AdNews is following the WFH Diaries with a series of Perspectives, asking two questions: What did you learn in 2021 and what are you looking forward to in 2022? We've also encouraged the industry to glam, dress for the best, and face next year with optimism.
This article first appeared in the November-December 2021 AdNews magazine.
Sunita Gloster, CEO of Gloster Advisory:
We have changed. We proved on a global scale that change is not only possible, but that it can be achieved faster than anyone could have imagined.
We unlearned and relearned how to wash our hands. We adopted and accepted new behaviours as the quid pro quo for freedoms of consumption and movement. Almost overnight we pivoted to an almost entirely digital existence and we made it work. Professor Scott Galloway described the rate of change seen in corporate-land with elegant simplicity ‘ten years progress in ten weeks’.
We proved we can act in the best interests of our neighbours and the community. Even if it wasn’t easy, nor comfortable. We did it, because we had to. Lives and livelihoods depended on it.
Many called it out as the wake-up call we needed to get to a better place, surfacing issues of mental health, domestic violence, vulnerabilities and inequalities.
There is no growth without change. There is no change without loss of old ways. There is no loss without pain. Perhaps the reflective adage for our pandemic times.
Whilst the rapid digitisation of business will be celebrated as the pandemic’s silver lining, let us not lose what we learned about ourselves, each other and our communities. Most of us would attest there is no going back to the way things were. But how do we move forward?
Whilst the rate of change may be too difficult to sustain, our opportunity is to keep strengthening the muscle for change. Imagine the progress we can make as a society if we acted on the wisdoms of our observations and aligned behind a COVID-19-style response to the inequities that still inhibit an equal future for all.
For us in the media and marketing industry, we are a powerful collective best placed to shape and change consumers attitudes and behaviours.
It’s the label on our tin.
Our industry has the market power to drive humanitarian progress and force change, while simultaneously discharging its duty to brand growth. By genuinely putting the customers we serve first. Think of the discrimination, repression and violence we’ll be accepting and perpetuating if we don’t.
We can play a vital role to help brands and businesses navigate the importance of accelerating change on equality, diversity and inclusion.
Unchallenged harmful stereotypes are a root cause of discrimination and inequality. As long as these portrayals are perpetuated and reinforced in advertising and in our media, we will continue to pay lip service to the lessons and insights we espouse changed us through the pandemic.
As we close 2021, UN Women Australia will unite the industry behind the Unstereotype Alliance, a thought and action platform with a core group of advertisers, creative, tech and media players and the intent to secure commitments industry wide. A platform to harness our momentum for change and provide an outlet to make a difference.
The aim is to tackle harmful stereotypes in advertising and media content and focus on encouraging diverse, inclusive and non-stereotypical representations of marginalised groups. To champion the advertising industry to act as a force for good, depicting progressive portrayals of women and men and ensuring that diversity is a priority throughout the entire supply chain and creative process.
For years now, the industry has spent copious time round-tabling and navel gazing in its search for purpose, to give businesses meaning beyond growth and shareholder value. One would argue the pandemic has provided ultimate clarity, purpose and an industry change agenda.
Let’s start 2022 by putting the strength of our collective will, creativity, reach, technology and budget to influence thinking at scale, to ensure everything we touch serves the purpose of creating an equal future for everyone.
2020 was for many the annus horribilis. 2021, a waiting game, an endless stream of contactless experiences.
2022 is ours for the making. And its outcomes are on our watch. Let’s harness change and apply our weapons of mass construction.
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