How AnalogFolk’s Recruitment Post Inspired a Campaign Addressing Diversity Inequality
The advertising industry still grapples with a lack of diversity, with women and people of colour holding a minority of leadership roles. AnalogFolk is tackling this issue head-on with its bold new campaign, ‘Changing the Face of Creative Leadership,’ aimed at shining a light on the industry's ongoing disparities and pushing for greater inclusion of female creative leaders.
During their search for a new head of creative, the UK agency's team confronted the stark realities and obstacles within the hiring process that hinder diversity. Instead of feeling defeated, they channelled their insights into a dynamic social media campaign. By featuring iconic industry figures like Sir John Hegarty, Trevor Beattie, and Dave Droga, the campaign provocatively asks if these celebrated figures would have achieved the same success had they been women.
This initiative not only challenges the industry to actively seek out diverse and female creative talent but also introduces the Open Source talent pool -- a vital resource to help agencies meet DE&I targets and drive forward meaningful change.
LBB’s Olivia Atkins delves into the heart of the campaign, speaking with AnalogFolk’s managing director Anna-Louise Gladwell, talent director Sheriff Showobi, and senior creatives Alex Wood and Dani Arkless to explore the inspiration and goals behind this impactful campaign.
LBB> The idea for this campaign came out of an internal recruitment process, what was the jump to then launching the campaign? Obviously there's no specific client linked to it…
Anna-Lou> This journey began with a lot of research, seeking out exceptional creative talent in interesting places from which Sheriff our talent director could draw up a long list of exciting people to meet and begin conversations with. But, this is where the journey hit a major bump in the road, getting very monotonous and frustrating very quickly. The long-lists were made up of people who all shared a very similar profile; the overwhelming majority were all men. We aren’t saying we will only hire a female creative leader of course, but we know that we aren’t seeing the best of our industry if we settle for accepting those that are most visible. So we paused. We did our homework, finding lots of data in the industry (WACL, IPA, Creative Equals, D&AD…) to validate our frustrations, and found more than a few stats that were simply too hard to ignore, such as this one:
‘women comprise 54.7% of the UK creative industry, yet only make up 12% of leadership in advertising today.’
Sheriff and I were so impassioned by this that we decided we should do something about it, not just complain about it. We wanted to run the most balanced and equitable search for our creative leader, but also help to drive the wider creative industry forward, and help combat the DE&I challenges that aren’t improving enough. So we decided that we would find and elevate the industry’s female creative talent, making them more visible and accessible. But not stopping there, we are creating a first-of-its kind open source talent pool that our entire industry can draw from to ensure everyone has the ability to hire the most balanced creative talent, and build diverse creative departments for the future. And that’s where Dani & Alex came in, devising a provocative, smart and humorous campaign.
Dani & Alex> We wanted to create a campaign with genuine cut-through in the industry, and the best way to do that is with some interesting and challenging work -- an idea. The long-term goal is to create an open-source resource of diverse creative leadership that the whole of adland can use. Following on from our Period Policy and BigUp.Ai, an agency initiative is only worth doing if people find out about it and find it useful.
LBB> What was the process behind reimagining male advertising icons and transforming them into women?
Dani & Alex> It was a simple thought we had while looking for inspiration -- that so many of the day-to-day names in creative leadership, the icons that people name-drop, are men. Which got us thinking -- if they were born women, would they have been able to reach the same heights? It’s quite a serious and challenging thought, so we wanted to see if we could push it with a bit of humour and levity.
LBB> What impact do you hope the 'Changing the Face of Creative Leadership' campaign will have on the advertising industry?
Dani & Alex> It’s important to push this message out now because we won’t see a more diverse industry if we rest on our laurels. We were sad to see in the Campaign School Reports that DE&I initiatives across the board had stalled, or were in decline across adland.
LBB> What has been the reaction from the industry to the AI-generated images and the provocative headlines?
Dani & Alex> We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive reaction from the industry (and even from the men featured in the ads). They were fun to make, and hopefully resonate with our affection and reverence for the industry and great creative leaders, whilst also encouraging us to not rest on our laurels when it comes to diversity.
LBB> How do you plan to maintain and grow the Open Source pool of diverse and female creative talent?
Sheriff> We've already discussed our initial follow up to this campaign. From highlighting our results and presenting the pool to the industry. However establishing this platform also gives us an opportunity in the future to expand it's area of focus to include all diverse talent. While a major contributor to the growth of the pool will be the participation of the industry.
LBB> In what ways do you think increasing visibility of female creative leaders will transform the industry?
Sheriff> It's been shown that increased visibility can positively impact diversity in hiring when combined with an inclusive attitude. Diversity drives creativity and productivity. While different voices at leadership level can drive change in business policies to create a more inclusive and collaborative work environment.
LBB> How can industry professionals and agencies participate in and contribute to the Open Source talent pool?
Sheriff> We invite and encourage everyone in the industry to participate in this initiative which we hope to be transformative. By highlighting the problem and actively seeking recommendations, we aim to empower the next generation of creative leaders who will drive the industry forward. Everyone can contribute to it and will be able to share the rich pool of female creative talent with peers in the industry so that they too can build balanced and representative teams.
To nominate, visit AnalogFolk’s dedicated page here, or comment/tag on AnalogFolk’s LinkedIn / Instagram posts.
LBB> What are the key qualities and skills you are looking for in the ideal candidate for the head of creative role at AnalogFolk?
Sheriff> Someone who is infectiously inquisitive, highly creative, team orientated and inspirational by nature. Check out the full job description here.
