According to Murray, there is a lot more work to be done, particularly when it comes to instigating change at the top. For example, this is where agencies can provide coaching, anti-racism and anti-bias training, or even offer executive sponsorship and mentorship of young diverse talent.

“Some people or some agencies are doing all the right things,” Murray told Digiday. “But there’s so much work to be done. It’s really important for us to not let up and for the C-suite leaders who are willing to come out and talk about their challenges, their ups and downs and the journey they’ve been on.”

The 4A’s Equity & Inclusion Congress was first established in 2020, following the murder of George Floyd. The group had a goal of increasing diversity and inclusion in the advertising industry. And at its inaugural meeting, it developed a manifesto and benchmarking survey to assess the industry’s DE&I efforts.

But in 2020, those benchmark results were “very, very low” in the industry in terms of reflecting the populations in the country, she said. For example, Murray mentioned that the Black population accounts for somewhere between 14% and 15% of the country’s overall population, but the ad industry was indexing at 5% in this benchmark. The goal is for the industry to better reflect those national percentages, and the Congress will do another benchmark survey for 2022 and report results in January 2023.

Digiday sat down with Murray to talk about how to keep agencies and brands accountable when it comes to all aspects of DE&I and not just financially, and what data is important when considering DE&I progress.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What progress has the group made in the last two years? What are you proud of accomplishing?

Hearing from the DEI leaders and how they are working with other stakeholders throughout their organization is impressive. The other thing that I’m proud of is acknowledging that we set out to do certain things in 2020, and this work is ongoing. It’s like a living and breathing thing. So [we are] focused on the outcomes we need, but also being nimble and flexible enough to pivot where we are correct and keep going.

What do you see differing with diversity programs at predominantly white agencies versus at multicultural agencies?

The different things that we are aware of have to do with the population makeup of the organization. Some of the multicultural agencies … …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron