Examining Diversity in Our Industry from the Inside Out

At this week39s Multicultural Marketing ampamp Diversity Conference a presentation from ANAamp160Group Executive Vice President Bill Duggan pictured above brought that report to life resonating powerfully with the 700 marketers in attendanceamp160amp160In a moving presentation Procter ampamp Gamble39s Chief Brand Officeramp160Marc Pritchardamp160reminded the audience that businesses have an opportunity amp160and a responsibility to quotbe a force for goodquot and even PampampG39s muchcited efforts towards diversity and inclusion could be stepped upIn a reminder to attendees Sam39s Club39s Chief Member Officer Tony Rogers encouraged attendees to quotmake a conscious effort to surround yourself with people who look think and act differently from you if you ever want to change your perspectivequotThat same theme echoed in the halls at last week39s ANA Masters of Marketing conference where Duggan captured this comment from Nydia Sahagamp250n Senior Vice President of Segment Marketing at Wells Fargoamp160 quotOne of the most important forces facing us today is the diversification of the marketplaceamp160 The multicultural conversation has long been part of boardroom discussions yet today many are still behindamp160 Inaction comes at a cost and some brands are currently at riskquotAs part of its charter to advance marketing excellence and shape the future of the industry the ANA launched the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing AIMM to elevate multicultural and inclusive efforts in the marketplaceamp160 Both Duggan and the report noted that quotTo truly challenge ourselves to improve diversitygender equality then we need to face this squarely and accurately with real measurementsamp160 We need to publicly track ourselves with real data from clientside marketers agencies publishers media companies researchers suppliersamp160and vendorsamp160 We look to measure everything else in our industry but when it comes to knowing whether we have diverse talent such measureamp173ment at least what has been shared publicly it is lackingquotamp160 These insights started with the composition of the marketing industry via member companies themselvesThe ANA39s findings showed that of 747 clientside members only 13 percent of CMOs and CMOequivalents are diverseamp160 For example threeamp160percent are AfricanAmericanblack despite being approximately 13 percent of the total populationamp160 By gender CMOs skew 55 percent male compared to 45 percent femaleamp160 However when the study examined the entire workforce at ANA member companies gender skews heavily femaleamp160 And while ethnicities are better represented among their employees in general see chart below strides still need to be made especially among executive leadershipAmong the ANA39s board of directors39 member companies an analysis of diversity among US marketing employees showed that minorities were better represented in midlevel and entrylevel positions while senior level positions skewed about threequarters white as expressed in this chartThe ANA did not exclude itself from scrutiny and vowed to improve its own compositionamp160 The organization39s 42 board members currently skews slightly female 22 women and 20 men but the diversity is heavily Caucasian with 32 white members compared to five Hispanic three AfricanAmericanamp160and two Asian membersThere is also a paucity of consistent data on sexual orientation or differently abled employees given levels of selfidentification reportingamp160 However two of the companies with CMOs on the board HP and Verizon showcased powerful case studies in the report which may help inspire the industry overallIn the Verizon example Chief Marketing Officer Diego Scotti a MediaVillageJack Myers Knowledge Exchange Advancing Diversity Honoree asked his 11 supporting agencies to report on the current state of their workforces by women and people of color and to provide an action plan to increase workforce and supplier diversityamp160 quotIn just two years Verizon and its agencies have exceeded expectationsamp160 Verizon also addressed the root of the diversity issue the recruiting pipeline with the launch of Verizon AdFellows a firstofitskind eightmonth fellowship program offering recent college graduates an integrated experience across advertising media experiential PR and digitalquotTo encourage diversity and inclusion in the marketing industry the ANA offered respondents an opportunity to identify steps that have helped their companies boost diversity within their own ranksamp160 Some of those actions include amp160amp8226 Have inclusive leadership embedded into all manager and executive trainingamp8226 Ensure senior leader sponsorship is in place to coach and develop diverse employees from day oneamp8226 Create a mentoring program to pair individuals with leadersamp8226 Maintain a full calendar of events to recognize and celebrate diversity including Black History Month AsianAmerican Heritage Month HispanicLatino Heritage Month Veterans Day Native American Heritage Month Pride Month andamp160International Women39s Weekamp160 In addition create activities such as global webcasts leadership panelsamp160and an annual Diversity Leadership Symposiumamp8226 Conduct an annual employee survey to measure sense of belonging and valuing diversityamp8226 Benchmark programs and policies with reporting of progress annuallyamp8226 Conductamp160focus groups around culture and diversity to understand the current marketing environment and issues important to the teamamp8226 Offer unconscious bias training and requireamp160it for all talent acquisition to reduce biases in the hiring processGiven his status as one of MediaVillage39s Advancing Diversity honorees it39s not surprising that the ANA39s Chief Executive Officer Bob Liodice would suggest that the industry overall should participate by contributing their diversity scorecard informationamp160which the ANA promises will remain completely confidential and be aggregated with other companies for reporting purposesReflectingamp160the stated need to quotpublicly track ourselves with real data from clientside marketers agencies publishers media companies researchers suppliersamp160and vendorsquot the report noted quotIf we are going to truly challenge ourselves to improve diversitygender equality then we need to face this squarely and accurately with real measurementsquotClick 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 MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Examining Diversity in Our Industry from the Inside Out

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E.B. Moss

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