The media industry’s lack of diversity is “kind of criminal,” according to to WPP Media ANZ CEO Aimee Buchanan.
She discussed the industry’s progress at the Women in Media national conference, held at Sydney’s ICC on Friday.
“Growing up in this industry, it was very much understood that you left after having children, so there weren’t really any women above the age of 40,” she said.
“There were a couple but very, very few. So I sort of came through thinking that was the norm.
“I found myself at 35 going, ‘Okay, so I have to leave. What am I going to do?’”
Buchanan said she realised she had a responsibility to drive change and began by tackling gender equity before expanding her efforts to address broader diversity gaps.
“One of the big insights we uncovered at my previous company – and it’s similar here – is that once women had children, they would leave the industry,” she said.
“Ninety per cent of people who would go on parental leave wouldn’t come back, so we put a lot of work into addressing that.”
Buchanan introduced return-to-work programs that helped ease women back in and gender-neutral parental policies to encourage men to take leave.
“Bit by bit, it became clear that this wasn’t just a gender problem – it was a general diversity problem,” she said.
Buchanan described the results of a recent industry-wide diversity survey as “appalling”.
“It was kind of criminal when you think about it,” she said.
“We work in media on behalf of the biggest brands in the country, talking to the whole of Australia, yet we don’t have representation of that diversity in our business.”
In response, WPP has launched a menopause policy, partnered with Amaze to support neurodiverse staff and introduced gender transition policies.
“There are lots of areas of society that we are not talking about, and then our workplace is not representing,” she said.
“If we get that right, then our jobs in terms of targeting the whole of Australia become a lot easier.
“And I think, hand on heart, we can say to our clients that we understand what makes up the diversity of this country, and that's everything from planning principles that enable us to understand that English isn’t the first spoken language in many households.”
She also criticised bias in influencer marketing, highlighting how narrow standards continue to dominate the industry.
“You put three influencers in front of a client, and nine out of 10 times they pick the blonde-haired, blue-eyed influencer – which is then manifesting a whole representation back into society, particularly into those younger generations,” she said.
“So now we have a rule that in every recommendation we include a diverse makeup… because if you’re not funding diverse influencers, you’re basically closing down the entire country.”
Buchanan said she feels optimistic about “the opportunities”.
“For decades we've complained about how manual our industry is, and for the first time ever, I feel like the technology will live up to its promise,” she said.
“You can actually see it taking away some of the mundane tasks that have bogged our people down for decades.
“I’m really optimistic about what we’re building on top of that, with AI shaping social and the future of search, I think it’s all really exciting.”
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