Good morning Marketer, welcome to Wednesday.
As civil unrest continues to seize the country following last week’s murder of George Floyd, it’s crucial to remember that we, as marketers, advertisers, and brand creators, have a platform.
Whether you’re a senior marketing executive, social media strategist, a paid search professional, or otherwise, we as an industry must continue challenging the racism, inequality, and injustice of a system that disproportionately targets and harms communities of color. And while a social media post with a brand message declaring solidarity might be a good first step, it doesn’t end there. Below are just a few ideas and stories to consider, share, and talk about. It’s time to keep the conversation going with your fellow marketers.
Begin at the team level. “If diversity is like growing a flower garden, you have to prepare the soil first, so the best way is to start with your team,” wrote CMO of Visiture Ronald Don in a column for Marketing Land. “Diversity-centered hiring practices are a subject unto themselves, and if you haven’t yet embraced them, that’s something to work on first. If you don’t have representation on your marketing staff, your representation in your campaigns will suffer.” READ MORE >
Minority employees are not client bait. “Businesses that already have a diverse team in play should remember that their minority team members aren’t there to rubber-stamp marketing materials as ‘certified unproblematic,’” Don wrote in the column linked above. For example, Digiday last year reported the story of Ollie Olanipekun, a black person working at a large ad agency, who said he was “sick of being that person because of the way I looked. It felt like a gimmick they rolled out. Every time we had a brief about youth culture, the creative director would ask, ‘Is Ollie free?’ as if I was the only person in an agency of 160 people who had a view.” READ MORE >
Agencies have a responsibility to act, too. “I feel like a lot of agencies give the excuse of, ‘We don’t know what to do, we don’t know how to fix this,” a source at an agency holding company told AdWeek this week. “And a lot of people let that pass and give the agencies the benefit of the doubt because they also feel like they don’t know what to do. To me, that feels incredibly lazy. But that’s the entire nature of the work we do: We get problems, don’t know what to do with them at first, and then solve them.” READ MORE >
We want to hear and share your own experiences: the work you’re doing, the conversations you’re having, and suggestions for the community to continue addressing issues of diversity, racism, and inequality at work. Have something to share? Send me a note at tpeterson@thirddoormedia.com.
Taylor Peterson,
Deputy Editor
