Companies reveal how many women they have on their staff and what policies they adopt to increase that number
With only 44% of women in leadership positions, female presence in advertising agencies is low. Fact. And, as much as there is progress, the path for this percentage to reach at least close to that of the opposite sex is long and, just like the lives of these professionals, full of challenges.
With the arrival of Women’s Month, the media were flooded with campaigns that brought themes such as equity, sorority, respect and women’s fight for space. All of them signed by agencies that, through the topics addressed and together with their clients, seek to celebrate and reinforce the importance of International Women’s Day, celebrated last Wednesday (8).
Shedding light on these issues is important for raising awareness among the population, but more is needed than scenes on television or social networks. It takes actions and policies to include more and more women in conversations and decisions.
Thinking about it, the PROPMARK sought out some of the main agencies to ask two questions: what are the actions and policies adopted to increase female representation in the corporate environment and how many women are on staff at these companies.
Read below, in full, the responses received by the newspaper:
AlmapBBDO
Currently, AlmapBBDO has 337 women in the agency, representing 56% of its total staff. Of these, 51% are in leadership positions.
According to Mnica Lessa Kamimura, people and culture director at AlmapBBDO, the agency prioritizes hiring women, especially in leadership positions. In addition, the director reinforced that the agency creates initiatives that encourage, along with its employees, the development of skills focused on leadership, purpose, presence and protagonism.
Among the initiatives mentioned is the ElevaElas mentoring program, which is aimed at women and seeks to develop an environment of discovery, growth and exchange of soft skills, prioritizing underrepresented groups and their intersections. According to Mnnica, the program, which began in October 2022, involved 170 women in its first phase.
The challenge for gender equity in advertising and beyond is in leadership positions. We have made a lot of progress, but we still have a lot to achieve in this regard, including breaking down the barriers of unconscious biases that affect many women at the beginning and throughout their careers. We want to show that with representation it is possible to further expand the brightness of women in the world of agencies, through references that welcome and inspire them. It is an exchange of experiences, experiences and conquests that are shared, will strengthen mentors and mentees, said the director.
Ogilvy Brasil
At Ogilvy Brasil, 239 women are employed, 76 of whom are in leadership positions. According to Thaisa Veras, director of Human Resources at the agency, the site has the “Somos” and “Eixo Benguela” committees that aim to be attentive to social issues. With regard to gender equity, the agency has programs such as 30for30, which consists of leadership training designed by Ogilvy Global and exclusively for women, with the aim of supporting female professionals.
Specifically for Women’s Day, Thaisa explained that the agency structured a compilation of workshops with women in leadership positions, where they tell their trajectories and methodologies with the aim of inspiring people.
Other policies adopted by Ogilvy in favor of women are the extended maternity leave, with six months and the preference for hiring women in the creation areas.
VMLY&R Brasil
VMLY&R Brasil has 53% of women in the agency. In leadership positions, managerial levels and above, women represent 54%. Regarding actions and policies, Luana Gonçalves, director of the agency’s HR Group, stated that the company is attracted by the individuality of its employees and that it will work on the pillars of social issues through the areas of HR and Equity, Inclusion and Belonging.
“Our work only echoes if the leaders also embrace this philosophy. And so that the leaders understand the challenges they face, we promote training with external consultants on diversity, mental health and people management”, stated the director.
In addition, the agency implemented some complementary projects to help the causes, such as the Conversa Program, for exchanges and career planning between managers and their teams, and PAR, for internships, mentoring and career acceleration for black people at midi level.
fbiz
In the case of Fbiz, the census carried out by the agency in 2022 showed that almost 53.7% of the team was made up of women and 51.5% of them held management positions.
According to Amanda Sthephanie, a Diversity specialist at the agency, it was based on the data presented by the survey that they identified the need to define priority groups and establish guidelines to increase diversity in the agency’s teams.
Among the actions adopted by Fbiz is the creation of affirmative vacancies which, according to the specialist, have been widely encouraged as a policy of equity.
