Advancing Diversity Inductee: ANA CEO Bob Liodice

amp8220A diverse workforce makes better business decisionsamp8221 said ANA CEO Bob Liodice who will be inducted into the Diversity Hall of Honors on January 9 during the 2019 Advancing Diversity Honors at CESOne ANAbacked initiative that has made significant gains for gender equality is SeeHer Launched in June 2016 as a partnership between the ANAamp8217s subcommittee the Alliance for Family Entertainment AFE and The Female Quotient SeeHer seeks to achieve a 20 rise in accurate portrayals of women and girls in advertising and media by 2020 amp160the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to voteamp8220SeeHer was an outgrowth of an enterprise that began with a group of women discussing issues related to inequality and the portrayal of women in ads and they created an agenda and it took off from thereamp8221 Liodice noted amp160amp8220When you decrease conscious and unconscious bias of women in ads the success of commercials and ads increasesamp8221In 2017 the ANAamp8217s AFE unveiled the Gender Equality Measure or GEM which measures how consumers react to a womanamp8217s portrayal within media and programming to help business leaders make better decisions amp160To dateamp16040000 ads have been tested amp160Twice yearly GEM scores are measured for toprated Nielsen programs along with various broadcast and cable showsamp160selected by SeeHeramp8217s 70 membersamp8220GEM scores are all about driving growth for professionals brandsamp160and the industryamp8221 Liodice explained amp160amp8220Putting highquality GEM score ads in highquality GEM programs drives improvement of an adamp8217s effectiveness by more than 60amp8221TV networks have embraced SeeHer Liodice said noting that the Criticsamp8217 Choice Awards presents an annual SeeHer Award most recently given to actress Gal GadotEthnic diversity in the industry however remains a work in progressamp8220Iamp8217m not encouragedamp8221 Liodice said amp160amp8220We have not approached the subject with the degree of authority and commonality that suggests we are making a difference amp160We give a lot of lip service to it but thereamp8217s not enough actual change appropriate to our industry amp160Why amp160Thereamp8217s not enough research as to why amp160We should be ashamed of what we see out there amp160I open every one of our national conferences and I see a lot of females but a lack of ethnic diversityamp8221In 2016 to help address the diversity gap the ANA created the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing AIMM amp160The initiative brings together senior thought leaders from the AfricanAmerican Hispanic Asian LGBT and general market communities to create a united blueprint for the evolution of multicultural and diversesegment marketing in AmericaA GEM score metric is currently being tested to identify multicultural biases in advertising and television Liodice saidamp8220We need to be allinclusive ourselves amp160agencies media companies consultants vendors suppliersamp8221 he continuedamp160 amp8220With AIMM weamp8217re looking for companies to help evolve this world amp160Thereamp8217s now 70 companies half client side the rest media and agencies amp160We are still making the case for changeamp160 We need more data to provide insights to show what is being done and how successful those initiatives are amp160The quest is to bring greater discipline to the case for change as well as to enhance creativity by which everyone is conducting businessamp8221For change to truly take root it needs to begin at the academic level Liodice contendsamp8220The challenge is to build a better growth environmentamp8221 he said amp160amp8220Professors are using antiquated information and systems in the way they teach advertising amp160Existing talent is far less skilled to conquer the digital age amp160Graduates entering the advertising industry are not as diverse as we want them to be amp160The industry has failed to grapple with fundamental issues amp160We need to bring the academic and business worlds closer togetheramp8221As a means to do so the ANA in 2015 acquired the Advertising Educational Foundation to connect the academic and business communities amp160So how does the industry get undecided college students to choose a career in marketing or advertising amp160By having current industry leaders return to college campuses to share stories serve as brand ambassadorsamp160and encourage curriculum updates Liodice assertedAdditionally in 2018amp160the ANA launched the Marketing and Advertising Education MADE national internship program amp160A partnership between the ANA Educational Foundation and AIMM MADE is designed to create a more diverse and betterprepared pool of talent to fuel industry growthamp8220For the first year of the program we got 125 candidates and placed 40 students amp160many diverse amp160into various components of the industry ecosystemamp8221 Liodice said amp160amp8220The initiative performed exceedingly wellamp160 This is a glimpse of what we are starting to doamp8221The Advancing Diversity Honors event atamp160CES is an opportunity for the advertising and media community to join hands in solidarity and support for diversity and inclusion amp160In addition to Liodice inductees into the Diversity Hall of Honors will include Marc Pritchard CBO PampampG Diego Scotti CMO Verizon Pam El Executive Vice PresidentCMO NBA Ricardo Marques Vice Presidentamp160Marketing Budweiser Madonna Badger CCOFounder Badger ampamp Winters Kat Gordon Founder CEO The 3 Movementamp160and Alma Haramp8217el DirectorFounder Free The BidFor more information underwriting opportunities and to purchase tickets or tables visit AdvancingDiversityorgClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of 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Advancing Diversity Inductee: ANA CEO Bob Liodice

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