The Representation Project partnered with TWTW Companies to further explore these issues, surveying 500 women nationwide with daughters ages zero to ten years old. Questions focused on personal body image and how mothers feel this will affect their daughters. Highlights from the full report titled “Mothers, Daughters & Body Image” include:

• 84% of mothers say too much emphasis is placed on physical beauty for women and girls and 65% think it is likely their daughter will struggle with her body image at some point.
• 90% of respondents have struggled with body image themselves with 51% having negative thoughts about their body at least once a day.
• 54% said they would feel like a failure if their daughter grew up to feel about her body the way she (the mother) does, but only 33% have addressed body image directly or indirectly with their daughters.

To address these startling statistics, The Representation Project is publishing the #BuildConfidence Toolkit, helping mothers and caregivers proactively build positive self-esteem and body image with their children. The kit features helpful tips and resources developed in partnership with Common Sense Media, Dove Self-Esteem Project, and Girls Leadership Institute. The Representation Project is providing the #BuildConfidence Toolkit to mothers and caregivers free of charge as a gift on Mother’s Day.

To kick off the campaign, The Representation Project is hosting a Twitter chat on Friday May 8 at 1 PM EST. The chat will celebrate mothers and caregivers for instilling positive self-esteem and body confidence in their children by asking such questions as, “How did you mom/caregiver teach you to love your body?” and as “What makes your mom awesome?”

The #BuildConfidence campaign premieres with an original video from Jennifer Siebel Newsom. In the coming months, it will also highlight the importance of fathers, caregivers, and other mentors.

More information can be found at therepresentationproject.org/buildconfidence.

Content marketing is “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” – Content Marketing Institute 

We wouldn’t be a market research company if we didn’t give you some of the data behind content marketing. Here’s what you need to know:

• 80% of decision makers prefer content to advertising (Mashable)
• 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from companies that create custom content (Captora)
• 50% of online consumer time is spent engaging with custom content (Captora)
• Content Marketing is the top priority for 36% of marketers in 2014. (Content Marketing Institute)
• Only 10-20% of a company’s website content drives 90% of its Web traffic, and only 0.5% of a website’s content drives more than 50% of its traffic. (InboundWriter)
• Conversion rates for brands using content marketing are 6 to 7 times higher than those that don’t.  (Aberdeen)
• The 3 biggest complaints B2B buyers have about vendor content are too many requirements for downloading; blatantly promotional, self-serving content; and non-substantive, uninformed content.  (Social Media Today)
• 87% say online content has major or moderate impact on vendor selection. (Social Media Today)
• Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.  (DemandMetric)

Now that you understand the importance of content marketing, go ahead and give it a try. QuickSprout has a great guide to get you started and Content Marketing Institute has a lot of great examples.

So what’s behind the sudden shift? It seems like advertisers are finally realizing they need to start paying more attention to women. Last year, 47% of Super Bowl viewers were women, and as we know, women control 85% of consumer spending. Clearly, advertising to women during the Super Bowl is just good business sense. If those numbers aren’t convincing enough, there’s also the fact that women are much more active on social media; as Kat Gordon put it “Ads with female appeal = best return on $4 million price-tag.”

While the effort to turn down the sexist messages in the ads is truly appreciated, we still had to wonder what caused so many of this year’s ads to fall flat? Our best guess is that when you take male-focused, and often sexist, humor off the table, you’re left with a lot of male creative directors who don’t know what to do other than turn to what they think is the only thing women will respond to: emotion. This year’s Super Bowl is another blatant example of why agencies need to increase the number of women creative directors (which is currently at a measly 11%). Women respond to more than just sappy messages, we promise! You just need the right women to show you how to do it.

Finally, while these ads are a great first step, let’s remember that they are just that, a first step. Ann Friedman put it well in her New York Magazine article: “[The Ads] open up a great opportunity to press the advertisers for details on how they’re putting their purported ideals into practice. How much of its annual profit is Always diverting to girls’ empowerment programs? What sort of paternity-leave policies are in place at Dove and Nissan — and do those companies support better federal family-leave laws for all parents? How is the NFL changing its policies, not just its messaging, toward players who abuse their partners?”

One thing is for sure, we’re making progress. We think that 2015 will see even more women use their voice (and dollar) to demand change, and hopefully next year’s Super Bowl will be filled with advertisers that are doing more to really understand women.

Regardless of what happens on the field there are a few reasons why this Super Bowl is unique.

1. You can stream it for free
NBC will stream the entire game online and on the NBC Sports Live app for free. This will be the second time that NBC streams the game but it’s the first time that they will include the pregame and halftime show coverage. The halftime show will also be live-streamed on YouTube.
2. It will air in Spanish
For the first time ever the Super Bowl will air live in Spanish. NBC will broadcast the game on their Spanish language network mun2 which will be relaunched as NBC Universo on February 1st. The vast majority of the advertisers bought spots on both NBC and NBC Universo. It is expected that some will air their English ads while others are said to have created unique Spanish ads.
3. More focus on women
No doubt it’s been a tough year for the NFL. This season they faced issues of domestic violence, child abuse and rape. These stories, and the way the NFL handled them, made some women question their allegiance to this league and the advertisers who stood with it. The NFL has done a great deal to try and make things right and now advertisers are stepping up with ads that acknowledge the sport’s growing female fan base. Last year 45% of Super Bowl viewers were female and this year’s halftime show (with Katy Perry as the headline performer) and the ads that will air during the game are expected to reflect that executives have taken notice of those numbers.

