16631: Delayed WTF 58—WPP CEO Mark Read On AI, DEIBA+, And BS.

 

MultiCultClassics is often occupied with real work. As a result, a handful of events occur without the expected blog commentary. This limited series—Delayed WTF—seeks to make belated amends for the absence of malice.

 

The following Cannes interview is about a year old, yet it’s still topical and warrants color commentary. WPP CEO Mark Read discussed AI and DEIBA+ with all the warmth and compassion of, well, a White male multimillionaire.

 

The comments feel AI-generated and Chief Diversity Officer-delegated. Call it ShatGPT, as the bullshit is devoid of authenticity, empathy, and humanity.

 

“My ambition is to get meaningfully closer to a workforce that represents our societies and a culture where people feel they belong,” claimed Read. “Diversity is not only a moral imperative but also a powerful business opportunity and it will continue to be a key priority for us.”

 

Given the White holding company’s financial struggles, it appears the powerful business opportunity isn’t paying off. Or maybe Read’s rhetoric doesn’t reflect reality, but rather, systemic racism. It’s a safe bet that the corporation’s AI budget completely dwarfs the diversity budget.

 

The CEO even referenced George Floyd and Karen Blackett, both of whom are no longer living in Read’s exclusive universe. Read also promoted heat shields by highlighting a program designed to recruit midlife White women into the field. Perfect.

 

Finally, the portrait accompanying the piece (depicted above)—with Read sitting in his cushy corner C-suite—looks like it was generated by an AI platform.  

 

Holding company chiefs on AI and inclusion: Mark Read

 

The WPP chief executive tells us his thoughts on inclusion at his company and how AI could impact upon it

 

By Mark Read

 

In the second of our Q&As with the holding company chiefs ahead of Cannes, Mark Read talks to us about WPP’s DE&I initiatives and the potential threat of AI bias:

 

As CEO of WPP, what lessons have you learned about the role of diversity in the success of your business, and the work you do for your clients?

 

Creativity thrives in a diverse culture. That’s one of the reasons why we make it our business to encourage and inspire a diversity of talent throughout WPP. By embracing different perspectives, we not only deliver extraordinary work for our clients that authentically reflects the diverse world we live in, but we also attract and retain the best talent.

 

What are your ambitions around diversity over the next five years?

 

My ambition is to get meaningfully closer to a workforce that represents our societies and a culture where people feel they belong. Diversity is not only a moral imperative but also a powerful business opportunity and it will continue to be a key priority for us. What this means in practice is that we will continue to invest in diversity initiatives that not only build a talent pipeline for WPP, but for our industry as a whole. Two examples bring this ambition to life. We’ve launched Visible Start, a programme with the Uninvisibility Project and Brixton Finishing School to get more midlife women into our industry; this year we have 320 participants, and 19 of the first cohort were employed across WPP agencies. We’ve also backed ONE School UK, a One Club for Creativity initiative helping more Black creatives build top careers in advertising.

 

Are there any areas of DE&I that you think the industry has not started to address properly?

 

While solid progress has been made to advance racial equity, there is still a lot to do and progress requires continued attention. To mark the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death last month, we published a series of reflections on what’s changed in the last three years, and where we need more focus. Karen Blackett OBE, President of our UK business, explained why racial equity is crucial to the future of our industry, and what we’ve learned through initiatives such as WPP’s Consumer Equality Equation Report — a ground-breaking study that shattered misconceptions about minority ethnic audiences in the UK. Pedro Reiss, CEO of Wunderman Thompson in Brazil, passionately sets out the case for allyship, demonstrating what can happen when an organisation makes a collective effort to transform its culture and practices. And LJ Louis, our Chief Talent and Inclusion Officer, reminds us that while we’ve achieved “solid early returns”, we’re only just getting started.

 

Critics say that AI is already reinforcing and exacerbating many challenges already faced by society, such as bias, discrimination and misinformation. How do you think this is going to impact the use of AI in advertising and marketing?

 

There are some well-publicised biases in AI, not just in how the models work, but also in the underlying datasets and how they are applied. All of this means greater vigilance is needed. We’ve rolled out a set of principles, guidance and legal advice internally to help our 115,000 people across the world navigate these challenges and we’re consulting to clients to help them as well. Ultimately, there will be regulation in various forms to provide the right guardrails — and beyond this the smart combination of AI and people to make sure we can identify the pitfalls as well as the opportunities.

16559: BHM 2024—Karen Blackett.

 

Although it’s technically not a BHM 2024 moment, MediaPost reported President of WPP UK Karen Blackett is leaving to pursue “other interests and opportunities”—which is actually a monumental Black history event for Adland. The “other interests and opportunities” will greatly benefit from Blackett’s genius.

 

Longtime WPP Executive Blackett Stepping Down After 29 Years At The Company

 

By Steve McClellan

 

WPP announced today that Karen Blackett, UK country president, is leaving after nearly 29 years with the company.

 

Blackett is set to depart this summer to pursue other interests and opportunities, according to the company.

 

She joined WPP via media agency MediaCom (now part of EssenceMediacom), rising to become UK CEO.

 

Blackett also spent three years as COO of MediaCom EMEA. In 2020 she became UK CEO of GroupM, and is credited with leading the company through a time of significant transformation and uncertainty due to the global pandemic.

 

Blackett has been a staunch advocate for greater industry diversity and business generally. She played a central role in WPP’s response to the murder of George Floyd and its repercussions around the world.

 

In 2011, she introduced the first government-backed apprenticeship program in the media sector, and in 2018 she was appointed by the UK Prime Minister as Race Equality Business Champion. More recently she was instrumental in the creation of the UK Inclusion Board to share learnings and elevate best practice policies around DEI companywide.

 

And her contributions have been recognized beyond the advertising and media industries. She has topped the UK’s EMpower, HERoes and Powerlist rankings, and been featured in the Vogue 25 Most Influential Women in Britain. In 2014 she was awarded an OBE for services to media and communications.

 

CEO Mark Read stated: “Karen has continually been a positive force for change in our industry and her commitment and unwavering loyalty to WPP and our clients have benefitted the company in many ways.”

 

Blackett said: “I will miss our brilliant people in our agencies, our clients and the creativity of our teams. I am always on a growth journey, and the time is right to pursue this outside of WPP.”

 

Separately, in the U.S. today EssenceMediacom confirmed a leadership change.

15956: There’s A New Ruler In The UK.

Adweek reported that Karen Blackett has been promoted to President of WPP UK. What could possibly be more newsworthy in the UK right now?

 

GroupM’s Karen Blackett Promoted to President of WPP UK

 

She previously held the role of UK CEO for the media network and UK country manager

 

By Stephen Lepitak

 

As it brings its agencies closer together in the U.K. into a second campus based in London to further simplify its operations, agency network WPP has promoted GroupM’s chief executive there, Karen Blackett, to country president.

 

The elevation of Blackett, who initially joined media agency Mediacom as chief operations director in 2008, will see her step up from U.K. country manager, a role she also held—placing a full-time focus on WPP, which employs around 12,000 people in the U.K.

 

Mark Read, CEO of WPP, said in a statement that—as its second largest market, generating over $2.34 billion (2 billion pounds) in revenue—the U.K. required someone to focus on it full-time.

 

“Karen is one of the most admired figures in our industry and the kind of collaborative, people-focused leader who is perfect for this role,” he added.

 

The second multi-agency campus, which will house Grey and Mindshare, following the establishment of the offices in Sea Containers on London’s South Bank, which also houses Wavemaker, VML Y&R and Ogilvy. Manchester is another base for WPP, opened in 2019 for regional operations.

 

Karen Blackett said: “I took on the GroupM role in the first week of lockdown in 2020, with a focus on guiding the business through the pandemic and beginning the transformation of GroupM in the U.K. We’ve made huge progress and achieved so much in those two and a half years—and I’m delighted to be able to hand the baton to a new leader with the organisation in good health.”

 

A successor as U.K. chief executive of GroupM “will be announced in due course,” the business has said.

 

Christian Juhl, global CEO of GroupM, outlined Blackett’s achievements in the previous role: “When she became CEO of GroupM in the UK, Karen had very clear objectives, which she has delivered in full. During her time with GroupM, the business has grown strongly and our agencies in the UK have won and retained substantial business, with a range of major clients.”

14809: Karen Blackett Suggests Expanding One’s Circle Of White Friends.

Campaign spotlighted WPP UK Country Manager Karen Blackett, who suggested White people won’t change the industry if none of their best friends are BAME. “When you think about your immediate close companions, when there are times of crisis or success, who do you turn to, go to for advice—is that circle very similar to you?” asked Blackett. “Do they look the same as you, do they have the same background as you? If they are, we’re not doing enough to expand our own minds or expand the industry.” Sadly, Blackett is talking in circles—highly exclusive circles, that is.

Karen Blackett to industry leaders: Check your circle to boost diversity

By Simon Gwynn

WPP’s UK boss makes an impassioned argument for the business case for diversity at Campaign’s Changing Faces event.

Industry leaders should examine the make-up of their own circle of close friends and associates if they are serious about improving the representation of people from black, Asian and minority-ethnic backgrounds in advertising and marketing, WPP’s Karen Blackett said.

She said: “When you think about your immediate close companions, when there are times of crisis or success, who do you turn to, go to for advice—is that circle very similar to you? Do they look the same as you, do they have the same background as you? If they are, we’re not doing enough to expand our own minds or expand the industry.”

Blackett, appointed WPP’s first UK country manager in January 2018 and brought on as the government’s race equality business champion later the same year, was delivering the keynote address at Changing Faces, a Campaign event held yesterday (Thursday) at Sea Containers to discuss the steps that need to be taken to increase the number of people from BAME backgrounds in the industry.

“Diversity is not a problem that we have to fix, it is a solution,” Blackett argued. “It is not a ‘cause’—this is about what we need to do in order to grow our business. It makes business sense because it’s about creativity. When you get lots of people from different backgrounds together, you better solutions and ideas.”

As well as the benefits of having a range of perspectives to creatively driven industries, Blackett pointed out that improving career opportunities for people of BAME backgrounds would benefit the economy as a whole. She referred to 2017’s McGregor-Smith review on race in the workplace that found achieving equality of employment opportunity for people from BAME backgrounds could grow the UK economy by £24bn, or 1.3% of GDP.

At the moment, among 16- to 24-year-olds, the employment rate is 58% for those who are white, but only 33% for those who are black, Blackett said. Meanwhile, just 8% of senior leaders in advertising come from a BAME background, compared with 13% of the UK population—a figure that is likely to have grown since—and 40% in London, according to the 2011 census.

Blackett credited a commitment to diversity as a key driver of the success of MediaCom, where she has been chief executive and then chair since 2011. During that time, the agency has increased its proportion of BAME employees from 11% to 19% and at entry level it is now around 35%. “If I think about the success there and how it has stayed the number one media agency for 10 years, part of that is just diversity of thought,” she said.

Furthermore, Blackett outlined five key behaviours needed for change: leadership, ensuring there is a root-and-branch approach in organisations, commitment from people at the top, shared focus and resources, both in terms of people and money.

“This cannot come in terms of sheer will only,” she said.

14328: Champion Of The People.

Campaign reported WPP UK Country Manager and MediaCom UK & Ireland Chairwoman Karen Blackett was appointed Race Equality Business Champion by UK Prime Minister Theresa May. Great, now even governmental leaders are delegating diversity in adland and beyond. Plus, it was recently revealed that the U.S. advertising industry employs fewer than 100 Black female executives. How do UK figures compare? How rare is the new Race Equality Business Champion?

PM appoints Karen Blackett as race equality business champion

Karen Blackett OBE, WPP UK country manager and chairwoman of MediaCom UK & Ireland, has been appointed race equality business champion by the Prime Minister as part of a Race at Work Charter launched at a roundtable hosted by WPP today.

The charter, which sets out five practical steps for businesses to drive forward race equality in the workplace, has also been signed by companies including Shell, Norton Rose Fulbright and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

It is run by the Prince of Wales’s responsible business network Business in the Community and calls on organisations to help ethnic minority staff progress at senior levels by removing barriers and embedding initiatives such as mentoring and sponsorship programmes.

Prime Minister Theresa May said: “Every employee deserves the opportunity to progress and fulfill their potential in their chosen field, regardless of which background they are from, but too often ethnic minority employees feel they’re hitting a brick wall when it comes to career progression.”

At WPP, Blackett has established an Inclusion Board to look at how apprenticeships and programmes focused on reverse mentoring can encourage a more diverse and reflective workforce.

She said: “Embracing diversity and inclusion is not a choice, it’s a business necessity. As the Race at Work champion, I’m committed to helping businesses address inequality at all levels by taking practical steps such as introducing apprenticeships, offering mentorships and capturing ethnicity data to create a more inclusive and representative workforce.”

14161: Blackett Is Beautiful.

Campaign spotlighted WPP U.K. Country Manager and MediaCom Chairwoman Karen Blackett, who appeared at the Creative Equals Future Leaders in London and remarked, “15% of our creative talent is from EU markets and we want them to feel they belong.” Um, does anyone who isn’t White feel they belong in adland?

WPP’s Blackett: opportunity for creative industries is to make people feel they belong post-Brexit

Karen Blackett, UK country manager at WPP and chairwoman at MediaCom, has said the opportunity for the creative industries is to make people feel like they belong in a post-Brexit world.

By Nicola Kemp

Speaking at the Creative Equals Future Leaders in London last week, Blackett (pictured) said: “15% of our creative talent is from EU markets and we want them to feel they belong.”

Describing modern Britain as a “beautiful fruit salad of people”, she said the more that diversity is reflected in organisations the easier it becomes to connect with people.

A question of confidence

Blackett noted that, regardless of how we voted, Brexit is coming and it has knocked consumer confidence. A state of play which she says means that for brands it is no longer about getting on consumers’ consideration list it is about getting on the “priority list”.

She said the current market is described internally within WPP as grappling with “VUCA” (volatility; uncertainty/the known unknowns; complexity and ambiguity/the unknown unknowns).

However, she noted that “this is the ninth consecutive year we are predicting growth in the advertising industry”.

Digital, technology and data

Despite the industry’s much-discussed focus on data and digital transformation, according to Blackett, less than 10% of clients at Group M have a single view of a customer. She said: “If we can harness this data it will be like catnip for the creative solutions we can come up with.”

Blackett said that technology allows us to do more for our clients and ‘whatever department we work in we need to lean into this’. In practical terms she said this means knowing who your tech partners are.

She said the core question for the industry is “how do we ensure we have a point of difference?” “When clients are bringing things in house the question is how can we be with them on that journey and have a role?”

Technology allows us to do more for our clients—whatever department we work in we need to lean into this she added, and asked, “who are your tech partners do you know your tech partners.”

“How do we ensure we have a point of difference? Bringing things in house for clients—how can we be with them on that journey and have a role. Technology allows us to do that but it can also be a threat,” Blackett added.

13975: WPProgress…?

Campaign reported MediaCom UK Chairwoman Karen Blackett was named WPP UK Country Manager—a new role at the White holding company. According to Campaign, Blackett is now “the most important agency leader in the British ad industry.” Then again, it would be interesting to learn how her current salary compares to others in the field—especially in contrast to WPP Overlord Sir Martin Sorrell’s compensation package. While Blackett’s elevation is a well-deserved and groundbreaking move, it technically doesn’t improve diversity in adland, as she was already on the WPP payroll. But the appointment helps the cause overall, as Blackett has always been a vocal proponent for inclusion. “The ad industry is not diverse enough,” remarked Blackett. “It doesn’t reflect the consumer base that our clients are targeting.” The critique is actually more dramatic when considering that WPP is “perhaps the most diverse example of diversity of any single organisation.” Can’t wait to see what happens if Blackett must engage with WPP Spain Country Manager Gustavo Martinez.

WPP names Karen Blackett as its first UK country manager

By Gideon Spanier

WPP has named Karen Blackett as its first UK country manager, making her the most important agency leader in the British ad industry.

Blackett, who will retain her current role as chairwoman of MediaCom UK for six months, has been appointed with immediate effect. She will work with 17,000 staff in dozens of agencies spanning media, creative, design, branding, data and public relations across WPP’s £2 billion-a-year UK operation.

