Finally! Progress in Increasing Ethnic Diversity in the Advertising/Marketing Industry!

Three studies help provide an understanding of diversity at ANA member companies clientside marketers in 2021ANA Board of Directors and Select Member Companies Diversity Benchmark Gender and ethnic diversity among the USbased marketing departments of 61 ANA member companies representing 16514 marketers in totalANA Overall Membership Gender and ethnic diversity of the overall ANA membership representing 31790 individuals who provided gender identity and 28862 who provided ethnic diversity informationANA Member CMOs Gender and ethnic diversity of the CMOCMOequivalent at 873 ANA member clientside marketer company membersEthnicityThe overall ethnic skew of the marketingadvertising industry continues to improve and is more diverse than ever as noted in two of the studies Although the two studies yield somewhat different results the general trends are similar and reinforce the assessment that diversity strategies are beginning to take hold among the clientside marketer community This chart provides the percentage of marketers who are diverse for each of the studies over the fouryear periodAccording to the study of the ANA board of directors and select member companies the clientside marketing community is 692 percent White NonHispanic and therefore 308 percent diverse The diverse segments include Asian at 117 percent HispanicLatino at 89 percent and African AmericanBlack at 66 percentAfrican AmericanBlack and HispanicLatino are both underrepresented in the marketingadvertising industry compared with their representation in the total US population 121 percent for African AmericanBlack and 187 percent for HispanicLatinoAmong the senior level defined as quotThe highest level within the marketing team likely 510 percent of totalquot ethnic diversity is 285 percent the highest in the fouryear study period The entry level is also more diverse than ever at 331 percentGenderAll the studies point to continued strong representation by females Approximately twothirds of ANA members are female with females occupying more than half of senior level positions including CMOs This chart provides the percentage of marketers who are female per each of the studiesInterestingly the gender of entrylevel professionals is more female than ever at 708 percentPerspectiveDespite the recent progress there is still work to be done While the report of the ANA board of directors and select member companies now shows 308 percent ethnic diversity that is below the 422 percent diversity of the total US populationEthnic diversity in the advertisingmarketing industry is lower for the senior level versus the industry overall and remains particularly poor for the African AmericanBlack and HispanicLatino segments which are underrepresented compared with their share of the total US population Yet it39s gratifying that the entry level is more diverse than ever aided by the fact that the younger US population skews more multicultural and a result of progress made by corporate America to diversify the talent pipelineThe report also has rich qualitative feedback from the openended question quotAre there any key action steps that have helped your company improve diversity within the marketing departmentquot That addresses areas including building a strategic framework for DEI talent recruitment talent retention external engagement and multicultural marketingThis work is an important initiative for the Society and Sustainability priority of the ANA Growth Agenda which provides a guide for the industry to leverage marketing as a sustainable growth driver A specific mandate for the Society and Sustainability working group is to achieve equal representation in the media and creative supply chainA focus of this working group is to quotuse marketing to promote equity and inclusion to achieve a better world for humanity and more growth and value for businessquot It further specifies quotOur aspiration means every link in the chain at every level reflects amp8230 racial and ethnic representation equal to the US population When we achieve this level of equality evidence consistently points to better innovation better problemsolving and more growth Equal representation builds greater access to opportunity Equal representation leads to equity in income and wealth creation That leads to more purchasing power which leads to market growthquotThere is much more in the reportClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Finally! Progress in Increasing Ethnic Diversity in the Advertising/Marketing Industry!

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Bill Duggan

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Finally! Progress in Increasing Ethnic Diversity in the Advertising/Marketing Industry!

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