XR Accessibility Report – Shows Only 17% of Global Advertisements Utilize Any Kind of Accessibility Features
May 16 2024 - 10:11AM
Business Wire
Report Highlights Overlooked Audiences and What
Marketers Can Do to Close the Gap
XR Extreme Reach, a global technology company that powers the
creative economy, today released its 2024 Global Advertising
Accessibility Index & Trends. The report reveals new insights
into advertising accessibility worldwide, and launches the first
global index that breaks down growth and development by market. The
analysis of more than 100 countries revealed only 17% of
advertisements were optimized for accessibility—leading to a
significant number of overlooked audiences and ad impressions.
Accessibility in advertising is pivotal to ensuring that all ads
have the opportunity to be seen, heard and understood by audiences,
irrespective of their physical or cognitive abilities. Developed to
encourage more inclusive practices across advertisers, agencies,
broadcasters and publishers, and ensure that all creative is
optimized for reach and resonance, XR examined the integration of
accessibility features in advertising campaigns, current levels of
adoption and the movement of regulatory standards across specific
markets within North America, EMEA, LATAM and APAC regions.
METHODOLOGY
The report defines advertising accessibility as advertisements
that incorporate features that eliminate communication barriers.
This year’s study employed a 12-month examination across 102
countries and analyzed over 800,000 creative assets and 7.8 million
ad deliveries spanning linear and digital platforms. Research and
data evaluation included a comprehensive review of current
regulatory information related to accessibility across key markets,
along with scaled analysis of creative inclusive of
closed-captioning and audio descriptions.
KEY FINDINGS
The report’s most glaring discovery was the fact that 83% of
global advertisements fall below basic accessibility standards with
only 17% of the global creatives analyzed either including closed
captioning, audio descriptions or a combination of both. Creative
analysis and research also found:
- No country has achieved a 'Fully Realized' level of
accessibility maturity, with only 15% showing a material level of
accessibility in their advertising.
- Although many markets demonstrate good adoption of closed
captioning, in some cases even reaching as high as 100% of ads,
audio descriptions are still very much underutilized, reaching only
4%, and in most markets, less than 1%.
- Closed captions and audio descriptions are significantly
underrepresented across digital, with less than 1% including
accessibility contents.
- Canada has stringent government regulations that drive over
100% of broadcast ads to feature closed captions, followed by
Ireland (30%) and UK (25%) Canada with significant improvements in
their strategic objectives for accessibility.
- Markets such as the United States, Australia and France are
categorized as “developing interest” within the Global Advertising
Accessibility Index, showing a growing focus on mandates, while
other countries such as Spain and New Zealand fall under
“Developing Interest” demonstrating progress in awareness.
“We are encouraged by an overall growing global shift towards
accessible advertising as markets lean into establishing regulatory
efforts and demonstrate progress in driving awareness,” said Simon
Sikorski, president, global operations, XR. “Creating a more
accessible future enables all sides of the industry to win;
advertisers can achieve greater reach and resonance across all
audiences, broadcasters and publishers drive greater value across
inventory and all people can have the opportunity to connect with
brands across the world,” added Sikorski.
According to Sheryl Daija, founder and CEO of BRIDGE, a DEI
trade organization committed to helping companies operationalize
inclusion as a business practice, “In terms of accessible
advertising, XR’s report showcases the stark reality that the
industry is still way behind in ensuring equitable access to all
advertising by those with differing abilities and we have far to go
to help connect overlooked audiences with great content
experiences.”
XR’s new Global Advertising Accessibility Index will help align
the ecosystem to evolving global standards and encourage all
advertisers, agencies, publishers and broadcasters within XR’s
ecosystem to prioritize accessibility across ad formats, platforms
and channels.
To access the full report, please
www.xr.global/2024-accessibility-report
About XR
XR is a global technology company that powers the creative
economy. XR moves creativity forward – uniting data at scale across
content, media and productions to maximize business value through
intelligence. Our platform empowers thousands of brands, agencies,
publishers and studios to create, distribute, and optimize
advertising and productions that reach and engage audiences–on any
screen, anywhere in the world. More than a billion brand assets and
over $100B in media and production spend is powered by XR’s
AI-driven enterprise platform. XR operates in 140 countries and has
offices across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
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Alexis Gold alexis.gold@purposenorthamerica.com