‘We should’ve done this right the first time’: GroupM North America CEO Kirk McDonald on responsible investing

By Seb Joseph

A broader sense of purpose from companies is welcome but must be measured, particularly when it comes to advertising. Doing so, however, requires new standards, according to the CEO of GroupM in North America Kirk McDonald.

In fact, the media agency is now measuring its media planning and buying against five principles: brand safety, data ethics, DE&I, responsible journalism, and sustainability. The hope being that the principles help advertisers reconcile the pursuit of financial rewards with the impact it has on employees, customers and the environment.

“The five pillars we’ve established are important to almost every client who feels like advertising should be purposeful and have some goal that goes in complement to help me get more customers or sell more product,” said McDonald. “Not that any of our clients have said ‘I’m OK with 20% of my budgets being diverted to suitability issue or DE&I initiatives.”

Marketers have told GroupM execs they want both. As McDonald explained: “Clients want 100% of what they had before but they can use the creative messaging or the delivery mechanism to make it do something else too.”

For decades, companies have been told to put shareholders first. Now, even their largest shareholders are challenging that belief. Digiday caught up with McDonald to understand how he plans to help clients respond to those expectations.

Why make responsible media an area to focus on now?

We were doing all five of those points already but they weren’t all organized or held to the same rigor and measurement. We had the first chief brand safety officer inside an agency back in 2016, for example.

Even as recently as February, we launched the data ethics compass to help clients understand whether the choices around the data they use aren’t just legal, but morally right too. Marketers can’t just use data because they can. They need to really think about whether stalking someone online for the next two weeks because they looked at a pair of shoes actually makes that person feel good about making a decision about that brand at a certain point.

Does that mean advertisers are beginning to accept broader social responsibilities?

Every client we speak to is focused on diversity and inclusivity, whether that’s how they can make sure their dollars are going toward more diverse audiences or targeting diverse owners like Black or female-owned media owners. There’s also a realization among clients that disinformation can’t have the same equal access opportunities as quality journalism when it comes to media dollars. Because if you leave that then you don’t challenge risks to things like democracy and sustainability. It’s time for advertising to really step up and do its part. We should’ve done this right the first time.

Sounds similar to previous pledges. What’s different?

Companies have made promises in the past, but now there’s more pressure from their stakeholders to show how they’ve made progress. That’s changed forever.

In the past, clients said these things emotionally, or directionally. Now, we’re getting targets. So instead of saying ‘GroupM we should …read more

Source:: Digiday