The IPA is committed to nurturing existing talent, monitoring diversity within the industry and championing inclusivity in the workplace.
Annie Gallimore, MD Engine and incoming Chair of IPA’s Talent Leadership Group expands on this agenda to attract and retain new and diverse talent to the industry. Working collaboratively with key partners, the group delivers a programme of inspirational events and initiatives as listed below.
Each year in September we run Advertising Unlocked when over 100 advertising and marketing communications agencies and over 100 schools are being brought together for the industry’s largest open day. Upon being matched with a local school by the IPA, agencies are able to give young people from a diverse range of backgrounds access to what goes into making an advertising campaign successful, the different roles available to them and open the doors to advertising as a possible career path for them. Get in touch with advertisingunlocked@ipa.co.uk to find out more.
IPA works closely with Debut to connect Agencies with diverse, creatively driven and enthusiastic talent.
Each year in June the IPA in partnership with Debut hosts a talent spotting event. The Debut offering gives agencies access to more than 70,000 entry-level candidates via their pioneering career app Debut.
The IPA, in partnership with Unilever and Campaign, launched the iList initiative in November 2019 with the aim of showcasing and celebrating role models who are truly promoting and championing inclusivity within the advertising industry - no matter what level a person works at.ork.
Read through the Campaign digital supplement to find out more about the outstanding individuals who are responsible for some of the most influential and wide-ranging diversity and inclusion initiatives in adland.
Click anywhere on a page to zoom.
We recognise that in order to have better representation on screen we need more women in leadership positions in the business; so in 2017 we launched an inspiration programme for women in mid to senior level roles who are on the cusp of leadership called 'Stepping into the Spotlight'. These sessions run four times a year and feature inspirational women from across the creative industries and coaching on issues that women face in their careers.
In order to analyse and grow the diversity of the agency business to ensure its subsequent success, the IPA carries out an annual agency census.
Since 1960 the IPA has charted overall employee numbers, working practices, staff turnover, as well as looking at the breakdown by gender, ethnic diversity, age, seniority and department, within creative, other non-media agencies and media agencies. Recently it has also reported on salary gaps by gender. These figures provide a vital benchmark for the diversity of the industry.
The IPA 2015-2017 President, Tom Knox established a set of diversity targets for our industry to work towards:
The targets were aspirational and ambitious and they have given focus for a serious commitment and desire to make change happen from agencies up and down the country.
The participation in the IPA Agency Census will become a mandatory component of CPD Accreditation from 2021 for all our member agencies – and we are working on supporting them through 2020 to make sure they are comfortable collecting this data and understand why it’s important to have a baseline.
Launched in February 2021, a Future of Fairness is the latest in our talent publications portfolio, laying out important facts, stats and discussion in each key strand of diversity. It provides a snapshot of where we are now and which trends to look out for, while also stressing on the importance of representing diversity in the creative work we produce. The Future of Fairness is a compilation of the best of what our industry has to offer on D&I, with a must read road map at the end which will support agencies no matter where they are in their D&I journey.
Useful inclusion strategies for racial diversity in the form of guidance, resources, FAQs and our top five starters, designed to inspire our agencies and allow for action oriented goals as we navigate our way through an increasingly complex and nuanced topic area.
We are currently working with the following partners by sharing best practice, thought leadership and through event participation, consultancy work and judging awards:
Please find a list of IPA events, publications and videos that educate about and address issues relating to inclusion and diversity in the advertising industry.
Member agencies can advertise vacancies free of charge on Jobs Online.
Portraying diversity and inclusion for a modern day audience, that is both welcoming non-stereotypical communications and actively demanding a more accurate reflection of British society is one of our industry’s greatest opportunities.