Whether you watch the game because you love the sport or the because you love the ads, this is sure to be an exciting one. We’re looking forward to see who wins big both on and off the field!

• 21 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women.
• Women are 57% of college graduates and 63% of masters degree holders, but that majority is not represented in leadership positions in the work place.
• Women hold only 14% of executive officer positions and 16% of board seats.
• Congress is 18% female.
• In 1970, Women were paid $0.59 for every dollar men made. It’s now $0.77.

These numbers are true across most industries and advertising is certainly no exception. Even though over 80% of purchasing decisions are made by women, the people who create the messages targeted to them, are overwhelmingly men.

Three years ago Kat Gordon, a woman who had spent years in the advertising world, decided that something needed to be done about these numbers and created the 3% Conference. Why 3 percent? That was the percentage of women creative directors in the US when Kat created the conference. This year, at the third annual 3% Conference, the team reported that the number is now 11 percent!

When the staff at twtw found out about this conference we knew we had to go check it out. So last week we hopped on the plane and headed to beautiful San Francisco for what ended up being two inspiration-filled days. It was fantastic to be surrounded by so many awe-inspiring women (and men). People from in and outside of the industry spoke on topics varying from ways to raise the number past 11 percent, to how to fight off mediocrity. There were a lot of great moments but here are some of our favorite takeaways.

Dyllan McGee

Dyllan is the mastermind behind the MAKERS project. She has spent several years filming the stories of influential women. In her seriously stirring talk she tells us that she’s learned that we must take credit for what we’ve done. Women have been written out of some important stories in history often because they didn’t stand up and claim their work. Women must be proud of their accomplishments and must not be too modest to take credit!

John Gerzema 

The famed author of the Athena Doctrine gave a great talk where he shared his experience traveling around the world to find out what makes a good leader. He found that “feminine leadership and values are now more popular than the macho paradigm of the past.” Through his research he discovered that 66% of people agreed that the world would be a better place if men thought more like women. He also advised women on the importance of bringing their “whole selves” to work.

Rick Boyko 

The advertising legend left us with this advice “We need to start to think about collective creativity by bringing all kinds of minds (critical thinkers and creative thinkers) together to spark deeper creative thinking.”

Todd Henry 

The author of the book Die Empty asked “Why do we so often settle for mediocrity?” To fight mediocrity we must first determine what is holding us back. Is it dissonance (the gap between the why and what); fear (perceived consequences of failure); or expectation escalation (maximizing efficiency at the cost of excellence).

Seth Matlins

Seth created the Truth in Advertising Act. He pleaded that the advertising agency start making changes because the over-photoshop bodies are causing real problems especially with the youth who often resort to extreme measures to emulate what they see on TV.

Cindy Gallop 

Cindy closed the conference with this great quote “A decade is too long to watch the world be deprived of the talent and perspectives of female creative leadership.”

The 3% Conference inspired us in many ways and we’re looking forward to putting what we learned to work. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year’s 3% Conference (we hear it might be in NYC)!

While you couldn’t easily forget this was a sports-focused symposium, (the sports puns alone were a constant reminder) it was amazing how many of the lessons shared could be applied to any business. Perhaps it should not have come as a surprise, sports leagues are after all, very big businesses.

The biggest takeaway from the event is that diversity and inclusion practices are beneficial in all aspects of your business. Diversity among your staff gives you different perspectives and can protect you against major pitfalls that a group of like-minded people may never have seen coming. Diversity among suppliers can provide you with better and more cost effective options that you may have never considered. And diversity among your customers keeps your product relevant and revenues growing.

So what does market research have to do with all this? Glad you asked. Knowing that you want a diverse customer base is the first step, the second step is identifying what groups are most relevant to your business and determining how to most effectively attract them to your product or service. This is where market research can help.

The demographics of the country are rapidly changing and there is no better time than the present to consider how these changes impact your business.  Market research can help you identify a strategy to diversify and grow your customer base.

At twtw we’re passionate about market research. On this blog we’ll share market research news and stories that we find interesting as well as our opinions and advice on hot topics in the industry. We hope to provide you with information that will help your business. If there is anything you’d like to see covered here, feel free to send us an email.

If you’ve taken a quick look through our site you have likely noticed that our core subject area specialties are multicultural and women-focused research. It only makes sense we would combine our passions, which is why part of what we do is explore new ways to conduct multicultural and women-focused market research in a more successful manner. We consistently strive to raise the methodological bar in these areas of research and to help clients more effectively reach these populations.  We’ll report on these subjects and discuss new research approaches on the blog as well.

Beyond market research, as a company we are dedicated to the empowerment and advancement of women in all aspects of life. Therefore, on this blog you will also find articles about everything from women’s issues to marketing to women.

We know not all topics will be of equal interest to everyone, which is why we will tag every blog so you can use the category section on the left to easily locate the content that is of greatest interest to you. We hope you enjoy our blog and we can’t wait to hear what you think!