She said her priorities include getting WPP’s agencies to work “in a more joined-up and collaborative way”, developing new products and “managing and diversifying the talent base”.

Her promotion was announced at the same time that Group M, WPP’s media-buying arm, named Tom George as its UK chief executive to replace Nick Theakstone, who becomes global chief investment officer.

Blackett maintained that WPP, the dominant agency group in UK advertising with close to 40% of the agency market, has “headroom” to grow further organically and she identified “high-growth” and e-commerce clients as sectors where “we don’t have a big enough market share”.

She said: “If you look at the top 100 global brands, then we’re doing pretty well. But if you look at another metric like ‘high-growth’ businesses, we could be doing a lot better.”

Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, described Blackett as “an exceptional and inspirational leader” and “a tireless champion of diversity in our business, in the wider sector and in public life in general”.

He said in a memo to staff: “Karen will focus on our core strategic priority of horizontality: ensuring our companies work together effectively and present a seamlessly integrated and simplified offer to clients.

“She will also support efforts to attract and retain the best and most diverse talent, generate cross-group business opportunities and identify potential acquisitions and investments.”

Blackett, whose parents grew up in Barbados before moving to Britain, was named the “most admired” business leader in the UK ad industry in a survey of agencies for Campaign’s 2017 School Reports.

She acknowledged that her promotion to WPP country manager has symbolic importance because she is black, female and “from a working-class background”.

She said: “The ad industry is not diverse enough. It doesn’t reflect the consumer base that our clients are targeting.”

Blackett hopes to apply some of the lessons that she learnt at MediaCom, Britain’s biggest media agency, and its predecessor The Media Business, where she started in 1995, after spells at CIA and Zenith.

“When you get diversity of thought, you get better answers,” she said. “It’s the route to creativity.”

Blackett, who was UK chief executive of MediaCom from 2011 to 2015, sees parallels between her new role as WPP country manager and her past job as MediaCom’s chief operating officer for EMEA when she worked with “a group of incredibly talented CEOs” from different countries to collaborate more effectively.

“I don’t think it’s about ‘command and control’ — that’s never been my style,” she said. “It’s really about championing and collaborating and influencing.”

The CEOs of the different UK agencies will keep what Blackett described as a “solid” reporting line to their respective global or regional agency CEO — rather than reporting to her.

She added that there are no plans for WPP to have a single P&L for the UK “at this moment of time”, explaining: “My role is to create a UK team across the UK operating companies and make them work better.”

She will have a small office and team but does not expect to recruit externally.

Blackett, who has only worked in media agencies, knows most of the leaders of WPP’s ad agencies but said “I need to know better” the UK agency CEOs in other areas such as branding, digital and PR.

Sorrell is under pressure to simplify WPP after it cut its global revenue forecast three times last year and its share price slumped 26% from £18 to just above £13 as FMCG clients reduced agency fees.

However, WPP’s UK operation, its biggest after north America, performed well as its net sales rose 3.2% in the first nine months of 2017 compared to a 0.7% drop globally.

WPP, which said in its 2016 annual report that it had more than 160 companies, has slashed the number of agency brands that it operates in the last 12 months.

MEC and Maxus have merged to form Wavemaker, Wunderman has absorbed Possible and Salmon, five branding and design agencies including Lambie-Nairn and The Partners are becoming one group, and today research group Kantar brought together four agencies in a single unit, Kantar Consulting.

WPP has also been appointing country managers in about 50 countries as part of the move to improve collaboration and Blackett said she has talked to several of her counterparts to pick up ideas.

She said there is “an opportunity to avoid duplication of effort” but insisted: “I don’t think it’s about cutting costs. Yes, there are synergies that can happen but let’s think about creativity and growth.”

Blackett added WPP has “talked about horizontality for three or four years” and it needs to become “a strategy” that is embedded in the way the company does business, rather than just because “a client demands it”.

Other agency groups have been appointing country managers. Publicis Groupe has poached Annette King, the UK chief executive of WPP’s Ogilvy, who will start as its first UK chief executive later this year.

According to WPP’s latest annual report, for 2016, it had £1.9bn in UK revenues and 14,000 staff.

At the current point in time, and with associates included, WPP says it has approximately $3bn (£2.25bn) in UK revenues and 17,000 staff.

13344: Progress 1000 100% Bullshit.

Campaign reported the London Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 included BBH Co-Founder Sir John Hegarty, Havas Media Group UK & Ireland CEO Paul Frampton and MediaCom UK CEO Karen Blackett. In the cases of Hegarty and Frampton, progress clearly doesn’t refer to diversity.

Hegarty, Hornby and Blackett recognised in Evening Standard’s Progress 1,000

By Gurjit Degun

John Hegarty, co-founder of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Johnny Hornby, founder of The & Partnership, and Karen Blackett, chairwoman at MediaCom UK, are some of the agency and media executives to make it into the London Evening Standard’s Progress 1,000.

The trio have been listed as “brand builders” alongside Nick Theakstone, UK chief executive at Group M, Amanda Morrissey, UK chief executive at Publicis Groupe Media, Tracy De Groose, UK chief executive at Dentsu Aegis Network, Paul Frampton, chief executive at Havas Media Group UK & Ireland, and Philippa Brown, chief executive at Omnicom Media Group UK.

Media owners Jeremy Darroch, group chief executive at Sky, David Abraham, chief executive at Channel 4, and Rebekah Brooks, chief executive at News UK, were also recognised in the newsmakers list.

