14237: More Martin Mumbo-Jumbo.

Shoot Online also spotlighted The Martin Agency’s Talent and Culture department, providing more details than the Adweek report presented in a previous post. For starters, Shoot Online’s headline positions the Talent and Culture department as a diversity and inclusion initiative. So newly hired Director of Strategic Engagement Kelsey Larus might be a Chief Divertsity Officer after all.

Chief Culture Officer Carmina Drummond offered more gobbledygook by declaring, “We want progress. We’ve discovered it’s not enough to have diversity initiatives or incentives. Those efforts are right, but right can be ignored. We need to be intentional in our behavior to create positive change.” Um, it would be nice to know the specific “diversity initiatives or incentives” that have been not-enough-yet-right-but-ignored at The Martin Agency. Keep in mind, the White advertising agency is part of IPG, the White holding company that boasts being recognized for leadership in diversity and inclusion. Shouldn’t IPG’s flagship shops already have extraordinarily effective initiatives and incentives in place to ignite progress?

Drummond also stated, “What attracted me to Kelsey was her experience driving culture-focused reform. She’s versed in how work communities move, grow, rise (and fall) to challenges. We’re excited to burn some bridges and build better ones.” Wow. Having “experience driving culture-focused reform” and being “versed in how work communities move, grow, rise…” sounds like stuff you’d type in a LinkedIn profile without offering tangible or measurable proof of execution. And which bridges need to be burned and built better? Hey, maybe the staff held a symbolic bonfire including a Joe Alexander effigy.

Shoot Online noted, “The Martin Agency has proactively closed the gender pay gap, pledged to #FreeTheBid, spearheaded the Times Up Advertising movement, tripled its paternity leave, amped up the re-entry program for working mothers, and hired a conflict resolution specialist to serve as a resource to employees.” Plus, Danny Robinson was elevated, becoming the first Black person on the executive committee. Gee, the changes appear to favor White women over people of color. Acknowledging the agency needed to work on true diversity (versus just divertsity), CEO Kristen Cavallo recently pledged, “We’re on it.” Get on it, already.

The Martin Agency Launches Talent & Culture Dept. To Promote Diversity, Inclusion

The Martin Agency has created a department called Talent & Culture that will report to Carmina Drummond, Martin’s chief culture officer.

“We want progress,” said Drummond. “We’ve discovered it’s not enough to have diversity initiatives or incentives. Those efforts are right, but right can be ignored. We need to be intentional in our behavior to create positive change.”

As a part of this ambition, Martin has hired Kelsey Larus as director of strategic engagement. Larus has an extensive background in strategic implementation having worked for the Obama Administration, the Democratic National Convention and two Presidential inaugurations.

“What attracted me to Kelsey was her experience driving culture-focused reform,” explained Drummond. “She’s versed in how work communities move, grow, rise (and fall) to challenges. We’re excited to burn some bridges and build better ones.”

Larus joins Marty Ritter, VP/ talent development, and Tina Chamberlain, VP/talent resources, in their sprint for change. The Martin Agency has proactively closed the gender pay gap, pledged to #FreeTheBid, spearheaded the Times Up Advertising movement, tripled its paternity leave, amped up the re-entry program for working mothers, and hired a conflict resolution specialist to serve as a resource to employees.

These changes continue a series of moves made by new leadership at Martin. Most recently was the appointment of Danny Robinson to chief client officer. Robinson, a creative director who possesses his MBA and founded urban pop culture agency, Vigilante, is the first African American on the Martin executive committee. CEO Kristen Cavallo also doubled the representation of women to the highest level of the company, adding Karen Costello as chief creative officer and Drummond as chief culture officer. Costello is the first female to hold the role of CCO in the agency’s 53-year history.

“Corporations often hide behind ‘fit’ and not ‘contribution’ as a metric,” said Cavallo. “Fit can be a rationale for homogeneity, and that’s dangerous. This is our chance to do things differently.”