Diageo is calling on its media agencies to ensure gender diversity within their executive hierarchies and gender equality in their compensation structures.
According to an AdAge report, Diageo”™s global Chief Marketing Officer Syl Saller recently sent letters to Diageo’s agencies requesting information on the percentage of women within their respective leadership ranks and data on whether their companies have a gender pay gap. Saller also wanted an update on how these agencies would address gender imbalances.
“Despite all of our collective efforts as an industry, the pace of substantive change has been too slow in how women are portrayed in content, how qualified women are represented at a senior level in creative development and how women are selected to be creative directors on content,” Saller said in her letter. “We need to make faster progress and the time for action is now.”
The agencies contacted by Saller and the Diageo brands they represent are 72andSunny (Smirnoff), Anomaly (Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan, Crown Royal), AMV BBDO (Guinness) and VMLY&R (Baileys), as well as the media relations agency Carat. It is uncertain what Diageo would do if Saller was unimpressed with the responses from these agencies. The company, which has its North American headquarters in Norwalk, stated that 40 percent of its executive committee and 45 percent of its senior global marketing leaders are women.
