“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.
Today’s column is written by Jeffrey L. Bowman, co-founder and CEO of Reframe.
The marketing, publishing, advertising and communication industries have historically been on the cutting edge of diversity efforts with customers. Yet many continue to fall behind internally.
Every year, big corporations invite marketing and communications agencies to “pitch” for their business by issuing a request for proposal (RFP). Within every RFP, they ask the agency to provide diversity statistics, including their overall internal diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Without fail, the agencies submit their response to the proposal touting their chief diversity officer, diverse employees, employee resource groups and inclusive workplace. In return, big corporations award billions of dollars to large agencies even though their DEI bonafides are not as strong as they seem.
What top corporations do not see are agencies scrambling behind the scenes to find diverse representation that reflects their response to the proposal. After winning the business, they have to make content or buy media for a diverse marketplace – one they’re not necessarily equipped to engage effectively.
When the advertising industry formed in the 1950s, black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) accounted for less than 10% of the US population. This is no longer the case, and time is running out for Madison Avenue to catch up.
After the George Floyd murder and the subsequent protests back in 2020, agencies rushed to demonstrate and announce their diversity programs and progress. But the further big agencies get away from 2020, the less we hear about their efforts.
For agencies to become who they say they are, they must move beyond talking about diversity and actually create change. Here’s how:
Create positions tasked with DEI
Many agencies did not hire a Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) until the early 2000s. That’s more than 20 years after the position was instituted by the US government. And even those that do have a CDO need to do more – these individuals need to be empowered to implement structural change within the organization, from onboarding to exit.
Stick to the goals
At agencies, people are the most important resources. But investments in people can often fall by the wayside. When business is great, there is extra cash to invest in things like DEI. When business is bad, top agencies have historically cut their investments in these programs.
In the eyes of agency leaders, DEI is optional or a nonessential cost. But for agencies to make DEI changes sustainable, they have to achieve alignment on their “north star.” This means getting leadership to understand that DEI is not optional or seasonal. It must be a priority – no matter what.
Reevaluate the entire employee experience
Some big agencies provide customer engagement services, meaning they build customer experiences for the total addressable audience. If they’re experts in this, why is it hard for them to use a similar approach with their employees?
To truly build an inclusive employee experience, firms need to rethink their structure, strategy, employee segments and systems and develop solutions for solving a decades-old problem. Has your organization adopted systems and change management software to ensure cultural inclusion strategies and best practices are easily implemented company-wide and sustainable?
Because large “general market” agencies continue winning business from leading corporations, is there really an incentive to change?
These questions often go unanswered. And who’s to blame? All signs point back to who is funding big agencies: big corporations.
It’s time for all sides of the industry to get on the same page about the importance of DEI.
Follow Reframe (@getreframe) and AdExchanger (@adexchanger) on Twitter.