They were alongside Lord Hall, director-general at the BBC, Evgeny Lebedev, proprietor of the London Evening Standard and The Independent, Viscount Rothermere, chairman at the Daily Mail and General Trust, and Kelly Merryman, vice president for content partnerships at YouTube.

Last year’s list included Camilla Harrisson, chief executive and partner at Anomaly London, Cilla Snowball, group chief executive and chairwoman at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, and James Murphy, chief executive at Adam & Eve/DDB.

13213: Criminal Complacency.

Campaign published quotes from a discussion on diversity in the advertising and media industries featuring MediaCom Chairwoman Karen Blackett and Stonewall CEO Ruth Hunt. “What’s really struck me about the media industry is a significant complacency,” declared Hunt. “There is assumption of meritocracy, an assumption that creative is meritocratic and an absolute instinct to only work with your friends and people you trust and worked with before.”

Okay, the official definition of complacency includes:

1. a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

Hunt hit the proverbial nail on the head. However, she failed to effectively qualify the complacency—“significant” is too polite. Better qualifiers include:

Culturally clueless complacency

Racist complacency

Criminal complacency

The quiet pleasure and smug satisfaction of exclusivity is an ethical, moral and legal violation that cannot be tolerated with complacency.

Stonewall CEO: media industry ‘complacent’ about diversity

The advertising and media industry risks alienating clients and audiences because of its “complacent” attitude towards diversity, the chief executive of Stonewall has claimed.

By Omar Oakes

Ruth Hunt, the chief executive of the LBGT equality rights charity, told Friday’s Media360 conference in Brighton that a “lack of imagination” was responsible to diversity not being taken seriously by agencies and media owners.

She said: “What’s really struck me about the media industry is a significant complacency. There is assumption of meritocracy, an assumption that creative is meritocratic and an absolute instinct to only work with your friends and people you trust and worked with before.

“There is a very insider and outsider culture in media. If you are in any way other from the main group of people, who like working with people like them who get what they’re thinking in two-and-a-half sentences.

“The limitation that has creates means you are missing a significant amount of different views within that group. You’re missing audiences and clients. Organisations we’re working with like the big banks won’t want to work with you because you’ll feel anachronistic.”

However, Hunt did single out Channel 4 for praise as the “crème de la crème” when it comes to diversity. Her fellow panelist Paul Sapsford, the broadcaster’s group continuity manager, talked about Channel 4’s Year of Disability 2016, which aims to increase on and off-screen representation of disabled people.

Separately, Channel 4 launched a competition at Advertising Week Europe last month, which will see £1m in airtime gifted to a brand that comes up with the best creative idea featuring people with disabilities.

Karen Blackett, the chairwoman of MediaCom, pointed to a vicious circle in which the media industry fails to attract ethnically diverse candidates because they do not see enough ethnic people in advertising, while a lack of diversity within agencies meant creative ideas lacked ethnic representation.

She said: “What we do is set cultural norms. If you don’t see yourself on screen, whether that’s in a programme on an ad that’s a clear issue, not just for altruistic reasons but for business reasons.

“If you’ve got purchasing power of BAME increasing in the UK by 10-fold, ad they’re not seeing themselves in an ad or programme, there’s no relevancy.”

12984: Caucasian Committee.

Campaign reported Publicis Groupe is seeking someone to lead a U.K. committee that will oversee British operations. From those wonderful folks who gave you more management layers comes a corporate committee. Brilliant. Look for the slot to be filled with a White man, or possibly a White woman. Campaign tossed MediaCom CEO Karen Blackett into the pool of contenders, but is the Publicis Groupe clan ready for such progress? Doubt it. Hell, Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Lévy can’t even figure out how to integrate digital and traditional advertising.

Publicis Groupe eyes candidates for top UK committee role

By Gideon Spanier

Publicis Groupe executives are jockeying to see who will head a UK committee that will oversee all of the group’s British operations for the first time.

Insiders said details about the new role were still being worked out and it was not yet clear if the post will carry clout or be a symbolic title.

Much will depend on the calibre of the person who is appointed to head the underperforming UK operations amid speculation that the group could consider an outsider for the role.

Observers said two Britons — Robert Senior, the global chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi, and Iain Jacob, the president of the media agency Starcom Mediavest Group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa — were likely to be leading internal contenders for the job.

Other senior Britons within Publicis Groupe include Steve King, the worldwide chief executive at the media agency ZenithOptimedia, and Luke Taylor, the global chief executive of the digital agency DigitasLBi. However, it less clear if either King or Taylor would take the role of heading the UK committee.

King has just been promoted to a wider role as the global head of Publicis Media, a new unit encompassing all its media buying operations, and is expected to focus on the US, where Publicis Groupe has just lost Procter & Gamble’s estimated $2.7 billion account.

One source claimed an outsider with heavyweight credentials might have a better chance of forcing UK agencies from different disciplines to collaborate more closely and suggested Publicis Groupe could approach Karen Blackett, the boss of WPP’s media agency MediaCom.

But she has just been promoted from UK chief executive to chairman of MediaCom and there is no suggestion that Publicis Groupe has been in contact recently.

Some observers said Phil Georgiadis, the chairman of Blue 449, part of ZenithOptimedia, could also be a plausible candidate for the UK committee, having experience of a diversified group at M&C Saatchi.

Maurice Lévy, the chief executive of Publicis Groupe, needs to turn things around in Britain, its third most important market after the US and its native France.

