How Agencies Are Having Hard Conversations With Clients About Their DEI Goals

Many agencies have publicly committed more equitable advertising. They joined pledges, dedicating a certain number of their clients’ media dollars to minority-owned publications. But the industry still has a long way to go. The 4A’s Now. New. Next report on the talent and future of work cites a Salesforce study in which 71% of respondents indicated that in 2020 they paid more attention to a company’s values than they did in 2019. And 75% said that brand ethics increasingly factored into their decisions. Some agencies are stepping up to support clients’ DEI advancements. As marketing stewards, agencies can make a profound impact on brands, products and messaging—not to mention the media ecosystem at large. DE&I-focused conversations can be hard for agencies to initiate with clients, given the business dynamic, but those stepping up have a blueprint for how to do it. “We realize that agencies can absolutely play a bigger role when it comes to pushing and influencing the agenda around DE&I,” said Kyla Jones, director of the U.S. diversity strategy practice at RAPP, a global creative agency that’s part of the Omnicom Precision Marketing Group network. Business as usual or groupthink? Jones noticed that clients are more open to having conversations about DEI than they used to be a few years ago. Maybe, she thought, they were unsure about how to present the topic in a team setting and “really show themselves as advocates and champions of diversity in a room where BAU, you know, business as usual, is very much a group think,” she said. Brands, Jones posited, may have been scared into speaking up at the risk of being subject to "cancel culture." Danisha Lomax, svp, head of media and national paid social lead at Digitas seconded that. "Some clients have been a little concerned about getting things right. It's not about getting it right—it's about truly living in and understanding the purpose," she said. Then, there was some change after George Floyd’s murder and the racial reckoning that followed. Jones believes DEI roles across the industry increased by three digits at that time. While more clients seem willing to talk about it—whatever their motivation—more agencies are prioritizing asking. The tough questions Agencies can take several approaches to increasing DEI for brand partners, and RAPP’s is multipronged. To make sure that it stays on the same page as its new or existing clients, RAPP questions new business about their commitment to DEI right at the beginning of the agency-client relationship. The agency asks DEI questions at the beginning of each new client relationship. “If you're bringing diversity and inclusion into strategy, and that's your first touch point, it's already too late,” said Jones. Agency leaders reviewed a previous client survey and pondered where it could be more intentional about the questions it asked clients. The aim was to reveal more about where those brands sat on the DEI spectrum, according to Jones. The agency asks clients if their campaigns speak to people disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community or wants to reach people based on their social economic status, amongst other things. RAPP’s client questionnaire also asks, “do your content services include solutions which help to address or avoid systemic inequities and barriers in the customer experience and the user experience?” Answers to the questions help RAPP understand if a client has an intersectional outlook or not. For existing clients, RAPP’s account teams ask them if they can provide creative briefs that address intersectionality, and bake space into creative timelines to account for conversations about DEI. Agency employees spoke up and had a constructive conversation with the client in the financial services industry risked marginalizing some groups with the creative it requested. “If we're all holding ourselves accountable to moving the needle on DE&I, then being able, in a intentional but firm way, to say to the client, ‘hey, we think there's a bias taking place here, or there's an opportunity to further educate our team on what type of identities can be represented,’” is crucial, Jones said. Independent agency Truth Collective similarly administers an assessment to discover where its clients sit on a spectrum from one to five. A number one indicates inactivity and a number five represents a DEI leader. “So it's really starting with the assessment. Where are the organizations? And what do they need help with? And how can we help them along the way?” said Karima Miller, director of people and purpose at Truth Collective. A 360 degree approach to DEI Different agencies address DEI in different ways. Digitas set up its Multicultural Center of Excellence that brings together a diverse group of people that help guide and consult clients on how to have conversations with various communities. The connecting thread between Digitas’ and RAPP's approaches is the willingness to speak up when something doesn’t seem right. When one Digitas client executed a recruitment campaign, the agency examined campaign materials and provided recommendations to avoid ableist language. As a result of the recommendations, the client connected with people it hadn’t expected to be able to reach directly or successfully engage. Speaking up in that scenario was necessary, but both agencies go beyond providing guidance on a project-by-project basis. Agencies need to have one-on-one conversations with clients about their objectives, to make sure they are not being performative, and that internal team composition reflects a client's DEI mission. Now, Lomax receives requests from internal teams via their clients to join conversations and act as a sounding board. Sometimes clients will even come to Digitas with questions about how to structure their marketing teams, with a brand’s DEI leaders showing up to engage, too. “We are giving a 360 degree approach to DE&I. It's not just from an investment perspective, or from a creative perspective,” Lomax said. To achieve a similar impact, The Truth Collective compiled an extensive document outlining how DEI must be part of workflow, from the moment a client expresses interest and its first call with Truth Collective CEO Bob Bailey to the moment the agency determines how to evaluate a piece of work's impact. Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners (BSSP), for its part, champions DEI behind the camera as well as in front of it. It worked a project highlighting gender discrimination in the healthcare industry, and made sure the product's entire production crew reflected a commitment to gender equity. Women and people of color led it. “It was critical for us to look at not only the campaign and the conceptual standpoint and messaging, but also within our team breakdown,” said Sinan Dagli, the creative agency’s executive creative director. The campaign, done for Blue Shield of California, reflected the agency and client’s mutual commitment to equity, and paying attention to who is behind the camera – as well as in front of it – is of high importance to BSSP. Not every client is ready to make a change, but that’s when committed agencies continue to push them and demand answers. “‘What is your purpose? What is your value? Who do you want to be to the people you're trying to engage, and who do you want to be in the marketplace?' Let's figure that out first, before we try to go out there and be bandwagoney or performative,’” said Lomax. DEI Efforts Must Account for Neurodiversity