Campaign development

When you start developing your campaign:

think about your message
write an inclusive brief.

You may also want to consider:

your team
how to be an advocate
co-designing with the community.

Think about your message

What is the message of your campaign? Is it a product, service or event that trans and gender diverse people would like to engage with?

To ensure your campaign authentically includes trans and gender diverse talent, it’s important that your message is one of genuine inclusion. It will also mean your message will be positively received by the community and have a greater impact.

Examples:

All parents want their children to have the best start to life.
Our fashion is for everyone.
Everyone is welcome at our music festival.
Enjoy faster travel into the city with our new regional train stations.

You should also think about how your brand is perceived by the wider community when it comes to diversity, inclusion and representation. You may receive negative feedback, so it is important to have a plan to address this when developing your campaign.

See Appendix 2 – Issues response template.

How to write an inclusive campaign brief

Be clear about your values, your desire to work with a like-minded agency and your commitment to working with diverse talent.

There are several ways you can do this:

Be specific about the talent you are looking for: When we say we are looking for diverse talent, it’s hard for agencies to know what this means. It’s helpful to explain that you are open to talent that best fits the brief. This can be people with a culturally diverse background, people with a disability, LGBTIQA+ people and different ages and gender identities. Be specific.
Ask for examples: You can ask the agency you are briefing to give examples of campaigns where they worked with a diverse talent pool. This can help you decide if they share your values. You can also explain that it will help their pitch in the tender process.
Make it safe to disclose: Have a way that talent can disclose their gender identity without fear of risking the opportunity. It is important to say you are open to LGBTIQA+ talent. You can also use non-gendered language in your brief like ‘parent’, ‘partner’ or ‘child’.
Be clear about your message: It should be clear why you are asking for trans and gender diverse talent to be included in your campaign.
Show your values: Consider adding an LGBTIQA+ flag alongside your logo in your email signature, to demonstrate your brand’s values. You can also include your pronouns.

When you write your brief, it is also important to be clear about:

how long your campaign will be live for
what channels you will use
how the person will be portrayed.

Some trans and gender diverse talent may decide not to be involved in a campaign. This could be because they have concerns for their safety or do not wish their gender identity to be public information. It is important you have their consent for this. Some trans and gender diverse people may also not want some parts of their bodies focused on, including their chest, groin, hands or feet. It is best to be clear about what the campaign will show.

You can also share who you are partnering with to deliver the campaign. This can help show that you have consulted with other organisations or communities, and that you are committed to the campaign’s values.

It also makes clear that you are working with trans and gender diverse talent in a professional capacity, as an actor or model. They should not feel like they need to speak on behalf of their community.

See Appendix 3 – Example brief.

Tip – Ask questions

It is impossible to know how someone identifies, or what their pronouns are, unless you ask them.

When working with trans and gender diverse talent, don’t be afraid to get it ‘wrong’. You can clarify and ask questions even in the early stages of working together. A great way to do this is to offer your pronouns first. It can make someone feel more comfortable to share theirs.

Questions and ‘curiosity without assumptions’ is welcomed by many in LGBTIQA+ communities. If you are asking questions politely, and would like to learn, then your curiosity will be appreciated.

Resources: LGBTIQA+ Inclusive Language Guide [1]
Stonewalls list of LGBTQ+ terms [2]

Your team

How does your team reflect your audience?

The best inclusive campaigns are produced by a diverse team. You should consider including trans and gender diverse people in front of and behind the camera when you are creating your campaign.

Inclusion is not just important for casting your talent. You can help create a safe space through every stage of your campaign by building a diverse team that represents different perspectives and experiences. This will ultimately strengthen your campaign because it means you will truly reflect the experiences of the community

Your team can also build their capacity by investing in diversity and inclusion training, and allyship training. This is a great way to grow your team’s skills to create better, more inclusive campaigns.

