Ad Matters 08.03.2024

It’s International Women’s Day and almost a year since we ran the second All In Census. Last March, we encouraged more than 19,000 people to take part in the survey, providing one of the best datasets yet about the make-up of the UK advertising industry. It helped us to identify the challenges facing us all to create a workplace where everyone belongs, including how to better improve the experiences of female colleagues working in UK advertising. The All In action plan which you can see here, includes the action to help improve the experience and representation of women for the following reasons:

• 10 x more women than men believed parental leave negatively impacted their career progression
• Double the number of women versus men believed that working part-time negatively impacted their career
• 78% of women worked part-time due to childcare responsibilities (vs 16% of men)
• Almost a third of women believe their company doesn’t treat everyone equally based on their gender. This was significantly higher amongst ethnic minorities
• Women are 6X more likely to be personally discriminated against because of their gender than men
• 15% of women are likely to leave the industry because of lack of inclusion or discrimination experienced

So, what can be done about that? The recommended action for every company to help make a positive change is to take the Flexible First Checklist, hosted by WACL and designed to help organisations check their progress with flexible working.

We know from all our ongoing work that in order to build a truly representative workplace, inclusion needs to be embedded in the things we do every day of the year. Our ambition with All In is the action plan helps makes that a reality.

We’ll be announcing further actions soon to keep pushing things forwards (stay tuned!)

In the meantime, we’re delighted that more than 100 companies in our industry are All In Champions. If you want to know more about the work we do in this area and be part of the drive for a more inclusive workplace, please get in touch with us at the AA.

Plus, hot off the press, huge congrats to my colleagues, Sharon and Rachel, for being included in the 2024 Women in Trade Association Powerlist that is launched today to coincide with International Women’s Day. The powerlist is a collaboration between FSB, CBI and the Trade Association Forum to celebrate and recognise inspirational women in the Association sector – it’s brilliant to see both of them in there, and also a number of our AA members too! You can see the full list here.

Our must reads:

• Firstly, our ad in the A. Media Smart has launched a new scam awareness campaign which will help teenagers in Britain identify and avoid falling victim to fraudulent adverts. (Daily Mail)
• We’ve announced the judges for the ongoing Young Lions Competition – congratulations to everyone who made it to the jury! (Advertising Association)
• The Government presented the Spring Budget on Wednesday – what does this mean for brands? (MarketingWeek)
• With LIONS entries open, the spotlight is on the definition of ‘creative excellence’. This extract of Sustainable Advertising is all about an interview I conducted with Isabelle Quevilly, a juror of the SDG Lions at Cannes Lions 2023. (LBB)
• Media plays a vital role in helping build a sustainable future… more from Sustainable Advertising. (The Media Leader)

Our pick of recent ads:

• To slurp or not to slurp? By Adam & Eve DDB, Pot Noodle released an alternate ad for their new ‘Slurp’ campaign – their way of apologising to everyone who expressed disgust for the slurping sound in the original ad!
• Peta launches its ‘This cartoon will change how you see bacon forever’ campaign by Grey London, in an attempt to discourage Brits from eating pork.
• An impactful one from St Luke’s for South Western Railway titled ‘Abuse Stays With Our Staff’. An OOH campaign displaying shocking staff abuse.
• For International Women’s Day, Scottish Widows launched a new campaign, with the help of Adam & Eve DDB and Zenith UK, to spread awareness about the Gender Pension Gap.

Diary dates:

• It’s time for SXSW! Our UK Advertising Exports team is taking 40 brilliant UK companies to SXSW from tomorrow to March 12. Follow some of the amazing stuff the UKAEG team are doing on social.
• Seeking insights into sustainability leadership? Join Seb Munden, myself, and the Grace Blue team for their ‘Future-Proof Your Brand, Attract Top Talent & Save the Planet’ webinar on March 18 from 12-1pm. Register for free here.
• VidoeWeek’s New Video Frontiers conference will be taking place on March 20 and 21, and we’re delighted to be media partners! Book your place here.
• The LEAD North Programme is out! Speakers include Councillor Bev Craig, Gamal Fahnbulleh, Sarah Jenkins, and Jonathan Warburton, amongst others. Join us on May 9 in Manchester and book your tickets here.

And finally, Goodstuff is our newest Front Foot member! The clever folk at this media agency offer access to world class digital and data talent, services and technology to bring omnichannel expertise to their clients. On top of that, they have just launched ‘The Pitch’, an innovative competition aimed at increasing accessibility into advertising careers for young people.