Taide Guajardo, Chief Brand Officer at P&G Europe, has urged the industry to collaborate to accelerate the mainstream adoption of accessible advertising.

Speaking at the Creative Equals Rise conference, she shared that P&G has an ambition to ensure 100% accessible advertising across Europe.

Guajardo linked creating accessible advertising with brand growth. While the group has historically grown its business by finding unmet consumer needs to fulfil, that same growth ethos can be applied to inclusion.

On average P&G’s existing media plan reaches 75% of the population, which underlines the opportunity gap.

Currently, 15% of the EU population has a visual or auditory impairment. Yet, less than 10% of ads are accessible. “Accessibility is an opportunity as a force for growth but also to make people feel included,” she explained.

She explained that reaching all consumers is key to growth, sharing: “We are playing in a category where almost everyone does their laundry, almost everyone brushes their teeth. We have so many products that everyone uses.”

Resetting the bar on brand building

Guajardo shared that bringing greater inclusion to packaging doesn’t just make products more accessible to those who can’t currently access them, it actually makes the product experience better for all consumers.

Guajardo brought this challenge to life by showing the audience an advert as it would appear to someone who was visually impaired. Asking the audience to consider how the black and blurred screen would make them feel.

“It was confusing, you didn’t even know what the brand was,” she explained. She went on to showcase how the brand had embraced audio description to create a more inclusive and engaging campaign.

She added that P&G was focused on being inclusive by design with audio description and open and closed captioning as standard.

Closing the accessibility gap

Guajardo shared that bringing more accessibility to advertising isn’t easy. “There were more barriers than we thought,” she shared. Adding that TV companies did not offer audio description for advertising, she shared that when she first started asking for it, TV companies told her that P&G was the only brand asking for it.

In subsequent conversations with organisations, including ISBA and the World Federation of Advertisers, Guajardo found that many other brands and industry leaders also wanted to address this issue of inclusion. She believes that collective action will accelerate change.

This push for greater accessibility across the industry is being championed by Vanessa Vidad, CRM & Systems Manager, Inclusion Lead ISBA. She opened the session by explaining the importance of collaboration for creating more accessible advertising. She explained: “Small changes can make a big difference.”

ISBA has put together resources to help drive more accessible advertising.

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Photo credit: Bronac McNeill