UK revenues fell in 2014 and again in the first three quarters of 2015 despite the booming local ad market.

Lévy told Campaign that no decision has been made about the UK committee and said mention of any individuals, including Blackett, was speculation. Publicis Groupe did not respond to further requests for comment.

Lévy said earlier this month that he wanted to shake up the world’s third-biggest advertising group by breaking down silos between media, creative, digital and healthcare by appointing a committee head for each country and chief client officers with a group-wide role.

The company said: “In order to co-ordinate and best take advantage of all of the group’s assets, a committee will be set up in the main countries where Publicis Groupe operates. This committee will represent all solutions and will be led by a group representative. The first to be put in place is a US committee, and will be led by Laura Desmond.”

Lévy has also appointed global heads of media, creative, digital and healthcare, who will look after all the agencies in their respective discipline.

One person claimed the chief client officer role was “a job that is destined to fail” because it will be likely to play second fiddle to the agency bosses. The new group structure launches in January.

Desmond has been given the role of chief revenue officer, in charge of the chief client officers and the US committee, after SMG, the agency she headed since 2008, lost Procter & Gamble.

Publicis Groupe has fallen behind rivals since its failed global merger with Omnicom last year.

Revenues rose 1 per cent on an organic basis in the first nine months of 2015. WPP’s rose by 4.8 per cent and Omnicom’s by 5.5 per cent over the same period.

12877: Inspiring Karen Blackett.

Campaign reported MediaCom CEO Karen Blackett was named among the Top Ten Inspirational Women by Marie Claire. Are there even ten Black women in the UK advertising and marketing industry? Given Blackett’s accomplishments, you’d think she would serve as inspiration for adland to ignite its diversity efforts.

Karen Blackett named among Marie Claire’s top ten inspirational women

By Omar Oakes

Karen Blackett, the chief executive of MediaCom, has been named as one of Marie Claire’s ten most inspirational women at its Women At The Top Awards.

The annual awards, hosted by the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Trish Halpin, honours ten female “game-changers who have shaped 2015”, from business to the arts.

Blackett was included on the list after topping the Powerful Media ‘Power List’ as ‘the most influential black person in Britain’, as well as being in charge of a budget of more than £1.2 billion and helping launch the first government-backed apprenticeship scheme for the creative industry.

She said: “I create a culture where you’re allowed to bring yourself to work. I want to recognise if some of our female talent is struggling with blending their work and home lives. We have many family-based initiatives [new mothers receive one week’s salary as a “baby bonus”, and their wage is raised ten per cent in the first year after they return to help with childcare].

“I regularly ask the team to tell me what they’d do if they were CEO for the day. Then we implement the best ideas. One of the winning ideas was introducing life coaching for everybody at the agency; we’ve now got a happier, more productive workforce and a better, profitable business.”

The ten winners:

Bridget Christie; award-winning comedian;

Destiny Ekaragha, filmmaker and only the third black female director to have released a feature-length film in the UK;

Pip Black and Joan Murphy, founders of Frame gym;

Dr Safia Jabeen, founder of the Chadni sexual health clinic for Muslim women;

Paula Hawkins, writer of the bestselling novel, The Girl on the Train;

Kim Woodward, the first female head chef at Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill restaurant;

Major Natalie Taylor, a regimental medial officer for the British Army;

Emily Rawson, a DJ and founder of the all-female DJ collective, Rock the Belles;

Karen Blackett OBE, the chief executive of MediaCom;

and Josephine Goube, the director of strategic partnerships at Migreat, an online platform helping individuals with immigration.

12564: Media Hucksters & Kickbacksters.

Advertising Age reported former MediaCom CEO Jon Mandel insisted media agency rebates and kickbacks are business-as-usual occurrences in the U.S. and beyond. Um, Mandel’s revelations are like the Ku Klux Klan announcing they hate Blacks. Media agencies deal with more kickbacks than a Bruce Lee film festival. Of course, GroupM Chief Digital Officer Rob Norman quickly countered by saying, “In the U.S., rebates or other forms of hidden revenue are not part of GroupM’s trading relationships with vendors. GroupM and its agencies have not sought nor received any rebates from U.S. media vendors or other parties with whom we do business on behalf of our clients. In other markets around the world, rebates are sometimes part of the buy-sell relationship between agency and vendor. GroupM returns those rebates to advertisers in compliance with and as required by our client contracts.” Gee, Norman must have run that statement through legal before delivering it—and he probably received a kickback for doing so. Norman would probably also insist GroupM is committed to diversity—and point to MediaCom UK CEO Karen Blackett as patronizing proof—despite the predominately White global leadership depicted above. On all levels and in all areas, media wonks are the leading hucksters of the industry.

Former Mediacom CEO Alleges Widespread U.S. Agency ‘Kickbacks’

At ANA Forum, Mandel Details Practices He Puts Among Reasons He Left Agency World

By Jack Neff

Media agency rebates and kickbacks, long thought to be something that happened overseas—or only in pockets of the U.S. market—are actually widespread, said former Mediacom CEO Jon Mandel, so much so that it caused him to leave the agency business. Mr. Mandel made his remarks in a blistering presentation to the Association of National Advertisers Media Leadership Conference on Thursday in Hollywood, Fla.

Mr. Mandel, who left Mediacom as CEO in 2006 and later served three years as CEO of the NielsenConnect unit, made his remarks as CEO of media consultancy Dogsled Enterprises. He’s also CEO of marketing-analytics firm PrecisionDemand and board member or advisor to ad-tech firms, including online targeting firm eXelate.

