Agency Circle Year 2 survey results are in; results confirm industry is moving in the right direction
The Agency Circle, is an industry body that’s all about turning the talk around diversity into action. Launched back in October 2016, a survey of all participating agencies was conducted to establish an (industry aggregate) baseline. 12 months on, The Agency Circle has completed the second survey and the long-awaited results are in.
In good news, almost all metrics have improved on last year, validation that the industry is moving in the right direction. This year The Agency Circle has grown in size with 11 new creative agencies as well as 18 media agencies joining.
Says Emily Perrett (right), managing director of Clemenger BBDO Sydney and chair of The Agency Circle: “This is real progress, which is great to see. The results show that the focus of senior agency staff, coupled with the freedom for each Agency to address the key issues in a way that suits them, works. All the numbers are moving in the right direction. But, it is slow going, there is still a load of work to be done.”
This year we had 1,144 respondents from creative agencies, a comparable sample to the 1,211 last year.
They shape up like this:
• Respondents were 77% Caucasian, 9% Asian, 5% Multi Racial, 1% Middle Eastern, only eight are African American and one Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander completed the survey
• 58% female, 41% male, 1% other
• 50% of the respondents were under 30, 33% were in their 30s and less than 17% were over
40
Results saw some big shifts this year:
• The number of people who reported experiencing sexual harassment has dropped
significantly (down by 18%). NB: the question in 2017 survey refers to current employer only.
• Less people have observed sexual harassment of others at their current agency (down 17%).
• Agencies are perceived to be less sexist, less racist and more inclusive of LGBTQI than
previously (up 10%+)
And some smaller shifts in the right direction:
• Harassment still takes the form of unwelcome comments or jokes but we are improving
(down 6%)
• As an industry, we feel like we are performing marginally better on gender equality (up 11%)
• Most people feel included in decision making and not excluded due to discrimination (up
12%)
• Agency cultures are deemed increasingly supportive of women who take parental leave (up
21%)
But there is still work to do on a few fronts:
• Reported workplace discrimination, in terms of not receiving desired assignments or
promotions at their current agency has increased (up 11%).
• People don’t intervene when they see discriminatory acts (up by 9%)
The comprehensive creative agency results have been supplied.
Industry aggregate scores are released, however the agencies that took part for the second year now have the ability to monitor their progress against their own benchmark as well as the industry average.
Individual agency results are not released by The Agency Circle. Each member has bought into the charter, and an honesty system – agencies that make positive progress on their metrics stay – those that don’t should think about whether The Agency Circle is right for them.
The media agency results will be made public in the coming weeks.
The Agency Circle thanks all its member agencies, and those who’ve worked really hard to pull the survey and results together.
If you’re interested in signing up for 2018, please get in contact HERE.
The Agency Circle member agencies include:
303 MullenLowe*
Analog Folk
Adrenalin Media
BWM Dentsu*
CHE Proximity*
Clemenger BBDO Brisbane
Clemenger BBDO Melbourne*
Clemenger BBDO Sydney*
Core
DDB*
DigitasLBi
Havas Group*
JWT*
Leo Burnett*
Marcel
Marketforce*
M&C Saatchi*
McCann*
Ogilvy Australia
OMD
Publicis.Sapient
SapientRazorfish
Saatchi & Saatchi
TBWA*
The Hallway*
The Monkeys*
VCCP*
*Founding Agency Circle Members