Dive Brief: 

• Consumer intelligence company NielsenIQ (NIQ) has partnered with McDonald’s USA for a new Cultural Resonance module that will be integrated into its Bases Ad360 ad-testing portfolio, according to a press release. 
• The module offers various cultural resonance metrics to analyze the role of cultural factors in ads and provides indicators for content that isn’t landing as intended. The offering also allows businesses to gauge their performance against industry standards. 
• Additionally, the module offers insight into various cultural signals to help ads drive meaningful connections. The new offering from NIQ and McDonald’s arrives as marketers continue to develop inclusive advertising strategies while culture remains an important yet potentially divisive way to engage consumers.

Dive Insight: 

As brands strategize ways to reach a wider audience, NIQ and McDonald’s USA’s collaboration for a new ad-testing solution could help advertising strategies land in a meaningful way. The unveiling of the tool comes as culture remains an important yet potentially divisive way to engage U.S. consumers, indicating the need for additional measures to ensure brand safety. The Cultural Resonance module is a quantitative solution built from extensive explicit and implicit human insight and validated with neuroscience metrics, according to the press release.

“In a rapidly evolving landscape where diversity and inclusion are paramount, the Bases Cultural Resonance module, developed in collaboration with McDonald’s, equips advertisers with the tools they need to create content that authentically connects,” said Megan Belden, vice president and global advertising lead at NIQ Bases, in release details. 

The Cultural Resonance module is meant to help advertisers connect with customers in a genuine way. It can be used to spot red flags, or moments within their content that contain implicit bias, to help advertisers avoid feeding damaging stereotypes. Advertisers can also analyze their content from a cultural lens, going beyond diverse casting to look at how an ad is telling a story so consumers will be better able to relate to and resonate with the content. Advertisers can gauge their performance against industry standards using the module, which delivers a proprietary composite measure benchmarked to a database. 

“With processes like second-by-second feedback, this tool allows us to make real-time optimizations – making us smarter creative reviewers,” said Jen Larkin, director of U.S. Consumer Insights at McDonald’s, in release details. 

The offering is integrated with neuroscience methodology, per release details, linking survey-based metrics to EEG emotion, memory and attention measures so advertisers can optimize their marketing for all audiences. The need for a strong diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy in marketing is a key industry focus, both from an ethical standpoint and from a financial perspective. Cutting DEI out of a company’s marketing strategy can result in major losses, potentially already costing U.S. businesses $5.4 trillion, per Kantar findings. 

The collaboration from McDonald’s, which helped build the NIQ module, follows the QSR chain’s announcement in 2021 that it would be doubling its investments in diverse media partners as part of a plan to increase representation. The chain, which has also faced lawsuits over its commitment to Black-owned media, last spring said it was “on track to meet or exceed” a commitment of 5% of total Black-owned marketing investments by 2024, per an Ad Age report. Other brands recently have been working to reach diverse audiences, including Hyundai, Frito-Lay, Lexus and Tubi.