While Mr. Mandel hasn’t led a media agency for nearly a decade, he based his remarks largely on what he said were private not-for-attribution conversations with media executives. His presentation included an image of one heavily redacted document that he said showed a media agency agreeing with an unnamed media vendor to an industry-standard 2% commission, but as much as 9% in volume-based incentives.

Mr. Mandel worked with other consultants in studying the issue at the behest of an ANA Media Transparency Task Force made up of about 20 ANA members whom Group Exec-VP Bill Duggan declined to name. But he said they include several packaged-goods marketers as well as executives from retail, pharmaceutical, finance and other industries.

“I personally believe we’re living through the least transparent time for the media industry in our careers,” Mr. Duggan said.

Media agencies aren’t living up to their fiduciary duties to clients and “cross the line of acceptable conduct in a partnership,” Mr. Mandel said. “They are not transparent about their actions. They recommend or implement media that is off strategy or off target if it works for their financial gain.”

Rebates, “kickbacks,” and other incentives for agencies that are at least potentially adverse to client interests, are happening virtually everywhere in the U.S. media landscape, including TV, he said. Mr. Mandel said the practice has migrated from cash incentives to free inventory, which agencies may then deal back to clients in scatter buys or sell via “dark pools” that are either traded programmatically or liquidated in barter transactions.

“Have you ever wondered why fees to agencies have gone down and yet the declared profits to these agencies are up?” Mr. Mandel said. He said that advertising spending broadly has long stayed within a narrow band of 1% to 1.25% of gross domestic product globally. “So if agencies are growing at a higher-than-GDP basis, the money is coming from somewhere.”

Most of the rebates and other non-transparent dealings occur at the holding-company level, where it’s harder to track or audit, Mr. Mandel claims.

He added that he believes clients should ask why agency chief financial officers and merger-and-acquisition executives are getting involved in media buys or ad-tech deals. He said they should also question agencies taking equity stakes in vendors that could be adverse to client interests. Mr. Mandel recommended clients periodically check with ad-tech vendors who weren’t placed on the “recommended list” by their media agencies to get an idea of why they weren’t included.

Mr. Mandel’s outlook was considerably harsher than that of Procter & Gamble Co. Global Brand Officer Marc Pritchard, who spoke on the subject earlier in the day.

“We trust our agencies,” Mr. Pritchard said after hearing Mr. Mandel’s talk. “It’s not something we take for granted, because it’s a trust-but-verify approach. …What I don’t know is how broadscale the stories he’s talking about are. In my view, he’s got to produce some evidence.”

In an e-mail statement, Nancy Hill, CEO of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said: “The 4A’s and the ANA are, and will continue to be, in deep, high-level discussions on this issue. But as of right now, we have not been shown any data or information that warrants such allegations. Our position is that the financial arrangements between agency and client are just that, between those parties and confidential.”

12514: Quotes On Quotas.

Campaign asked MediaCom UK CEO Karen Blackett and three White advertising executives if diversity quotas should be used to enforce fairness and inclusiveness in the industry. The responses were sadly canned, contrived and clichéd, presenting the same old reactions and proposing the same old solutions.

One White adman claimed the answer was to embrace a standard minority outreach program—The Ideas Foundation—which has been around for 11 years. As always, an allegedly breakthrough effort has existed for over a decade, yet the industry is still predominately White.

The Rooney Rule was mentioned; however, most White advertising agencies would hire Mickey Rooney—even though he’s dead—before adopting the Rooney Rule.

The White adwoman declared, “All clients should be asking questions when the same White besuited posh boys and professional northerners rock up to meeting after meeting talking about changing the cultural landscape. Come on. Anyone can see your agency is dying on its arse. If you can’t see that coming, you’re fucked.” Yawn. The last White advertising agency leader who used the word “fucked” in reference to adland’s dearth of diversity wound up doing nothing about it—but managed to nab an ADCOLOR® trophy.

Why are diversity quotas out of the question? White admen and White adwomen have deliberately executed exclusivity quotas for generations.

::

Does adland need diversity quotas?

It’s no secret that adland is predominantly white, middle-class and male. There’s also widespread agreement that this should change – not just on moral grounds, but because a more diverse workforce would benefit the industry commercially.

Many great initiatives already exist within it. Just last week, George Osborne received advertising luminaries and young people who have benefited from The Ideas Foundation, the charity set up by the Engine president, Robin Wight, that gives people from different backgrounds a leg-up into the industry. But for many, change is not coming quick enough.

At the Advertising Association’s recent Lead conference, the subject of diversity came up repeatedly. Sir Peter Bazalgette, the chair of Arts Council England, said: “Diversity in creative industries does not reflect the whole country. We don’t bring in people from the whole community. That’s wrong on a fairness basis but it doesn’t make commercial sense.” The MP Stella Creasy also criticised the industry for not moving fast enough. The only way for it to do so, she said, is to introduce diversity quotas. But are they really the answer?

Agency head

Karen Blackett, UK chief executive, MediaCom

“For the UK to remain a creative leader in the world economy, finding the best talent is a priority. And talent is diverse. So diversity is a priority too. Do I agree with quotas? No. So how do we do this? Test if the Rooney Rule (used in American football) could work in a business context (ensuring a proportional number of candidates interviewed for a role are from an ethnic minority background). Unconscious bias training is imperative. We all have a natural bias, but recognising it is key. Finally, those of us from different ethnic and educational backgrounds need to stand up and act as role models.”

