The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Toolkit

Collections / Our Collections
Sarah Mason
1312297242
Rebecca Swift
Oct 21, 2021
Getty Images has partnered with Citi, the leading global bank, to create a first‑of‑its‑kind toolkit, available for marketers and communicators worldwide, across brands and industries, to promote authentic visual representation in advertising.
Why Now?
The Getty Images Creative Insights team has been researching the importance of authentic representation for over 20 years. While the needs of our customers have evolved over that period, the need to visualise the world authentically has only grown more necessary. As businesses have become more transparent, it is easier to connect the dots between talk and action meaning that the customer has higher expectations than ever before of brands they buy from. Our Visual GPS research this year has found that 72% of global consumers expect brands they buy from to support diversity and inclusion with 80% loyal to brands whose business practices support their own values and the numbers are even higher with the younger demographics.

Our own data also shows that the world is shifting and that our customer base is looking for a more inclusive view of people. Diversity and inclusion themes have been searched on our website three times as much in the last 12 months than ever before.

We have been continuously creating and testing content in the meantime and have used our research alongside partnering with other expert organisations to create guidelines for creators and consumers of imagery and have used that knowledge to create collections of content that identify and break stereotypes.

Guidelines and collections currently available:
Gender, age, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation.
While we continue to push ourselves and our creators to lead the way when it comes to representation, the next step in our evolution was to look at identity in more detail. We all have many identities that reflect who we are in a myriad of daily situations and that combination of identities is what gives us pride in ourselves as individuals. However, we also know that there are dominant identity groups in society and those that are not, can be subject to bias and often discrimination (further compounded if an individual or group has multiple minority identities). We know that when it comes to imagery, dominant identity is by no means linked to how the demographics of a population which thereby has traditionally created an inbalance in who gets to be represented.

Getty Images and Citi have partnered to create Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Imagery toolkits to go deeper into the world of visual communication through the lens of identity. It will be rolled out to members of the marketing and communications team at Citi across 10 markets starting in the US. Each toolkit iteration will be supported by regional data and insights around consumers, acknowledging both cultural and regional nuances and stereotypes. Using our proprietary data and research alongside cultural insights from Kantar, we have looked at the seven key identities: Race and ethnicity, gender, disability, body type, age, sexual orientation and religion (in some countries, where appropriate, we have also added socio‑economic status).

We have created the toolkits by asking important questions – What do we see, what is the demographic and psychographic landscape of a country and where are the opportunities for broader representation? The findings have sometimes been surprising but the work has created a clear roadmap for moving the visual language forward. To be totally committed to DEI, is to look deeply into not only whether identities are represented but how they are represented.
The first toolkit for the US is available for download below ‑ other countries will follow.

We look forward to continuing the conversation…
Getty Images x GLAAD: Improving LGBTQ+ Representation