Do Brands Need a New Trade Group to Realize DEI Goals?

The trade association model is a time-honored one: Gather the leading lights of a particular industry to set business standards, challenge regulatory issues, host lucrative conferences and sponsored events and network. But can such a model be applied to addressing such a deeply complicated issue as diversity, equity and inclusion across advertising, marketing and media? BRIDGE, an organization that launched in April 2022 to tackle that major problem affecting all industries and institutions, is betting that it can. The timing, depending on one’s politics and perspective, is either uniquely opportune or unfavorable. At the moment, the Supreme Court’s hearing of affirmative action policies regarding college admissions is one signal flare to those pursuing racial parity. On top of that, economic fears are likely to make staffing decisions even more difficult in the next year. For Sheryl Daija, as founder and chief executive officer of BRIDGE (an acronym for Belonging, Representation, Inclusion, Diversity, Gap, Equity), there is no “wrong time” to set up an organization. As someone who spent a decade as the chief strategy officer of the Mobile Marketing Association (along with a previous stint at the IAB), she has some credibility in running an association. This Powerful Disability Rights Campaign Reminds Us Sex Is for Every Body BRIDGE did get an early vote of confidence with such launch partners as Unilever, Sephora, IBM, NBCUniversal, Condé Nast, Salesforce, GroupM, McKinsey & Company and Campbell’s, among others. This past week, the organization added iHeartMedia to its board. Still, with every industry trade group having some focus on DEI, is BRIDGE really necessary? Or is it just another well-intentioned talkfest? “While there are certainly some companies in our industry that have implemented more aggressive DEI practices, the change for the majority of media, marketing and advertising has been painfully slow,” Daija said. BRIDGE’s singular focus is on accelerating the glacial pace of addressing DEI in media and marketing. In Daija’s view, the main lag in solving the issue comes down to setting a commitment. Still, for many of its members, it’s not knowing where to start, how to prioritize or what is meaningful change versus performative action—and more. “BRIDGE was formed to help companies identify and prioritize their gaps as well as provide a framework to bridge them,” Daija said. For brands like Sephora, the lift and guidance it’s getting from BRIDGE makes the collaboration worth trying. Augmentation and accountability The increased attention brands and media have devoted to DEI were outgrowths of the protests over the deaths of Black people in police custody that hit a shockingly painful crescendo with the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Sephora was one of many brands to begin to hold itself more accountable on DEI at that time. Last month, the cosmetics retail chain issued its latest DEI report where it outlined 11 initiatives. For Deborah Yeh, Sephora’s evp, global chief purpose officer and CMO, NA, working with BRIDGE is about recognizing that as much as an individual company or person wants to drive change, it needs to be in concert with peers. “Sometimes in marketing and advertising, we can be guilty of tunnel vision,” Yeh told Adweek. “The membership of BRIDGE spans a variety of functional experts, so we get the insight of amazing marketers but also experienced DEI practitioners. We’re thinking about how we represent the diverse consumer in the marketplace but also how we include all employees in the workplace.” As a board member, Yeh is helping to shape BRIDGE’s agenda. The plan includes research, learning, events and community building. It's not just a “conferences and speeches organization,” she said. She’s closely partnering with Emile Khader, svp of marketing strategy at Condé Nast, to support some of BRIDGE’s research work. “The team has already partnered with very strong academic teams to help us define and measure brand inclusivity,” Yeh said. “While Sephora has done extensive research on the consumer experience within retail, we still have much we can continue to learn. Across industries, we are still on a journey to make our categories truly welcoming to all.” The business of DEI For BRIDGE members such as Sephora, Campbell’s and IBM, banding together to craft DEI solutions is about establishing a model for accountability while augmenting individual company efforts. “As a marketer on the board representing a CPG company, I hope to bring perspective on how organizations can drive greater connectivity between the marketing and DEI functions to deliver greater diversity, inclusion and equity opportunities [across] product, campaigns, vendors and partners to the marketplace,” said Leslie Waller, vp of marketing at Campbell's. “I want to highlight those gaps in current traditional systems and ways of working that need to be adapted to improve the overall impact on business performance.” There’s a “strong alignment” between the goals BRIDGE has laid out and what IBM has been working toward, said Randi Stipes, vp for IBM brand marketing. “IBM is focused on accountability, advocacy, allyship and employee experience—all of which are measured through actions and outcomes,” Stipes said. “This starts with providing a culture of inclusion and belonging for all IBMers. We must practice what we preach. Like BRIDGE, IBM also feels a responsibility to arm others with tools and technology to accelerate their DEI efforts.” One minor goal is helping brands avoid unforced errors, as in the Walmart Juneteenth episode—something that is all too common. As Stipes noted, unintentional bias does creep into advertising. That’s especially true in an area of particular focus for IBM: artificial intelligence, which is powering more ad serving and creation. So IBM has tried to help its brand partners ensure respect for underrepresented populations in their marketing campaigns. Earlier this year, the technology giant released its free Advertising Toolkit for AI Fairness 360, an open-source solution deploying 75 “fairness metrics” and algorithms to identify and mitigate biases in separate data sets. “Organizations utilizing the toolkit may gain a better understanding of the presence and impact of bias on their ad campaigns, as well as the makeup of their audiences,” Stipes said. Brands Need a Data-Driven Approach to Inclusive Advertising Without sounding cynical, BRIDGE’s ability to drive change may just come from recognizing that in order to do a public good, marketers and media brands also need to perform well on the business side. “We are moving away from talking about DEI as a philosophy or as a line item on an operating agenda to how we build inclusion as the next critical business practice,” Daija said. “It’s why it is so essential for us to have the convergence of chief diversity officers, CMOs and business leaders on the BRIDGE board. Together, we are creating the foundations including common definitions against which we can all measure success as well as the building blocks to achieve maturity. For every initiative BRIDGE launches, there will be corresponding goals and metrics to track impact.”