Sir Lenny Henry, Comedian, Author and Broadcaster; Vanessa Kingori, Managing DIrector of Technology Media and Telecoms and Google; and Tati Lindeberg, Vice President of Marketing at Unilever, will lead the speaker line-up at RISE 2025.

The one-day conference, created by Creative Equals, brings together the most progressive and ambitious brands in the industry to supercharge inclusive creativity.

Speakers will also include Gráinne Wafer, Global Category Director at Diageo, Pete Markey, Chief Marketing Officer at Boots and president of ISBA and Megan Crabbe, author of Body Positive Power.

The event, organised by Creative Equals, will be held at The Royal Horticultural Halls. It is bringing together progressive brands at a time when polarisation is at the very top of the media debate.

The fear of backlash continues to hold brands back creatively. The industry is facing mounting pressure as brands navigate societal divisions, increased consumer expectations and ongoing challenges around diversity, equity and inclusion. 

While some companies are stepping back from DEI commitments, data shows that brands that continue to invest in inclusivity outperform their competitors. In fact, the headlines warning of the risk of ‘go broke and go woke’ are not just divisive, they are inaccurate. Research from the Unstereotype Alliance has successfully shattered the myth.

The global study empirically proves that inclusive advertising content, defined as content which authentically and positively portrays a full range of people and is devoid of stereotypes, has a positive impact on business profit, sales and brand value.

The study was conducted with leading researchers from Saïd Business School at Oxford University. It leveraged proprietary data provided by Unstereotype Alliance members Bayer Consumer Healthcare, Diageo, the Geena Davis Institute, Kantar, Mars Incorporated, Mondelez International and Unilever.

The first-of-its-kind research is based on an analysis of 392 brands across 58 countries. It successfully proves the positive impact of inclusive advertising on business outcomes in both the short and long term, and across multiple metrics. It highlights several areas of performance improvement, including sales, financial performance, customer preference and loyalty, brand equity and market competitiveness.

The findings confirm that inclusive ad campaigns deliver 3.5% higher shorter-term sales and 16% higher longer-term sales. The study also found that inclusive ad campaigns drive 15% higher levels of customer loyalty and a 62% higher likelihood of being a consumer’s first choice.

“Two things can be true at once. Inclusive marketing is a force for good, driving real social impact, economic inclusion and positive behaviour change,” says Ali Hanan, CEO at Creative Equals. 

She continues: “One of the key themes we have seen out of our analysis of the Effie UK work is a theme of 'name it to normalise it', spanning topics like hearing loss (Specsavers), menopause symptoms (Boots), male mental health (Ford), the gender pain gap (Nurofen), awareness of autism and more. Note that these are Effie UK winners, which means this type of marketing is also about growth. Besides, the world is becoming more, not less, diverse. Brands that will win in the future are those that build with inclusion in mind, from innovation to influencers.” 

Spanning topics including inclusive AI and smashing stereotypes in advertising, this year’s RISE event will uncover how to apply inclusion, sustainability and social impact along the entire value chain.

To find out more, please click here. 

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