New diversity index: See the list. Danish companies use few women in their communication and marketing.

Even though formal gender equality exists in Denmark, it does not translate to the way companies share videos on Facebook, pictures on Instagram, or present themselves on their websites during online marketing and branding.

At MediaCatch, we have used our tool DiverstyCatch and conducted a diversity check of several Danish companies' marketing and communication on their social media platforms and websites, analyzing over 190,000 pieces of content. The result is as follows:

• There is a significant presence of more men than women.
• Companies tend to communicate that they are younger than the rest of the population.
• There is an overrepresentation of non-Western individuals compared to the Danish population.

In a broader context, diversity and gender equality are part of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Additionally, we have formal gender equality in Denmark, and it also makes good business sense.

• Young consumers pay attention to inclusive advertising when making purchasing decisions.
• It becomes easier to recruit and retain your employees.
• For 83% of Generation Z, diversity is an important factor when choosing a workplace.

Insights for the "S" in ESG

We haven't provided a definitive answer, but the index provides a basis and insights for a strategic discussion about companies' social responsibility in their communication.

When delving into the details of each individual company, it's possible to see which campaigns push them in one direction or another. It's worth noting that sometimes a campaign may be targeted towards a specific gender and age group.

According to Deloitte, diversity in marketing is crucial for brands to establish a connection with consumers who now expect diversity. Furthermore, it leads to increased loyalty and growth.

A selection of all the companies analyzed can be found at the bottom of this blog post.

How did we do it?

Our AI has reviewed all the videos and images released by companies on their social platforms and websites in the last 12 months. This includes their own communication and marketing.

Then, the AI has determined the gender of the individuals involved, their age, and whether they have a Western or non-Western appearance.

Women lag behind, men are older

In general, women lag behind men when it comes to their presence in company communication. The distribution stands at 38% women and 62% men. Additionally, men are always a few years older than women.

Overrepresentation of non-Western individuals

In terms of individuals with a non-Western appearance, Danish companies are doing well in representing that segment of the population. According to the National Integration Barometer, a little over 10% of people in Denmark have a non-Western background, including their descendants and their descendants' children.

Across all the content analyzed by our AI, more than 26% of the analyzed faces have a non-Western origin.

It is worth noting that Danish companies with an international outlook have significantly more individuals of non-Western origin compared to companies targeting the Danish market. For example, Maersk has over 50% of faces with a non-Western background in their images and videos across all platforms, while Jyske Bank has 16.5% with a non-Western background in their content.

The following picture shows the share of women shown in company communication and their age, as opposed to the average in Denmark.

Twitter is for men

Different platforms have different target audiences. The platform with the highest representation of women in communication is TikTok, with 42%, while the platform with the lowest is Twitter, with 29%.

Regarding age, there isn't a significant difference among the platforms. Generally, companies want to appear younger than the rest of the population. On average, women are 2-4 years younger than the men who also appear in the content.

The following stat show the share of women in communication on different platforms.

How we calculated our index

In the following sections, each industry or company has been assigned a diversity score.

The score is based on the premise that the overall communication within an industry should closely resemble the demographic makeup of the population in Denmark. If the score is 100, it means that the content in the industry's or company's communication is the same as that of the Danish population.

Significant differences between industries

To enable comparison between different industries, we have utilized the Danish Industry Code. We have focused on the broad categories of industries.

Insurance companies and banks are among those with a high diversity score. On the other end of the spectrum, perhaps unsurprisingly, transportation and freight handling industries have lower scores.

In general, it can be said that the more B2C (business-to-consumer) focused an industry is, the more conscious they appear to be about diversity in their communication.

Diversity index of communication across industries

MediaCatch has analyzed all images and videos on a range of companies' websites across various industries, as well as all videos and images published on the companies' social profiles on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube.

The picture shows Danish industry names.

Diversity index of communication in selected companies

We have selected a range of larger companies to be included in the index. Similar to the industry index, this is only a selection of the companies included in the dataset.

The closer the score is to 100, the closer the company's communication is across its website and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter to be like the inhabitants of Denmark.

See all the numbers for your own company and where it stands relative to the industry

This analysis provides a very general result, but it is possible to obtain all the details for your own company using DiversityCatch.

With a comprehensive diversity check of your company's external communication on social media and website, we will examine:

• Whether your communication is as diverse as the rest of your company and your ESG goals.
• Benchmarking against your industry and the countries in which you operate.
• Detailed insights from all platforms, so you know where to focus first.

Contact our CEO, Lars Damgaard Nielsen, at [email protected] and get started.

Method:

We have analyzed all images and videos on company websites, as well as all videos and images published on their social profiles on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. In total, we have analyzed over 190,000 pieces of content across all media. Methodologically, videos carry more weight than individual website images because we differentiate the amount of screen time each person receives. This means that a video with many men on a website can lower the proportion of women on the website, even if the ratio of still images is 50%/50%.

Our AI recognizes gender, age, and origin more accurately than humans. This refers to the perceived age, meaning that someone can appear younger or older than they actually are. However, the average across large amounts of data is more accurate with AI than with human guesses, such as estimating age.

Regarding industries, we have used industry codes from the Danish Industry Code DB07.