ leading global movement for gender equality in advertising and media. Vodafone joins a powerful collective of 1,000-plus top brands that control $100-plus billion in worldwide ad spend.

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Vodafone has mobile operations in 25 countries, partners with mobile networks in 41 more, and has fixed broadband operations in 19 markets. Vodafone has extensive experience in connectivity, convergence, and the Internet of Things and champions mobile financial services and digital transformation in emerging markets.

“Eliminating bias in ads and content is not just a U.S. challenge, it is a global issue,” said Bob Liodice, chief executive officer of the ANA. “We are delighted that Vodafone has joined our SeeHer movement to help create a global environment where women and girls will see themselves reflected as they truly are in advertising and entertainment.”

As part of its onboarding, Vodafone has quickly adopted GEM™, a research methodology developed by SeeHer to give advertisers the ability to quantify unconscious bias in their ads and the programs in which they run their ads. Validated in the U.S. and 13 other countries, GEM™ Global provides marketers with culturally relevant data on how their consumers view advertising in terms of gender equality.

Vodafone Global Brand Director Sara Martins de Oliveira said, “Vodafone is helping to build digital societies where the benefits of technology are available to everyone. Our adverts need to reflect that vision and the insight from GEM has made us more aware of new ways we can continue to improve portrayals of women in our advertising as well as improve our ROI.”

Since the launch of GEM™ Global in late 2018, the metric has been utilized in numerous markets across the world by SeeHer transnational members ABInBev, Citi, Procter & Gamble, and now Vodafone.

“It’s exciting to watch our movement spread across the world,” concludes Christine Manna, president and chief operating officer, ANA. “We are gratified to have the unique collective power of ANA brands to impact positive change.”

About the #SeeHer Movement

Despite the strides made to accurately portray women and girls in media, an unconscious bias persists in advertising, media, and programming. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) launched the #SeeHer initiative in June 2016 in a partnership with The Female Quotient (TFQ) at the United State of Women Summit. The SeeHer mission is to accurately portray all women and girls in media so that they can see themselves reflected as they truly are--and so that the world can see them with 20/20 vision. SeeHer’s goal is to increase the accurate portrayals of women and girls in media by 20 percent by 2020. The group developed a Gender Equality Measure (GEM™) to track progress and the marketing effect of removing unconscious bias from ads and programming. High GEM™ scores directly correlate to improved ROI. GEM™ won the 2017 ESOMAR Research Effectiveness Award. The methodology became the industry standard in the U.S., which led to a global rollout in 2018. For more information, visit www.SeeHer.com, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @SeeHer2020.

About the Association of National Advertisers (ANA)

The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) makes a difference for individuals, brands, and the industry by driving growth, advancing the interests of marketers, and promoting and protecting the well-being of the marketing community. Founded in 1910, the ANA provides leadership that advances marketing excellence and shapes the future of the industry. The ANA’s membership includes more than 1,700 companies with 25,000 brands that engage almost 150,000 industry professionals and collectively spend or support more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually. The membership is comprised of more than 1,000 client-side marketers and more than 700 marketing solutions provider members, which include leading marketing data science and technology suppliers, ad agencies, law firms, consultants, and vendors. Further enriching the ecosystem is the work of the nonprofit ANA Educational Foundation (AEF), which has the mission of enhancing the understanding of advertising and marketing within the academic and marketing communities.

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Contacts
Kristine Surla
Ksurla-cw@ana.net
(310)283-7584

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