There is growing interest globally in how marketing and advertising campaigns can challenge gender stereotypes and normalise gender equality. Most conversations tend to focus on the creative output, but should creative firms also look into how gender equality within their teams can lead to innovative campaigns that promote broader gender equality?
The Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines asked this question at a roundtable discussion sponsored by Investing in Women in June 2022 and recently published as a podcast. Titled “Equality Inside Out,” the discussion focused on gender equality in creative workplaces, and how gender equality is manifested in marketing and advertising campaigns.
The roundtable featured panellists Anna Chua Norbert, Group Chief Culture Officer of DDB Group Philippines; Kim Patria, Deputy Director for Gender Norms of Investing in Women; and Melai Lopez, Program Manager and Transgender ERG Lead for Google Philippines. These panellists addressed questions from 15 participants selected from IMMAP member firms.
Asked to define workplace gender equality, Mr Patria drew on IW’s framing of a workplace where “everyone, regardless of gender, can access and enjoy opportunities and thrive at all levels or at all stages of the employee pipeline.” Google’s Lopez added that workplace gender equality enables employees to bring their “true and most authentic self,” without having to fear discrimination or micro-aggression.
Talking about diversity and equality in organisations, DDB’s Chua-Norbert said the first thing that companies need to do is to look at their roster and whether it is equal in terms of number of women and men employees. If the roster feels unequal, companies need to take action as to how they will make it more equal and diverse.
Ms Chua-Norbert also encouraged companies to consider seeking support from workplace gender equality experts such as the Philippine Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (PBCWE). She shared that the Gender Equality Assessment, Results and Strategies (GEARS) has been useful in helping DDB identify action plans. DDB is a PBCWE member firm.
As to why creative workplaces should aim for workplace gender equality, the panellists focused on how diversity leads to innovation.
“Ideas can come from everywhere and if we limit ourselves to one pocket of individuals, it doesn’t benefit us. There has to be some variety because it benefits business strategies. More innovation comes in and your pool of people also gets wider and wider,” Ms Chua-Norbert said. Ms Lopez agreed, noting that a diverse team will also represent a diverse market that brands are looking to target.
Mr Patria added: “Diversity in teams, in general, will not automatically lead to more innovative, more diverse campaigns. But it creates an environment that’s conducive for creativity or innovation because you bring together different perspectives, different ideas, and (you’re) able to interrogate each other’s thinking and able to disrupt some biases.”
For marketing and advertising companies, workplace gender equality helps address groupthink, Mr Patria said, enabling them to ask questions that can challenge gender stereotypes in campaigns. These questions can include:
- Multidimensionality of characters: Are individuals portrayed in multidimensional ways, or in consistently in gendered tropes, such as women as the primary carers and men as the primary income earners? Do these portrayals reflect the consumers’ reality?
- Gender in the landscape of campaigns: Do most campaigns in the product category portray women or men in a single way? Should creative firms therefore leverage progressive gender roles to make their campaigns stand out from the competition?
- Historical gender portrayal: Has the brand historically portrayed genders in a certain way? If so, is it time to innovate by portraying genders in a way that breaks the mould?
The IMMAP Breakfast Roundtable was part of a series of events to promote the Purple Boomerang Award, which recognises campaigns that bravely challenge gender stereotypes. IMMAP is giving out the IW-supported Purple Boomerang for the second year at the Boomerang Awards on 14 October 2022. Avon Philippines won the inaugural award in 2021.
You may listen to the IMMAP Breakfast Roundtable, published on TeamAsia’s Breakfast to Business Podcast Series on Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.