“There is a growing realisation that agencies are facing a culture problem that makes them inhospitable for women to make long-term careers,” wrote Ana Andjelic, group strategy director at Spring Studios, in an article for the Guardian Media Network last year. “It’s a multi-layered problem that defies easy solutions. There are exceptions to the rule, but agencies are at risk of losing touch.”
Andjelic was talking specifically about gender diversity – and how a lack of it at agency level is an organisational failure – but could the same be said for other forms of diversity in adland? Are agencies at risk of losing touch when it comes to issues of age, ethnicity and being LGBT?
As the Business in the Community network website notes: “Good employers value diversity. Individuals will perform at work to the best of their ability when their identity and the difference in contribution that may flow from that are valued.” It adds: “Diversity is good for business because a range of employees with a range of backgrounds will bring different ideas and enable an employer to appeal to different parts of the marketplace.” Most of all, it says, diversity contributes to innovation and success.
Agencies – hubs of innovation – are no different. But how are they currently addressing diversity? What examples of best practice are there? What impact does diversity in the workplace have on the output and creativity of these agencies? Could the sector be doing more?
Join us from 12-1:30pm on Thursday 26 March to answer those questions and more. We’ll be joined by an expert panel to discuss issues relating to everything from gender and disability to age and being LGBT in agency land.
Panel
• Ana Andjelic, group strategy director, Spring Studios
• Petar Vujosevic, co-founder, GapJumpers
• Sal Thomas, creative planner, Blue Chip Marketing
• Kate Harwood, senior account manager, Livity
• Will de Groot, junior planner, insight and strategy, Livity
• Saad Saraf, founder and chairman, Think Ethnic
• Arun Batra, CEO, National Equality Standard and director, EY
• Tarryn Blackwood, account director, We Are Social
• Michael Aneto, head of strategic planning, Perfect Fools Amsterdam
• Shelina Janmohamed, VP, Ogilvy Noor
• Rhiannon Lewis, manager, emerging talent, Ogilvy & Mather Group UK
• Maren Elliot, chief operations officer, Swift
Blue Chip Marketing and Livity and member agencies of the Marketing Agencies Association
This live Q&A is provided by the Marketing Agencies Association, sponsors of the Guardian Media Network’s Agencies hub
