Beyond Mad Men: Toward Gender Balance in Creative Roles
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Our business is about creativity – it’s also about knowing the consumer and what will drive him or her to make decisions that drive the marketplace. In order to do this, those in top creative roles at agencies should offer diversity of thought and reflect the marketplace, right?
Yet, the creative departments at many agencies still seem a bit like a scene out of Mad Men. Despite the influx of women into the industry there is relatively more gender diversity in leadership for disciplines such as media, strategy and marketing. Other industries are making progress in proactively transforming their cultures by seeking out and promoting female talent. That’s just good business in a world in which traditionally male pools of talent are shrinking, there are more women than men with advanced education, and women constitute the world’s largest emerging market with purchasing power greater than India and China combined.
To address the need for gender balance in the industry, IPG and its Women’s Leadership Network (WLN) host a panel of experts from the media, advertising and marketing industries.
American business magnate and media personality Martha Stewart joins IPG and the Women’s Leadership Network at the Festival to explore what can be learnt from women who have thrived in the creative industries. Other speakers include Michael I. Roth, Chairman and CEO of Interpublic, Lisa Ling, Host of Our America, Carol Lam, Managing Director, Chief Creative Officer at McCann Erickson Shanghai and Kitty Lun, Chairman, CEO of Lowe China. More on Cannes Lions 2011.