Resources:

LGBTQIA+ Inclusion and Awareness Training - Transgender Victoria [3]

ACON Pride training [4]

The Equality Project [5]

Inclusive Workplaces – Minus18 [6]

Rainbow Tick [7]

Be an advocate

It is possible that casting trans and gender diverse talent in your campaign will be met with reluctance or negativity.

The decision makers in your organisation may believe that your campaign will receive public backlash. This is a real possibility, so it is important to address this directly.

Address the risk. Show your decision makers how the risk will be managed in a way that preserves the integrity of your brand and keeps the talent safe. If you address the concerns before they are raised, it shows that you have considered all possibilities. Refer to the issues response template at Appendix 2.

Be prepared to advocate for the talent you have chosen to include. We have already mentioned some of the ways you can address concerns, like being clear about your message and demonstrating your organisation’s values. You can also:

use data to back up your decision. Research shows that consumers are more likely to have a positive response to a brand’s decision to include LGBTIQA+ communities in their advertising. A small minority may not feel the same way, but they are not the audience that aligns with your brand’s values.
focus on what is relatable: If you know what is important to your stakeholders, clients or audience then it will be easier to show the importance of including trans and gender diverse talent.
tell a story: People respond to narrative, including decision makers. Explain how this campaign fits into the broader story of your organisation, your work and the impact you hope to have.

Resource:

LGBTQ Inclusion in Advertising & Media – GLAAD report [8]

Co-design

Co-design, or co-creation, is the gold standard when creating a successful campaign. Co-design can help you create a campaign that has a bigger impact on your audience. It brings together:

professionals in the sector
people with lived experience
other subject matter experts.

If you want to co-design your campaign, it’s important to bring people in early. Some communities will need to develop trust in and a relationship with your organisation first. It can help to meet in informal settings, with food and open conversation. It can also help to have a third party facilitate these conversations, who have a connection to the community.

While co-design is one of the better ways to create a campaign, it is not always possible with time or budget. Try to incorporate elements of co-design into your campaign development in a way that fits your resources.

You could:

speak to your Diversity & Inclusion team – if you have one in your workplace, it can be a helpful way to get input from experts who have worked with people of diverse backgrounds and experiences.
test your approach – People of all professional backgrounds are eager to advocate for the visibility of trans and gender diverse people. They can often be a good sounding board for your campaign. They can give you advice based on their lived experience, or experience working with LGBTIQA+ communities.
educate yourself – there is lots of information online and examples of best practice. Take the time to do your research.
Resource: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society [9].

However you engage with community or the sector, it’s important to pay people for their time and contribution. You also need to be honest about the scope of what they can influence – do not ask for feedback on your campaign if you can’t make any changes.

Finally, it’s important that your engagement with the community does not end after the co-design process. Be open to feedback at any stage of the campaign and prepare to adjust your approach based on that feedback.

A note on casting

When a trans and gender diverse actor or model is hired for a role, they can feel pressure to represent their community based on their own experience. But there are many different definitions of what it means to be trans and gender diverse and how people would like to represent themselves.

When casting for your campaign, you could:

hire multiple LGBTIQA+ actors, or people who have intersectional identities. This can help show the diversity of our community in an authentic way.
consider older actors. Often trans and gender diverse people in the media are younger, but older trans and gender diverse people exist too.
include trans and gender diverse people in the ‘background’ of scenes. For example, you might include a trans DJ in a nightclub, or a non-binary nurse in a hospital. This is an important part of advocating for visibility.

Be aware that gender is fluid, identities are fluid, and the identity of the talent you are working with might change. If it does change, make sure they are still comfortable with how they are portrayed in the campaign.

Important note: There is a history in LGBTIQA+ communities of being represented in film and television by cis, heterosexual people. This can be offensive and excludes the talented trans and gender diverse people who are able to do those roles.

Transphobia is often rooted in the idea that trans people are pretending or tricking people. It is therefore important to hire talent who can represent their own identity authentically.

Resource: Unstereotype Alliance 3Ps framework [10]