Some marketers say that “all press is good press,” but odds are, they wouldn’t be thrilled if their brand was the next to go viral for a blatantly offensive ad.

Ad tech company Digital Culture Group’s goal is to stop those ads before they ever go live by preemptively determining what sort of creative and messaging will resonate with – or offend – an audience.

Its flagship product, the Audience Resonance Index (ARI), uses a range of first- and third-party data to determine what kinds of people will be most interested in a product, and how to connect with them through current cultural trends.

In late September, Digital Culture Group launched a new module within ARI called Resonance Studio. The new module takes the product a step further and predicts how creative will perform – including specific critiques customers may have and how to fix them – before it goes live.

Alongside Resonance Studio, Digital Culture Group also launched the ARI 100 Ad Pledge, which offered 100 pro bono creative assessments to brands and agencies.

You can’t spell “controversy” without “Convers”

The launch of the module and the associated pledge came on the heels of the Converse controversy in September in which the sneaker brand received backlash for an ad featuring imagery that many viewers said clearly evoked the KKK and lynching.

Converse pulled the ad after two weeks, but the damage was done, with some longtime Converse fans throwing away – or even burning – their shoes and posting to social media.

It was “an extremely unfortunate thing for the Converse team to experience,” said Crystal Foote, CEO and founder of Digital Culture Group, but it was also horrible for “the communities that were impacted by that.”

Foote uploaded the ad to both ChatGPT and to ARI, asking each one to rate the ad and provide feedback. ChatGPT gave the ad a B minus and said that it “would not classify this creative as culturally insensitive or recommend suppressing it on cultural grounds alone.” Rather, its only critique was that the depiction of the sneakers “could be interpreted as gender non-conforming styling” (the horror) which could offend some viewers.

ARI, on the other hand, gave the ad an F, citing “hate symbols” including robes and hoods that could evoke KKK imagery. It also noted that “the dangling shoes could be read as echo of hanging or lynching imagery” and could offend Black Americans and descendants of lynching victims, said Foote, quoting the model outputs directly.

In terms of how to fix it, ARI suggested what seemed obvious to many: Avoid white robes, cone-shaped hoods and dangling feet. Instead, position the product in a shoebox or on a shelf.

ARI is trained on data from sources ranging from the American Community Survey (an annual demographic survey) to eMarketer’s predictive analytics to research from Nielsen’s cultural team, said Foote. The model is trained to recognize historically offensive or non-resonant imagery before a current customer ever lays eyes on it.

It also has a social listening feature, so it can tap into conversations happening on social platforms including Reddit, X and Meta.

Since the Converse ad was already live, and ARI was likely influenced by real people’s reactions to it. But ARI and Resonance Studio would ideally be able to predict – and prevent – an outcome like the one Converse faced even before the ad went public, due to its ability to denote the offensive imagery.

Be specific

The predictive analysis was a big draw for humanitarian organization Care.org, which began working with Digital Culture Group in September and participated in the ARI 100 Ad Pledge.

Care submitted two pieces of creative to ARI for analysis: one in support of its National Women’s Day campaign, and one encouraging people to contribute financially to the company’s care packages.

For the National Women’s Day campaign, Care submitted an ad it had used in the past which emphasized the importance of providing opportunities for women globally and in various professions. Its focus was “leveling the playing field” for all women, “from the sports field to the farm field to the conference room,” said Mary Kate Wilson, Care.org’s associate VP for creative and content marketing.

The ad’s call to action asked viewers to sign a pledge that would “level the playing field for women and girls everywhere,” said Wilson – but ARI determined that Care’s audience needed more.

The ad needed to be more specific about where, exactly, the signatures were going, like whether they would be added to a petition or sent to a legislator. People want to know, “What difference do I make by lending my signature to this?” Wilson said.

The second ad focused on the history of the care package, which was created toward the end of World War II by an American cooperative (which later became Care.org) that sent food packages to families in Europe.

ARI gave the ad a high score on cultural relevance and receptivity, since it emphasized multiculturalism and different types of care packages, depending on a community’s needs. But where it had room for improvement was making it “more time-bound to today,” Wilson said.

Again, people wanted to know where their dollars were going, what the resulting care package would look like and who it would serve.

Something for everyone

Sensitive industries – particularly those that cater to people’s health – require more than just accurate targeting, said Joy Allen-Altimare, president of women’s health and sexual wellness brand Vella Bioscience.

For Vella (another brand participating in ARI’s pledge), “cultural understanding” is a key marketing focus, including who is represented in the ads and challenging outdated stereotypes and stigma around discussing topics like menopause.

One of the ads it submitted for review was for its Meltwater product, a vaginal moisturizer made with hyaluronic acid and aloe vera.

The ad was “really trying to be an ingredient story” and emphasize the ways that moisturization and restoration can apply to intimate areas, said Allen-Altimare. In many ways, Resonance Studio determined that the ad was effective. The predicted click-through-rate was 106% of Vella’s benchmark goal, and the psychographic alignment (or, how well the ad would resonate with its intended audience) was estimated to be around 85%.

However, Resonance Studio determined that there was room for improvement around model inclusivity, regarding age and race. Since the messaging was focused on ingredients, only one shot in the ad included a model. ARI suggested incorporating multiple images, or a video where several women interacted with each other, to diversify the ad and connect with a wider range of women.

When developing a “product storytelling moment,” Vella wants to ensure it’s representing consumers of various ages, sizes and races, said Allen-Altimare. Plus, she said, there’s an added barrier of having to use ambiguous wording around pleasure and intimacy, since most ad platforms are strict about the way they can portray sexual wellness products – particularly ones that target women.

ARI’s Resonance Studio “will help us understand if we’re talking to ourselves,” Allen-Altimare said, or if the ad is truly making sense and resonating with the women it’s trying to reach.