Agencies take diversity efforts beyond the numbers

Increasingly, agencies are tasked with demonstrating the impact of their DEI efforts and building these initiatives as a part of their organizational culture and business strategies.

Kamran Asghar, CEO of Crossmedia, addressed the environment of brands pulling back on DEI. Asghar advocated for a more holistic approach and mentioned the importance of investing in the workforce, mentorship and data and analytics in informing decision-making and the need to prioritize diversity and inclusion within the industry.

“You need to hire over-hire representative communities,” Asghar said. “You need to put them in decision-making positions of consequence in order to really be representative of what this country looks like — which by 2045 will be more non-white, where currently everybody under the age of 18 is more non-white. … Younger audiences are more diverse, so let’s pay attention not just to the totality of those audiences, but let’s look at them too individually within their subset.”

Reshma Karnik, chief media officer at BarkleyOKRP, stressed moving beyond just numbers and quotas to a deeper understanding of diverse audiences and their experiences. She believes diversity efforts must be shared across departments and functions, and that extends to adding minority-owned inventory, platform and supply partners and entry-level jobs in the market.

““We start with recruitment, we start with HR policies, [and] we start with how we really welcome people through our doors,” she said.

BarkleyOKRP is 60% women and 40% men, Karnik noted. “We are very deliberate about how we work with our partners,” she said. “It’s all these deliberate and intentional attempts in partnership with our clients … because this cannot be done in silos. I’m not a believer of spraying and praying things just because you have to. It has to be intentional, but it has to be organic for the needs of the clients.”

22Squared and Trade School’s DEI approach centers around a client offering, as well. Each and Every aims to support brands on inclusivity, culture and education and is headed by Janis Middleton, evp and chief inclusion officer of both companies. Previously called Embrace, the offering is scoped into the integrated work at the agency and offered as a sort of “a la carte” service for clients.

“The way that we built it was from an inside-out approach,” Middleton said. “Our philosophy is very simple: the people influence the work. You are not going to get to inclusive creative or impactful media or anything like that with homogeneous tables. It’s literally that simple.”

The team focuses on meeting clients, whether that’s a legacy brand or emerging one, on their DEI journey. Middleton says there’s no bad place to start – and to never be afraid to ask questions around the table.

“I’m not offended when a creative comes to me and asks, ‘Do you think that this is a stereotype?’ I’m glad you asked,” Middleton said. “I prefer for you to actually ask the question and create that space of openness so that we can have the conversation.”

Both agencies also emphasized the need to move beyond simply representing diverse demographics in marketing to understanding the nuances of diverse audiences and crafting messages that resonate with their lived experiences. They argue that brands must be intentional about DEI not only for ethical reasons, but also for business success, even as some major brands from Ford to Toyota have scaled back DEI investments or efforts.

“It doesn’t mean that the work stops,” Middleton said. “I think that we are all talking about how do we redefine DEI? Actually, what needs to happen is redefining how you utilize and how you understand DEI that then puts the work on all of us to really think about what it is — and it is a tool, not a weapon.”