The Heat™ Test

Are your characters presenting a representative view of the population? Do their actions defy stereotypes? And in the end, are there voices in the room who help remove bias? 

A Heat Test Assessment can help you find out.

Brands have the power to shape cultural norms, perceptions, and what people think is possible. Ensuring your brand messages present a representative and equity-driven picture is not only the right thing to do, but can truly drive our collective success.

So, how do your brand messages stack up?

What biases might be hiding in your creative processes or operational structures?

The first step toward change is awareness.

The Heat Test is a tool to measure the presence and impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion in your advertising – through the characters cast, the storylines woven, and media weight behind them.

The Heat Test is a creative assessment designed in collaboration with advertising and anthropology experts from Duke University and UT Austin to help companies track and improve how they portray diverse people in their advertising. We analyze your creative portfolio – from TV ads to print, banners, and even CRM, for whether your brand presents a representative and equity-driven picture. And then we work with you and your teams and agencies – to understand where you’re doing well and how you can improve.

• To make authentic, nuanced representation in advertising the norm, not the exception.
• To build empathetic, marketing leaders who have roadmap for success.

Unlike other offerings in market today, the Heat Test is wholeheartedly human-driven.

Why?

Because nuance and bias are felt.

Because codifying and coding prejudices is a futile process.

And because teaching a computer these prejudices is the antithesis of what we believe machine learning is meant to do.

Instead, we build diverse teams to review your creative, talk about what they see, and analyze it from the many angles that others will.

A Heat Test Assessment is more human.