Agency head

Tom Knox, chairman, DLKW Lowe

“Last year’s Diversity report from the IPA showed that our industry has made progress on diversity, but we certainly need to do more to ensure our workforce more closely resembles the nation as a whole. However, affirmative action that discriminates on the basis of gender or ethnic origin when deciding who to employ is illegal. What can work, and should be more widely adopted, is affirmative action to ensure minorities and women get a fair chance in the interview and selection process. Good examples of this are the Rooney Rule in the NFL and gender quotas on candidate shortlists for parliamentary seats. The final decision on who gets hired must remain meritocratic.”

Agency head

Robin Wight, president, Engine; founder, The Ideas Foundation

“If every agency and brand supported The Ideas Foundation, there would be no need to even debate the issue of ‘diversity quotas’. In any event, diversity quotas are to misunderstand the problem. The problem is that 14- to 16-year-olds from ethnic minorities are not even considering our industry: sport, music, medicine, law, finance, even crime. But not advertising. And if they do, there is no pathway for them. The Ideas Foundation is that pathway: brands sponsor a brief that is taught in schools and mentored by agencies. Our concept is brilliant and unique but we’re not big enough. Quotas are too late and wrong in principle.”

Creative head

Vicki Maguire, deputy executive creative director, Grey London

“I love talk of quotas; it’s the thought of agencies picking up the phone to recruiters and putting in their orders that tickles me: ‘Can we have two birds, a couple of ethnics; not Swedes, we’ve got them… Have you got any disabled?’ But before it gets to that, market forces are already playing their part. All clients should be asking questions when the same white besuited posh boys and professional northerners rock up to meeting after meeting talking about changing the cultural landscape. Come on. Anyone can see your agency is dying on its arse. If you can’t see that coming, you’re fucked.”

12351: Highlighting 14 In 2014.

It wasn’t easy to find 14 highlights in the advertising industry for 2014, but here goes (in no particular order):

1. Artist/Writer/Recovering Adman Lowell Thompson marched on.

2. The Marcus Graham Project Infographic exposed the exclusive state of affairs on Madison Avenue.

3. Pam El was drafted by the NBA as the league’s new CMO.

4. Dawn Hudson was drafted by the NFL as the league’s new CMO.

5. Jerry Seinfeld dissed the advertising industry at the CLIO Awards—unintentionally proving to be prophetic with his ultra-lame Acura campaign featuring a Black guy.

6. The Advertising Standards Council of India created mandates barring spots that portray dark-skinned people negatively.

7. Roy Eaton delivered the best 3.5 minutes you’ll spend all year.

8A and 8B. Issa Rae and Living a Creative Life enlivened Here Are All The Black People.

9. Commonground/MGS was unveiled as a new holding group comprised of eight independent, minority-owned agencies.

10. Ogilvy & Mather South Africa CEO Abey Mokgwatsane examined three macro drivers contributing towards a very vibrant South African ad industry: talent diversity, digital migration and the changing role of South Africa as a gateway to the rest of Africa.

11. MediaCom UK CEO Karen Blackett was named “most influential Black person in Britain” on the Powerlist 2015.

12. David&Goliath President Brian Dunbar declared, “L.A. is a very culturally diverse city and I think the cultural makeup of the agencies reflects that. It certainly does at David&Goliath. I see a lot more diversity here than I have at other agencies in my career and I think that helps make the work more interesting.”

13. Despite a rough year, Steve Stoute and Translation rebounded by winning the NBA shootout.

14. Team Epiphany may be the most diverse enterprise in the advertising industry.

12349: Drumming Up White Girls.

The Drum’s top Girl Guide interviews looks pretty exclusively White. MediaCom UK CEO Karen Blackett—Britain’s Most Influential Black Person—didn’t rate a spot in the club?

12283: Which White Adperson Are You?

Campaign presented the UK advertising honchos depicted above with the following quiz:

Which A-Lister are you?

Consider yourself as funny as Paul Lawson, creative as Nils Leonard or savvy as James Murphy? Answer the next 10 questions to find out which influential A-Lister you most closely resemble.

Um, is A-Lister shorthand for Anglo-Lister? MediaCom UK CEO Karen Blackett—the most influential Black person in Britain—didn’t earn a spot on the list? Damn.

12273: UK White Adwomen Thrive.

The Drum published an article—“A quarter of senior management in advertising are women, finds IPA Agency Census—but is that still simply too low?”—which included commentary from a handful of White female ad honchos in the UK.

According to research from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), women comprise at least 49 percent of the UK advertising workforce and 25.6 percent of senior-level roles. Additionally, women comprise 27 percent of digital creatives, up from 15 percent in 2013. In short, women in UK advertising—particularly White women—are making natural and significant strides that have surely been happening long before efforts like The 3% Conference jumped on the bandwagon. After all, White women have always enjoyed much easier access to the advertising field, whether joining via legitimate credentials or through administrative assistant positions, nepotism, cronyism and even as the mistresses of account directors and creative directors. While White men have certainly stalled women’s industry infiltration, the boundaries are continuing to diminish as the years go by.

In contrast, minorities continue to face the same bigoted barriers that have been around for too many decades. Even MediaCom UK CEO Karen Blackett—recognized as the most influential Black person in Britain—admits to experiencing racial bias from peers and clients. And Blackett is only 43 years old.

So why does racial, ethnic and cultural discrimination take a back seat to the supposed woes of White women? The dearth of dames in the advertising industry is certainly cause for concern. But the institutionalized dearth of diversity is cause for criminal charges.