Speaking on a panel at the summit, which was held on Thursday 15^th May in London, Lydia Amoah, chief executive at Backlight and founder of The Black Pound Report, said that brands in the UK needed to keep working on DEI and recognise the positive financial opportunities that come from embracing diversity.

“Whatever is happening Stateside, we have to be mindful that it doesn’t impact us too much here. We have to maybe use it as an advantage, as our opportunity to say ‘what can we do better here in the UK with our research’,” Amoah said.

“How can we explore audiences a bit more? Get to know them really well, understand their needs and ‘super serve’ them? Super serve this audience because they deserve it – this is part of the economy, and we can’t ignore it.”

Amoah added that the push back in the US on DEI could give the UK an opportunity to stand out.

“It is sad to see what is happening in the States,” she said. “But at the same time, I think that gives us the opportunity to stand out for the great things we can do over here in the UK and be super proud of what we do.

“We don’t have to be fearful of diverse audiences, we just have to work with the people who can help you reach and understand them better.”

However, Amoah said that some of the US rhetoric on DEI, where there has been a government-led push back against many diversity policies within businesses, is “beginning to seep into conversations” in the UK, with brands often waiting to see what happens in US parts of their business.

“The US market has always had an impact in the UK,” Amoah added. “What we need to do in this situation is keep bringing home the truth that diverse audiences are here to stay – they will always keep going. We can’t ignore them and they will always need serving.”

She added that there are amazing business opportunities that can come from embracing diversity, saying: “If you say the wrong thing, there is fear. But if you build a connection with the audience, then you understand them better and understand their needs. They see that you care for them.”

Dr Elizabeth Webb, head of research at Age UK, told the panel that DEI “is a real opportunity for agencies”, especially as brands were much more likely to need to commission research on DEI topics from agencies, as government data is less adept at gathering information from diverse communities.

“The things we really want to see as a client [from agencies] is we want to see diverse teams, we want there to be diversity of thought on your teams, we want there to be diversity of experience and we want you to access diverse communities and talk to them in a way that is meaningful to them in order to get us the results we really need,” Webb said.

“On the quant side, we need sample sizes and we need sampling to consider how we can get a sample that enables us to look at groups in a meaningful way.”

On sample sizes, Webb added that both clients and agencies needed to work on a solution that could accurately capture the views of minority groups. “We need there to be lots of people in your samples which fit into all the little boxes of the different communities in the country so we can understand them properly.

“I understand that comes with a cost and extra timescales. I need to justify internally the extra spend, because I know it costs, and I need to plan properly so I have the extra time. That’s my job, and your job, if you can, is to do diversity and sampling.”

Noreen Biddle Shah, chief marketing and communications officer at Carne and founder at Reboot, said that she hoped an ongoing consultation on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting, which has been launched by the UK government and is due to close on 10^th June, could make a difference.

She also said that the recent increase in the availability of many products aimed an minority communities was a sign of progress. “All of the sudden [the availability of the products] has exploded, and you feel included. There must be so many more untapped ways to grow.

“The more diversity and people you have around the table, the more opportunities you have around it.”

Michael Brown, managing partner and head of insight and research for the UK and Europe, Middle East and Africa at UM Worldwide, said that conventional research tools could be used in new ways to help reach into the points of view and experiences of different communities.

For example, he said that a few consecutive months of tracking on a specific community could often help mitigate small sample sizes and help get a better understanding of their views and preferences.