“In addition to structuring quantitative goals, we understand that a more welcoming space can only be built with knowledge. That is why, since 2022, we have been training our senior leadership to create an environment in which diverse talents develop with emotional security. Our next challenge is to think about in ways to boost the careers of the different people who are already part of the teams”, concluded Amanda.
BETC Has
BETC Havas has 54% of women in the branch, with 61% in leadership positions.
The agency is one of the signatories of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPS), an initiative of the UN Global Compact and UN Women, in addition to being part of the Observatory for Diversity in Advertising (OPD) as a supporting agency.
“We continue with several actions to build an increasingly inclusive work environment, with the strengthening of our Diversity and Inclusion Committee, awareness and literacy lectures for the entire agency and also focused on Inclusive Leadership, affirmative vacancies, diverse hiring curve , an exclusive talent bank for diverse audiences (the #Diversit) analysis of our demographic data based on the Census recently carried out, supporting our actions to act in a targeted manner and increasingly bring internal balance”, explained Larisa Lacerdda, Director of Resources Agency humans.
BETC Havas has global programs, such as the Femmes Forward Academy which, according to the director, will have an edition in 2023 where the focus will be on rising women. “The program is focused on working with themes such as increased confidence, stress and self-care and the empowerment of the female voice”, concluded Larissa.
DPZ
DPZ has 184 women in the agency, which represents more than 57% of the team. In leadership positions, this percentage rises to 58%. With actions focused on working on diversity and inclusion, the agency has the UNA plan, for black and indigenous people, which includes mentoring, coaching and English classes.
In the case of gender equality, the DPZ has policies such as affirmative selection processes, aimed at hiring trans people and women, especially black women.
“Focusing on Business, this plurality allows us to have more diverse and creative ideas and strategies, since we are talking about people who have different cultures, backgrounds and experiences. In the case of women, we have the affinity group of women. -chats with the entire DPZ team in an action called ‘Between Us’, which aims to share experiences to raise awareness of guidelines such as those involving the issue of gender in the advertising market”, explained Rejane Romano, Director of Communication from DPZ.
Lew’Lara\TBWA
LewLara\TBWA has 55.12% women, with 67.5% women in the executive leadership, in addition to having Marcia Esteves as President and Partner of the agency and future president of the Brazilian Association of Advertising Agencies (Abap).
According to Elise Passamani, the agency’s Chief Culture and Operations Office (CCOO), the agency’s efforts and commitments add to those of the TBWA network and Omnicom. “There are countless initiatives for the development of talent such as Colectiva and Omniwomen, designed especially to leverage the female talent of the networks. One of the most memorable results of these initiatives is the fact that we reached, in advance, the objective of having at least 50% of the branches TBWA in the world led by women”, said the executive.
Wunderman Thompson Brazil
Adding up all fronts, Wunderman Thompson Brasil has 58% of women on its staff. In leadership chairs, women occupy 64% of positions. In addition, Camila Arruda, the agency’s CPO, stated that, in 2022, 55% of the agency’s promotions and movements were aimed at women.
Regarding the initiatives, the executive explained that, in 2018, the agency committed to a project called 50/20, from the More Grls platform, which consisted of having 50% of the creative team made up of women by 2020. Currently, the area 57% of the agency’s creative staff are women.
Camila also explained that, within the technology business unit, the agency has the ADA project, which aims to encourage female presence in this market.
“We ran the first cycle in 2021 and, today, we already have 44% of our positions in WTT occupied by women. And, working within all our business units, we have the WunderWoman collective, made up of employees and ensuring visibility this agenda within our actions, calendar and initiatives”, said the executive.
Artplan
Artplan has 188 women working, a number that represents 59.9% of employees. Of these, 45.7% are in leadership positions, but of the 132 positions in this part of the pyramid, 65.2% are held by women.
According to Debora Moura, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Grupo Dreamers and Artplan, the agency’s recruiting team has been working on hiring different profiles, in addition to working on a program to train and value women in senior management and creation positions. which currently has four directors.
