Diversity
was the topic at the most recent Heads of Production meeting, held at
McCann-Erickson in New York and hosted by the agency’s Jonathan
Shipman. SourceEcreative sponsored the meeting, held on Wednesday,
January 27, which was attended by ten agency production heads who
gathered to discuss various diversity initiatives that their
departments are undertaking. Specifically, the agency executives talked
about their efforts to meet guidelines being established not only by
their agency managements to diversify their own departments, but also
benchmarks being set forth by clients that call for increased use of
minority-owned vendors when it comes to producing TV commercials and
web videos.
McCann
has undertaken its own analysis of production suppliers to determine
which are certified as minority owned, and Shipman was interested in
sharing the agency’s overall findings with the group and exploring
other efforts at identifying and working with not just minority-owned
businesses in production and post, but also with minority talent in key
areas such as directing, editing, music, etc.
Also on hand at the meeting was Sallie Mars, Director of Creative Services for the agency, who has spearheaded the shop’s diversity efforts not just in production but also in creative.
Many
of the production heads at the meeting agreed that the industry needs
to do more not only to mentor minority talent and foster their career
development, but also to identify and promote the work of
minority-owned suppliers. Among the issues that present obstacles are
the paucity of minority-owned firms that occupy the top echelons of the
production and post industries, the producer noted, as well as the
pressure that agency production departments are under to maintain
quality standards and to work with experienced directors and producers
who have proven track records in key categories.
Another issue was that frequently, agencies can collaborate with minority talent yet still not achieve any measurable credit in terms of supporting vendor diversity because these respective directors, editors, composers or digital artists are employed by companies that don’t qualify as having minority ownership.
Clients
are driving this effort for a variety of reasons; consumer pressure is
behind it, as is government scrutiny and an increased awareness of a
company’s perception of its level of corporate social responsibility.
Changing demographics and markets are also having an impact, it was
revealed.
The
producers recommended at the meeting that the two major industry trade
groups, the AICP and AICE, work to heighten the awareness of minority
talent and minority-owned businesses among their memberships. They
also suggested that production and post production companies explore
ways to signal to the marketplace that they either qualify for
minority-owned certification, or that they offer opportunities for
agencies to work with minority talent.
Published January 29, 2010.
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