Ethnic Dimension, set up by ICG member Jag Poonia, is 25 years old this month (June) and is still going strong.
Over the years, this specialist agency has helped ensure racially diverse voices are represented and included in market research, way before Diversity and Inclusion was an explicit focus for clients and the industry.
It has been talking, listening and understanding the UK’s racially diverse communities for brands, charities and the social sector, helping them to reach and engage in ways that are culturally sensitive. The focus has always been to uncover the nuances among and between these communities that bring them to life for clients.
Specialists from South Asian, Black Caribbean and Black African heritages have been storytellers on a wide range of important social issues: knife crime, female genital mutilation, mental health, the Covid pandemic, sexual health, obesity, smoking, among other things.
Throughout the last 25 years we seen societal changes triggered by events that have impacted the lives of people of colour including race equality legislation, the death of Stephen Lawrence and George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement and Covid-19.
Research has provided a platform for them to express their responses, lived experiences and how these events have coloured their perspectives of the society they live in, organisations and brands that serve them as consumers, and the extent to which they feel public services meet their needs.
It has been an incredible journey, and there is real gratitude for all of those respondents who have shared their voices with honesty, fortitude and humour.