Adweek reported—or published performative PR—on DEIBA+ stunts at Ogilvy and Fitzco.
According to Adweek, “two agencies are doubling down on their DEI efforts, and making a business case for them.” Okay, but “doubling down” on historically minimal efforts does not exactly equal full commitment, responsibility, and accountability; that is, 2 x 0 = 0.
The Ogilvy heat shield—dubbed the Modern Exchange program—connects staffers from across the global network, allowing them to figuratively join hands and symbolically sing kumbaya in DEIBA+ unity.
The Fitzco heat shield involves a Creative Inclusion Panel (CIP), whereby diverse staffers can evaluate client work in early stages, allegedly assessing stuff via an inclusivity standard. Sounds like a not-too-clever twist on asking the resident mailroom attendant and/or custodian of color to evaluate work.
Always amazing how an industry boasting breakthrough creativity consistently delivers contrived, clichéd, and crappy concepts to address systemic racism.
Ogilvy and Fitzco Are Connecting People and Driving Business Through DEI Efforts
The programs enhance communication within the agencies as well as inform the work
By Kyle O’Brien
There is an unfortunate backward slide on DEI efforts happening in marketing, after a surge following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Consumer backlash has curtailed many programs at companies ranging from Bud Light to Target and most recently Tractor Supply, while agencies and businesses alike have scaled back their internal DEI agendas.
However, two agencies are doubling down on their DEI efforts, and making a business case for them. Ogilvy is helping its employees and clients connect through a program that reaches across offices and countries to ensure that everyone gets to know each other through their differences and similarities. Fitzco has created a diverse panel to review its work before it goes out to the public to make sure it supports inclusivity.
These aren’t the only agencies making a business case for diversity and inclusion, but programs like theirs highlight the need for the marketing world to stay the course.
A modern exchange of ideas
Ogilvy promotes a concept called “borderless creativity,” part of which is manifested in the Modern Exchange program. The idea came from Barbara Polanco, art director at Ogilvy’s Los Angeles office. She initially asked Tope Ajala, the agency’s global head of DEI, to connect her with other senior colleagues within Ogilvy, as well as clients, to spark conversations that would help inform her work.
That served as a challenge to the executive team to better connect their people globally.
“Six months after, [Polanco] came back with a big proposal: ‘I think the best way we can do this is to have something called the Modern Exchange,’” Ajala told ADWEEK.
That proposal led to the team gathering junior and senior level talent across the business and connecting them in a series of video conversations with candid dialogue.
An employee originally from the Dominican Republic talked with someone in the U.K. and found similarities through food, while Ogilvy’s CCO in Germany had a two-hour dialogue with a junior creative, and they’ve become partners and sponsors.
Having people and ideas come together helps the agency celebrate diversity, but also uncovers connections that might lead to better work and more progressive business practices. Ogilvy leaned into its commitment to DEI, utilizing a minority-owned company to do the production on the Modern Exchange video project.
“One of the key commitments we have is a 10% partnership with diverse suppliers globally. That is the ambition for us as an organization and as a business,” said Ajala, adding that organizations that lean into their employees and cultural nuances are the ones succeeding.
Ajala said this is one way employees can feel like the agency is invested in them and cares about them. In addition, Ogilvy wants to expand the program and invite clients to the Modern Exchange to talk about their commitments to DEI efforts, and encourage people to double down on employees and diverse suppliers.
Ogilvy is also making Modern Exchange public through its social channels and platforms, and possibly on YouTube as well.
“I want to emphasize the importance of connecting as humans and learning about each other, regardless of your title. When that is fostered—when the environment is rooted in respect for humanity—the work is better,” Polanco told ADWEEK.
A double check on inclusion
Having a campaign falter because it’s tone deaf on inclusion and diversity efforts can make for brand embarrassment and a loss of dollars. Atlanta-based agency Fitzco is making sure its creative doesn’t go out into the world unless it’s dialed in on DEI.
Over the past year, Fitzco created a Creative Inclusion Panel (CIP), which allows anyone in the company to form a team to evaluate Fitzco’s client work before it gets released to hold it to an inclusivity standard.
The open forum invites the most junior to the most senior talent to participate in the creative process for both existing and new prospects. It’s a feedback-driven initiative designed to ensure that Fitzco is supporting inclusivity from end to end, whether that’s challenging audiences defined by demographics, making media investments that support a more balanced approach, or ensuring creative work is inclusive.
“It’s not about approving or disapproving work, it’s not about thumbs up or thumbs down. It’s really about challenging the work and making sure that from the eyes of our agency, the work is being as representative as it possibly can be,” Evan Levy, CEO of Fitzco, told ADWEEK.
The panel has worked well so far. Levy said the agency has won pitches that have been influenced by the Creative Inclusion Panel, and most of the work that Fitzco has put out into the world has gone through the CIP before it’s reached clients or the production process, including recent work for Welch’s Sparkling.
“It’s been really informative. It’s been educational. The agency has been proud of it, our clients have been appreciative of it. And it’s been a no-brainer addition to how we think and work,” said Levy.
Levy said the CIP is still a work in progress, and the earlier the panel sees the work, the better, but it can come in at any point during the campaign process.
“The panel can be initiated by anyone, so it could be prompted by an account lead, by a producer, by a creative director. There’s not a lot of formality in terms of who can ask or recommend that the panel come together. It’s very democratic, in that sense,” said Levy, adding that it demonstrates to clients that there’s a rigor that goes into the creative process.
Both Ogilvy and Fitzco have had inclusion programs for years and have no plans to scale them back. Fitzco was a founding member of Advertising for Change Atlanta, a coalition of agencies committed to developing and mentoring young, diverse talent.
“Atlanta agencies can come together to help work on, solve, challenge each other, share best practices around [DEI]… and that’s good for all of us,” said Levy.
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