Ad Industry Makes Strides in DEI But More Work Needs to be Done

Methodology

In the report, three separate data sources provided an understanding of diversity at ANA member companies in 2022:

1. ANA Board of Directors and Select Member Companies Diversity Benchmark:Gender and ethnic diversity among the U.S.-based marketing departments of 81 ANA member companies, representing 19,966 marketers in total. The completed benchmarks were confidentially submitted to the ANA between June and October 2022, providing data as of June 30, 2022, or as close to that timing as possible.
2. ANA Overall Membership:The ANA asks individuals who create accounts to voluntarily and anonymously answer questions to identify their gender and ethnicity. For the three-year period between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2022, there were 32,623 individuals who provided gender identity and 29,194 who provided ethnic diversity information.
3. ANA Member CMOs: This analysis identifies the gender and ethnic diversity of the CMO/CMO-equivalent at 931 of the ANA's client-side marketer company members as of June 30, 2022.

Gender Diversity

For ANA members overall gender diversity is:

• 67.5 percent female per the ANA Diversity Benchmark
• 68.3 percent female per the analysis of the ANA Overall Membership

In both of those studies, female representation is the highest it's been in the five-year history of the report.

At the senior level, gender diversity is:

• 55.6 percent female per the ANA Diversity Benchmark (the senior level is defined here as "the highest level within the marketing team, likely 5 to 10 percent of total")
• 57.3 percent female per the analysis of the CMO/CMO-equivalent at ANA client-side marketer member companies

Female representation at the senior level is the second highest it's ever been in the ANA Diversity Benchmark study and highest ever per the analysis of ANA Member CMOs.

Ethnic Diversity

For ANA members overall ethnic diversity is:>

• 32.3 percent diverse per the ANA Diversity Benchmark
• 29.1 percent diverse per the analysis of the ANA Overall Membership

In both studies, ethnic diversity is the highest it's been in the five-year history of the report.

The data from the ANA Diversity Benchmark is the best measure for current diversity as it is done at a single, recent point in time -- June 30, 2022, for this year's study -- so this is a "real time" metric. Ethnic diversity in the industry is now at 32.3 percent. Remember that the data from the overall membership study is for the three-year period between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2022 and there is therefore a time lag here. But the trend of both studies is absolutely consistent.

At the senior level, ethnic diversity is:

• 27.4 percent diverse per the ANA Diversity Benchmark (defined as "the highest level within the marketing team, likely 5 to 10 percent of total")
• 14.6 percent diverse per the analysis of the CMO/CMO-equivalent at ANA client-side marketer member companies

Ethnic diversity at the senior level is the second highest it's ever been in the ANA Diversity Benchmark study and highest ever per the analysis of ANA Member CMOs.

Final Thoughts

While ethnic diversity in the industry is now at 32.3 percent, that lags behind the U.S. population overall, which is 42.2 percent ethnically diverse.

Ethnic diversity in the industry remains particularly poor for the senior-most level as well as for the African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino segments.

• African American/Black account for 7.2 percent of the industry, up from 6.6 percent a year ago yet behind the 12.1 percent of the general population.
• Hispanic/Latino account for 10.9 percent of the industry, up from 8.9 percent, yet behind the 18.7 percent in the general population.

Our report has rich qualitative feedback on key action steps and practices that have helped improve diversity within the marketing department. Details are available at www.ana.net/diversity2022.

ANA will continue to track diversity for the industry overall -- and individual companies are encouraged to do the same for their respective marketing departments. You can't manage what you don't measure.

Kudos for the progress being made, but there is still much room for improvement.

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The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet.