Advertising
Age reported DEIBA+ events in Adland are struggling to secure sponsors,
especially in the current anti-DEI political climate.
Not sure why
anyone is surprised. After all, once products and services gain DEIBA+ designation,
expect performative enthusiasm bankrolled by crumbs.
As
DEI-focused industry events struggle to get sponsors, here’s how they’re
strategizing
By Lindsay
Rittenhouse and Brian Bonilla
Inkwell Beach,
the space dedicated to inclusivity at the Cannes Lions International Festival
of Creativity, has been around since 2019. While the popular beach has become a
staple at the festival, this year posed challenges for the Cannes Can:
Diversity Collective that organizes it.
The
organization was half a million dollars shy of its fundraising goal leading up
to the festival this year, said Adrianne Smith, founder of the Cannes Can:
Diversity Collective and chief inclusion impact officer at FleishmanHillard,
forcing her to ask for donations on social platforms for the first time in
Inkwell’s history.
“We had never
asked for donations in such a public way,” said Smith, who added that the CC:DC
was also selling merch this year. “Honestly, it feels odd … for me to have to
ask when I’m not good at asking for support like that.”
“As I tell
people, a closed mouth doesn’t get fed,” Smith added. “So we have to be able to
continue to just remind people of the benefits and why it exists.”
Smith is not
alone.
There are other
industry events with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion that are
struggling to find sponsorship, with some seeing their event space and
attendance numbers significantly decline. Several people who spoke to Ad Age
for this story, including leaders of these events, said this is due to the
Trump administration’s ongoing attack on DEI. This has included a ban on
government entities from using a list of 250 words, which have been compiled by
Pen America, such as Black, minority, DEI, women, LGBTQ, immigrants,
inequality, Hispanic and even peanut allergies.
A growing
number of brand marketers are now avoiding events that could be tied to DEI,
several people said, leaving some event founders to consider fundraising
options to supplement the lack of support from brands. This is especially
hurting nonprofits, such as the organization behind Inkwell Beach, that rely on
sponsorships to run conferences.
“Sponsorships
are for sure waning in different areas,” said Darren Martin, founder and
chairman of integrated marketing firm Streamlined Media & Communications
and founder and CEO of its subsidiary, Bold Culture, an inclusive marketing and
workplace development consultancy. “Brands are in this waiting period.
[They’re] silent, [choosing to] wait and see what’s happening with this
administration.”
Martin pointed
to a recent decision by the Supreme Court, which sided with a straight, white
woman who sued her employer, an Ohio state agency, over what she claimed was
workplace discrimination after she was passed up for a position that went to a
gay colleague. That ruling may make way for more people in majority groups to
sue over job discrimination, and it is a significant decision that will further
impact how companies invest in DEI, Martin said.
“I can see that
Supreme Court decision digging deeper into this fear companies already have,”
he said. “[Some leaders] are scared of getting some of their government
contracts taken away. They are putting capital over people, over equity, as
they have historically been doing anyway. That’s the fear—‘I may get sued by
employees, which is going to impact my money. I may get sued by a federal
contractor.’”
Feeling the
impact
The One Club
for Creativity’s Where Are All the Black People? conference is feeling this
wait-and-see period.
The One Club, a
nonprofit that promotes advertising excellence, established Where Are All the
Black People? in 2011. The annual diversity conference and career fair saw a
surge in interest from both a sponsorship and attendance perspective in 2020,
amid the racial justice movement sparked by the murder of George Floyd by a
white police officer.
In 2020, the
event was done virtually and drew 3,000 attendees, according to Adrienne Lucas,
the One Club’s global head of strategic partnerships and DEI. In 2023, Where
Are All the Black People? drew its largest in-person crowd of 850 attendees and
dozens of sponsors.
Since the event
started in 2011, more than 60 companies have been involved through sponsorship,
mentoring or hosting career fair tables, Lucas said, adding that universities
such as Temple and Michigan State still send busloads of students to attend.
However,
beginning in 2023, interest from sponsors started to taper off.
It has signed a
couple of sponsors, which it didn’t name, for its 2025 in-person event set to
take place Oct. 17, and received interest from several others while at the
Cannes Lions, according to a spokesperson. This year’s event will be held in a
smaller space. A spokesperson for The One Club said it can host multiple
sessions to accommodate a larger number of attendees as needed, but that will
depend on how many sponsors it ends up signing.
“There’s the
reduction in DEI spending and then also there are a lot of bigger [agency]
networks downsizing and shedding jobs,” said Yash Egami, The One Club’s chief
operating officer. “If the DEI spending is down, then we need to be creative
about how we figure out how to make [the event] work. That’s just the reality
of what we’re seeing.”
Tickets for
Where Are All the Black People? for students and people who are unemployed are
free, while those who are employed pay $60. “The revenue that we generate
through our award shows and other activities, we put back in the industry,”
Egami said.
To be sure,
Where Are All the Black People? could be experiencing some lack of
participation from brands and agencies because of the tough economy that’s
forced many to cut costs and undergo layoffs. However, the economy was in a
similar situation during the height of the COVID pandemic, when Lucas said the
event started to see an uptick in sponsors—that was also a time when many ad
leaders committed to improving the industry’s longstanding diversity issues;
commitments they’ve seemed to have since walked back a bit.
Lucas said the
current environment only underscores the need for such events. “Our industry is
in an unpredictable place right now,” Lucas said. “There are waves of layoffs,
agency mergers, budgets getting cut. So when people ask if events like Where
Are All the Black People? still matter, I say—they matter more than ever.”
As a result of
its lack of funding, Inkwell Beach was held in a smaller space at this year’s
Cannes than in 2024. That meant it didn’t include certain offerings as in
previous years, such as the “CC:DC House,” which was a private space that
hosted dinners and other gatherings.
“We had to
downsize the beach and what it looks like in terms of … real estate on the
beach,” Smith said.
Smith described
multiple headwinds. “It’s been an issue of the economy and what’s happening
politically in our country,” she said. “There are tariff issues, there are
immigration issues … And just kind of like the financial state of business in
general.”
Smith also
pointed to a broader industry-wide retreat from public DEI commitments.
“Everyone’s
head is on a swivel,” she said. “That’s why people have gone through their
websites and taken diversity out. That’s why titles have been changed.”
Although Smith
said commitments around DEI often fluctuate, she added that it’s important for
companies to stay the course. She called this year’s event the “most
essential,” especially as AI becomes a growing topic, and she wants to ensure
diverse groups don’t get left out of the conversation.
DEI vs.
multicultural marketing
Events that may
be rooted in DEI but have more of a business focus seem to be faring better.
The Hispanic
Marketing Council saw an increase in sponsorship dollars for its annual New
York summit in April, according to José Villa, the organization’s chair, who is
also the founder, president and chief strategy officer of data-driven marketing
agency Sensis.
Villa
attributed that to HMC, a trade organization for Hispanic marketing, being
focused on marketing to Hispanic consumers rather than DEI.
There is still
some confusion in the marketplace over DEI (a largely human resources function
aimed at improving diversity internally) versus multicultural marketing
(efforts to reach and connect with diverse consumer segments). Although there
is some crossover—for example, DEI efforts lead to more diverse hires, helping
to create a diverse team that is then making diverse marketing that resonates
with the right audiences—the pullbacks that have been happening are largely
focused within the DEI function and not in multicultural marketing investments.
“There’s a 100%
pushback on anything that’s got those three letters: DEI,” Villa said. “We’re
not seeing that pullback on marketing investments as it relates to Hispanics.
Diversity is part of what we do but we’ve been laser-focused on market
opportunity, on growth, and that’s helped us.”
MainKore, a
self-serve AI media buying platform, was a first-time sponsor of HMC’s summit
this year. Borja Perez, MainKore’s chief of AI strategic partnerships, said it
sponsored the summit because of the continued importance of Hispanic marketing.
“Because of
politics, people are going to stop their DEI strategies, but they cannot stop
their multicultural marketing,” Perez said.
Blackweek is
another example of an event that seems to be doing relatively well despite the
political climate. The for-profit organization held its inaugural conference,
devoted to the issue of diversity and inclusion in advertising, last October in
New York.
The event sold
out, with 1,400 attendees. But it cost around $3 million to produce and the
conference lost approximately $500,000 overall, according to Joe Anthony,
founder of Hero Media and co-founder of Blackweek, who added that was to be
expected.
This year’s
conference is scheduled for Oct. 6-9.
Andre Gray, a
Blackweek cofounder and the chief creative and activation officer of Havas Lynx
New York, acknowledged that there has been some hesitancy or “waiting” on the
part of brands to sign on as sponsors. “There’s obviously the people we’ve
reached out to, and we know a lot of people, and they’re like ‘Yeah, I have to
wait this out,’” he said.
Even so, this
year’s conference is expected to reel in more funding and reach profitability.
“We anticipate doing better than last year given our success, but given the
current climate and economic situation it’s hard to predict with certainty,”
Anthony said.
Gray said what
he believes to be the key to Blackweek’s success is its positioning—that it’s
about making a business case for diversity. Panel discussion topics at last
year’s event included the lack of diversity on pitch teams and the headwinds
founders face in raising capital.
“I don’t think
you can make moral arguments in this moment,” Gray said. “Why we are seeing our
conversations continue is because of our positioning. Our positioning is based
on the hole we saw in the market. I’m here because … let’s do business.”
Mike
Valdes-Fauli, chief operating officer of Chemistry, president of Chemistry
Cultura and co-founder of Latinos in Sports, said companies should focus on the
overall impact.
“If you can
defend that it makes sense for your company to have a more diverse workforce
because our customer base is more diverse and we’re going to make more money
for … ourselves, our employees and … the broader economy,” it makes a viable
argument, he said. “You’re still doing the same tangible things, but you’re not
framing it in, ‘I’m doing this for more social and political issues.’”
Ways to stay
afloat
Crowdfunding is
one option for events that are struggling with sponsorships. Where Are All the
Black People? will be looking to crowdfund to supplement waning commitment from
brand sponsors, as Inkwell was forced to do, according to its leaders.
“We’re
exploring ways to let individuals contribute—whether through donation add-ons
during registration or direct crowdfunding,” Lucas said. “People want to help,
and we want to make it easy for them to do so … The time to show up is now.
Because if we don’t protect programs like this, we lose the pipeline. We lose
the progress.”
Villa said the
industry could see certain complementary events merge to survive.
“You can make
an argument that there are too many events,” he said. “A lot of them compete
with each other and it’s a challenging environment to try to convince brands
and organizations to send people to all these different events … Look at
potentially possibilities to merge or have your event be part of another
event.”
Bold Culture is
helping several nonprofits focused on DEI fundraise right now, Martin said. One
tip he gave was to raise money for the organization itself, versus specific
events.
“It’s a longer
tail,” Martin said. “Fundraising in the name of a larger mission might be more
advantageous for sponsors. You fundraise for the organization with unrestricted
fees; so [the organization can say] ‘Anything we fundraise will be used for
anything we do.’ We’re working with quite a few nonprofits in that way.”
Martin said
Bold Culture is also helping target individual executives within companies
versus the entire organization.
The future
of DEI events
Despite the
challenges, hope remains even among event organizers who are facing setbacks.
Inkwell’s theme
this year was “Aya,” which is a term often associated with resilience. And
although it faced sponsorship issues, Inkwell’s attendance increased
significantly this year, a CC:DC spokeswoman said.
Over 10,000
people registered for the beach this year. In its first year, Inkwell sessions
drew an average of 40 to 50 attendees per session; this year, that increased to
an average of 100 to 150 attendees at each of its seven or eight sessions per
day.
Lucas said the
industry is in a critical period where it needs to decide whether it will
continue to support certain programs such as Where Are All the Black People? As
annual budgets on expenses such as event sponsorships are typically figured out
one year in advance, Lucas urged everyone to be thinking about how to support
next year’s programs now.
“If you like
these programs, then help us keep them around,” she said. “We’re in this very
transitional period where budgets were created last year for this year. We’re
seeing changes [this year] but they’re not as drastic as what we’re going to
see coming. The time is now to support these programs, and to speak up.”
