Why a lack of women in senior creative roles cuts brands short
Women make 86% of purchasing decisions, but research shows 91% feel disconnected from advertising and 81% don't trust brands at all. APN Outdoor's Charlotte Valente explores how brands can help turn this around.
The notion of marketing channels becoming increasingly saturated at an exponential rate is nothing new. Neither is the argument that as a result of this, advertising
fatigue is rife, consumers are better educated about advertising, and driving cut-through is more difficult than ever before. So, how do we ensure our marketing is relevant to the “new” consumer?
Phil Norris, head of content at Return on Digital, echoed the thoughts of many in Digital Marketing Magazine, when he suggested the phrase “audience first” has become the biggest buzzword among digital marketers in the current age as they look to combat the issue.
However, the audience first approach is often blocked by typical methods of demographic profiling. Norris states: “We can give a pretty accurate assessment of the readership of Vogue, for instance, but who’s to say that a 20-year-old woman from Bristol and a 50-year-old man from Brisbane wouldn’t enjoy streaming similar content on Netflix? The outcome of demographic profiling is typically a narrow group.”
In order to truly put the audience first – and therefore increasing relevancy to the consumer and in effect, influence consumer behaviour – we need to reconfigure our current understanding of audience profiling. Norris suggests we do this by looking at more micro interactions surrounding moments and behaviours. I tend to agree.
However, I also think the marketing industry continues to overlook the potential of a certain macro-level shift that could directly drive greater consumer relevancy in faster, simpler, more productive ways than investing and developing new methods of data analytics. I am referring to a greater representation of women in senior creative positions.
It may seem a stretch, but for the best part of 30 years we have heard the argument that there is a disparity between women as buyers and women as advertising executives. Yet in 2018 we still observe that while women make 86% of purchases, men create almost 90% of ads.
Is it really any surprise then, that 91% of women today say they feel disconnected from advertising?
Not just that, but according to veteran women’s magazine editor Jackie Frank’s new business Be Frank Group, 42% of women trust brands less than they did 20 years ago, with 81% saying they don’t trust brands at all. These numbers should be particularly alarming when you consider global spending by women is projected to reach $18 trillion this year.
So, before we look to refine or remodel our approach to targeting demographics, and before we invest greater research into increasing the impact of brands across all touch points in this ever-evolving media landscape, let’s look to take advantage of what’s already in front of us.
While 46% of the ad industry is comprised of women globally, only 11% are creative directors. While the distinction and case for change are clear, how do we change this?
Fortunately, a shift in thinking has already begun.
Women represent one of two people in the workforce, and as such, are demanding a tectonic shift in the narrative we have been served for decades.
I recently attended the inaugural See It Be It event in Sydney, which is just one of many initiatives seeking to lead this change. See It Be It is a career-development and acceleration initiative that endeavours to address the gender imbalance in senior advertising creative leadership roles by increasing the visibility of women in these roles – after all, you can’t be what you can’t see.
Over the course of the evening, we were presented with stories from incredibly talented creative women, including Tara Ford of DDB Sydney, BMF’s Jen Speirs and Bec Brideson from Venus Comms. The event reminded me of what originally attracted me to this industry – the sheer passion and enthusiasm that oozed out of everyone to whom I spoke.
When you hear a bunch of creative people talk you would think they were saving the planet not trying to sell more pet food. Their passion and enthusiasm is so contagious to the talent rising through the ranks. It is crucial we expose this talent to strong, leading women during these formative career stages to show our younger counterparts it can be done. This is fundamentally in the interest of our entire industry; it is the most tangible solution I can see to bridge the disparity between consumers and the advertising industry.
Fortunately, the buck doesn’t stop with See It Be It.
Increasingly we are seeing female-centric businesses, organisations and people in the broad communications sector garner influential followings – look to Be Frank Group, Business Chicks and Venus Comms, or Sheryl Sandberg, Arianna Huffington and Madonna Badger.
There is a fundamental change in the air and the advertising industry as a whole must make fostering this change as its top priority to generate greater consumer relevancy in an ever-changing market landscape. Further, taking things from macro back to micro, while petitioning to the advertising industry as a whole is necessary, I encourage every woman working in our fantastic industry to take it upon themselves to become a champion for greater equality.
Be the change you want to see.
Charlotte Valente is the general manager of marketing for APN Outdoor
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Charlotte Valente
All I can say is that four of the five best creatives I’ve worked with have been female, and two of the three smartest planners I’ve ever worked with were female.
It’s insane not to have more even representation, especially in senior roles.
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An interesting read, but I wonder if the writer has considered the large number of females who are the custodians of these brands as CMO’s, account directors and other marketing roles. I do not recall the exact numbers, but I believe the weighting of marketing managers is somewhere in the realm of 55 – 45% weighted in favour of females.
These are the people approving the strategy and ultimately approving the work that goes out. Where do they figure in this discussion? Or is only about the creatives who, to be honest, are just one cog in a very large marketing machine?
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Agree. The creative process is all about collaboration. Creatives don’t dictate what gets made. Whether you’re a male or female creative, you work closely with male and female suits, planners and clients to get the right solution.
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Has there been some mighty economic improvement where creative roles are scattered in abundance to allow these shifts to happen because they “must?”
200 applicants per graphic designer position is a reasonable scenario. There’s no luxury of gender choice – it has to be about who will bring the best bucks in? It’s folio driven. All the way.
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actually quite true
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I guess with Baby Boomers making up [insert stat here] of today’s buying audience, we’ll now see more of them in creative departments too, yes?? And make more of them women because at [insert stat here] of that demographic they’re the greater proportion of that audience…
Why don’t we all just wave the diversity flag, not the gender flag??
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All I can say is that eight out eight of the best creatives I have worked with have been – men!
All this proves nothing about why gender is important to Advertising creative.
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This issue is across all industries – and something I am so passionate about. The lack of senior women in my eyes is due to the amount of mums who simply drop out of work and their careers due to the cost of care. I still have 2 young children in day care 4 days a week and this cost would push most to not return to work. That’s the simple but sad reality.
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Everyone is somewhere on the spectrum of enlightenment about this valuable and viable discussion. On one end there are those who have a vested interest in the status quo. And on the other end there are those who want to understand the male and female lenses available for both genders to leverage @Charlotte Valente – plaudits for keeping the conversation on the industry agenda.
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10 out of 10 of the best creatives I’ve worked with were humans which proves cats are useless as creatives.
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I guess with cats and perhaps the odd student consuming most of the tinned cat food we’ll see more of them in creative departments soon. They’ll be cheaper to hire too.
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There was less than 10% of women in the Sydney Creative dept when left to join EURO RSCG. I had to pinch myself when I got to HK because over 50% of the creative department were women.
The Creative Director was a (pregnant) women.
The Chief Creative Executive Officer and MD was a women.
Not only did we win a stack of international awards for our creative excellence, but all the internal awards for best performance in the agency (creative, accounts service, media and admin) also went to women.
By the time I returned home I thought Sydney I thought we had caught up with the rest of the world, but here we are decades later, still having the same conversation.
Maybe brands need to start insisting for more women to be involved with their brand’s communication.
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The HK and Asia women in Advertising situation has been astounding Australian workers for years. Even in the 70s and 80s, rumours of a mythical diversity splendour drifted back to the sparsely populated Australian Agency scene. That’s the point – clients not having to produce in Australia, mega-million brands all off-shore and shrinking agency budgets means the scene cannot be compared to Asia. Maybe it’s fallen to a more male balance, but there’s not much room for fast change. The job field is shrinking.
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