The ROI of Representation: Science Just Demolished Every Excuse for Status Quo Strategy

Published in Villa News & Takes | June 2025

The debate is over. Representation wins.

While boardrooms across America still debate whether “diversity sells,” a groundbreaking study from Boston College, the University of Pennsylvania, and Washington University just delivered the mic drop our industry desperately needed: cold, hard data proving minority representation in advertising doesn’t just drive brand affinity—it drives bottom-line business impact.

The numbers don’t lie. The excuses can finally die.

The Game-Changing Evidence

Researchers analyzed 9.7 million mortgage refinance transactions alongside over 1,400 television ad creatives and uncovered what Villa Communications has been preaching: When minority representation in ads doubled from 15% to 30%, advertising effectiveness skyrocketed by over 67%.

Let that sink in. Sixty-seven percent.

This isn’t about checking boxes or appeasing focus groups. This is about unleashing untapped revenue that’s been hiding in plain sight.

The Data That Changes Everything

The study—”TV Advertising Effectiveness with Racial Minority Representation: Evidence from the Mortgage Market” (Kim, Jiang & Thomadsen, March 2025)—used sophisticated Double Machine Learning models to isolate the pure impact of representation. The findings obliterate conventional marketing wisdom:

Higher minority representation = exponentially higher advertising elasticity
- 15% minority screen time: elasticity of 0.0161
- 30% minority screen time: elasticity of 0.0269
The lift was universal but amplified where it mattered most: minority consumers showed the strongest response, while White audiences delivered neutral to positive results across the board.
Beyond the numbers, the psychology was crystal clear: ads with minority talent scored higher on authenticity, fairness, and memorability—the holy trinity of brand preference.

This wasn’t some academic exercise. This was rigorous, multi-year analysis validated by real-world transactions and controlled experiments. The kind of evidence that transforms industries.

Why Every Brand Should Be Paying Attention?

Here’s what most brands still don’t understand: America IS multicultural, and multicultural is profitable. The demographic reality isn’t emerging, it’s already here. And smart brands are already capitalizing on this opportunity.

The brands winning in today’s marketplace are building stronger brand equity through strategic cultural positioning. The foundation for advertising results like these gets laid long before creative campaigns launch, in the strategic communications and brand strategy work that determines how authentically a brand can connect with today’s America.

A data-driven, culturally attuned, creative strategy and reputation management work upstream ensures that when brands go to market, they’re speaking with genuine cultural fluency that converts into the kind of business impact this study validate

The Villa Truth

This research delivers something powerful: scientific proof of what strategic cultural positioning can achieve. Everything we’ve built at Villa Communications rests on this fundamental truth: resonance drives revenue.

Adiverse consumers define the next decade of growth, the focus must be on engineering culturally fluent strategies that help brands truly belong to the communities they serve.

Brands need to connect authentically with the new mainstream America. In their voice. On their terms. With the kind of resonance that transforms prospects into advocates and campaigns into cultural moments.

The Bottom Line

If you’re still debating whether representation matters, you’re asking the wrong question. The right question is: How much revenue are you leaving on the table by ignoring it?

Because when authentic representation drives this level of business impact, brands that refuse to evolve are failing to future-proof their business.

It’s not about reach anymore. It’s about resonance.

And resonance? That’s what we do.

Ready to stop gambling with your brand strategy spend? Let’s talk about the formula that delivers.

Research Citation: “TV Advertising Effectiveness with Racial Minority Representation: Evidence from the Mortgage Market,” Donggwan Kim (Boston College), Zhenling Jiang (University of Pennsylvania), and Raphael Thomadsen (Washington University), March 18, 2025.

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The ROI of Representation: Science Just Demolished Every Excuse for Status Quo Strategy

The ROI of Representation: Science Just Demolished Every Excuse for Status Quo Strategy

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