Agency employees and execs say agencies need to do more than make statements to be better for Black employees.
June 29, 2020

Over the past week, numerous agencies have posted public promises to create more inclusive workplaces for employees of color. In talking to agency employees and executives about these statements, some optimistically say that agency leaders are sincerely committed to change and transparency when it comes to equality in the workspace. Others, however, worry that the public statements are just that: Statements made publicly as lip service rather than truly working to be inclusive by rooting out racism and micro-aggressions within their agencies with actual, and measured, policies and procedures. Read more below.

  • For Digiday+ members, “There's momentum, but agencies also need to take care of their existing Black employees. And it seems like that's less of a priority than the performative posting," said a copywriter for an independent creative shop.
  • Also for Digiday+ members, the twin crises of the coronavirus and the ensuing economic fallout have left most companies struggling to keep costs down as revenue dries up. We asked companies across media, marketing and retail about the effects of the crises on employees in a new Digiday research survey.
  • With 50% of the company’s revenue coming from events, VentureBeat's Gina Joseph said that events in their virtual form are still a significant part of the company's business strategy and will remain so once in-person events return.
  • In its latest pitch to advertisers, TikTok is stressing its deviation from the way older rivals have gone to market with promises to be more transparent on the performance of its ads and insisting it's a safe haven for marketers' spend.
Other things to know about
  • Deep Dive: Adapting programmatic strategies for the new normal helps prepare you for the rapidly changing programmatic landscape with on-demand video, slides and analysis from our recent Programmatic Marketing Summit LIVE. Learn more and purchase access here.
  • Over months of at-home online engagement, Twitter users — perhaps best known as news junkies — have gravitated toward increasingly diverse types of premium content. Content driven by gamers and celebrities is performing particularly well. Sponsored by Twitter.
Top Stories
DIGIDAY+ MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
Agency employees and execs say agencies need to do more than make statements to be better for Black employees.
howdy!
DIGIDAY+ MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
The twin crises of the coronavirus and the ensuing economic effects have left most companies struggling to keep costs down as revenue dries up — or at least slows down. We asked companies across media, marketing and retail about its effects on employees in a new Digiday research survey.
Sponsored by Facebook Audience Network
While header bidding has long been the province of web browsers, its in-app counterpart is starting to gain wider adoption. Here’s how publishers are using app bidding to boost advertiser competition and improve operational efficiency.
Advertisement
howdy!
Beyond Ads
With 50% of the company’s revenue coming from events, VentureBeat’s Gina Joseph said that events in their virtual form are still a significant part of the business strategy.
Sponsored by Onetrust
In a new guide, gain a full overview of strategies, tools and technologies that publishers are using to gain consented user data — at scale — in the age of GDPR and CCPA.
howdy!
Marketing on TikTok
TikTok is bringing all its marketing services and ad formats under one banner.
Advertisement
Sponsored by ChannelAdvisor
In a time of unprecedented disruption, the rules of advertising on Amazon have changed. In a new playbook, learn critical strategies for protecting profit margins on Amazon, including performance monitoring, planning around fulfilment and prioritizing new product launches.
howdy!
Life Beyond the Cookie
“When you take [third-party-data] out it makes you focus on what is important to understand how you can service clients.”
howdy!
Beyond Ads
According to media buyers, the appeal of publishers’ video offerings is not the size of the publishers’ audience, but from the brand loyalty that their audiences have and the ability to be nimble and flexible.
Through a pandemic, an extraordinarily polarizing presidency, and a reckoning over racial injustice in both America's newsrooms and society as a whole, nothing has shaken Porter Berry's confidence in bringing "the marketplace of ideas" to readers. "You give them the news. You give them analysis from multiple perspectives, and they can make up their own mind. I mean, that's what freedom's all about," the Fox News Digital editor-in-chief said on the Digiday Podcast.
You received this email because you’re a member of the Digiday community. If someone forwarded this to you, subscribe for yourself here .
I don't want to hear from Digiday anymore. Stop receiving all Digiday emails.
Digiday Media, One Liberty Plaza, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10006