Mission
To make the advertising & marketing industry more representative of the consumers they sell to and more diverse, equitable, and inclusive for underrepresented talent by holding companies accountable to sustained DEI progress.
Vision
A public and standardized workforce and diversity database for the advertising industry that will annually capture, measure, and compare progress to show clients, employees, candidates, and competitors where each agency stands in their DEI results.
This project would not be possible without 600&Rising’s efforts to hold Agencies accountable and getting so many companies to publicly share their diversity data and #committochange.
A LETTER FROM US:
DEAR CLIENTS, AGENCY FOLKS, & AGENCY LEADERS
We recognize data is not the be all end all of any story and it won’t tell it in its entirety.
We also know data will not solve the extensive systemic issues that each agency needs to address to truly DO BETTER. Even with good numbers, an agency can still be an un-inclusive and un-equitable place.
However, data is a starting point for industry transparency and DEI tracking so that we have one centralized tool to see what each agency has publicly reported, to review what’s changed year to year, and to evaluate results.
There is a lot more to REAL and SUSTAINED progress in Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion than just the numbers, but since we currently can’t tangibly measure the efficacy of the qualitative actions that each agency has said they will take, numbers are our current resource for consistency and establishing baselines for the industry as a whole.
With the current state of affairs, we understand we’re playing the long game. But this can easily become a much shorter game if…
CLIENTS, you ask your agencies to publicly show their diversity data, meet your standards for being your partner, and explain how they’re doing better. We all know where the power resides in our industry.
EMPLOYEES, you collectively gather your voice and ask for public diversity data and internal accountability on what tangible actions your agencies are taking and what the results are.
AGENCIES, you simply decide to do better without needing external pressure and accountability.
Please join us in DOING THE WORK.
Objectives
Establish an independent, industry-wide data standard for Agency diversity data.
Foster visibility to encourage essential growth and transparency in the advertising and marketing industry.
Create trackable transparency (a Keni Thacker-ism) and measure progress annually by establishing baselines to evaluate year over year progress at each agency and collectively as an industry.
Establish means for accountability of agencies’ public pledges to “do better” by tracking how they are actually doing.
Bring to light the disparities in representation across workforces, seniority, and departments.
Provide information to clients and talent who want to be more informed about their agency’s diversity status to aid decision making.
Guiding Principles
Objectivity - When humans are involved there’s potential for bias. We commit to doing the extra work to ensure that the presentation of our analysis and insights represents information reflected in the data. Please contact us if you see something that seems otherwise so we can review.
Transparency - We are asking for agencies to be transparent and we commit to do the same. The data we use to do our analysis is available for download and we ask agencies to publicly publish the data they share with us as well.
Grace - We are not in the cancel business. Hiring, nurturing, advancing, diverse talent is deep WORK and missteps will be made. We want to drive change by sharing stories of agencies that are committed and accountable to the WORK and the results of their efforts. This way, brands that value diverse creativity and talent that values diverse environments can easily see who’s who.
The People - This is who we aim to serve. The people whose lives are impacted through advertising and marketing. And the people whose ideas fuel this industry. We want to do our part in ensuring that people feel respected, represented, and included in the stories that brands tell and in the places they work.
Who is this for?
Clients
To review your agency’s diversity data as you evaluate and compare the vendors you employ. And to help you find potential new agency partners.
Employees
To see how your (prospective) employers are performing as you consider your tenure, career path, and the company environment you want to invest your time in.
Agencies
To benchmark and compare your performance to competitors and the industry in aid of business development, recruiting, and retention.