In a continuing drive for greater diversity and inclusion in marketing and advertising, a new feature by The Drum highlights conversations with top creative women in the industry.
All were nominated for The Drum’s global Woman of the Year award at The Drum Creative Awards, sponsored by Facebook, One Minute Briefs and in partnership with Creative Equals. The award is designed to push equality boundaries within the creative industry to spark discussion and action.
From icons and pioneers to prominent creative directors and designers, we asked each of them how diversity creates better work, the positive changes the industry can make, what keeps these creatives going in an ever-changing world and how greater diversity can grow the business.
Leading into the new year, this series will reveal more of The Drum’s global Woman of the Year award nominees.
Today, we speak to Sarah Chazan, executive editor at The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.com Custom Studios.
From your experience and point of view, how does a more diverse creative team create better work? What have been some examples of that in action?
Who wants to work on a team where everyone has the same perspective? Boring! Working within a diverse creative team challenges all parties involved to think beyond their own perspectives and results in work that can touch a wider audience. In my world of custom content, this increased diversity leading to better work is seen in most of our collaborations with clients, as the final product is a melding of their knowledge with our own creativity and point of view.
How are the conversations around creativity, and specific work/projects, different with a more gender balanced team?
The Drum Creative Awards puts creativity back in the spotlight and flies the flag for creativity during the digital revolution. These global awards are open to advertising agencies, design consultancies, digital agencies, production companies, marketing agencies, PR and more.
To register your interest for 2018, go to the event website.
This years awards were sponsored by: Facebook Creative Shop and One Minute Brief and partnered with: Creative Equals.
I think we’ve all seen those ‘content fails’ where we’ve found ourselves asking, “What was that creative team thinking? How could this have gone all the through the creative ‘food chain’ without getting flagged by someone.” Having a more gender-balanced team typically prevents these types of incidents because the conversations are more thoughtful and balanced.
What changes around inclusion should the entire industry embrace today?
I think something that’s so important is disrupting the traditional/universal work model that has left many women on the sidelines over the years. If companies, managers and coworkers started to rethink what a typical workday is, or even the parameters of what a ‘full time job’ is, it would open the doors of inclusion to many working mothers/fathers or even childless employees who just want to work differently.
With all of the issues women face in this the creative sector, what keeps you in the industry?
I think my industry, perhaps more than others, offers women many opportunities to flourish and lead. I want to be an example of what hard work, talent, empathy and dedication to ones colleagues can help women to achieve.
Will greater diversity in the industry ultimately save/grow it?
How could it not? Any person paying attention to the stats around millennials and Gen Y knows that these folks are demanding different things than previous generations. Having a diverse workforce is the key to connecting to these generations and creating products and content that resonate across a wide spectrum of people.
The Drum Creative Awards puts creativity back in the spotlight and flies the flag for creativity during the digital revolution. These global awards are open to advertising agencies, design consultancies, digital agencies, production companies, marketing agencies, PR and more.
To register your interest for 2018, go to the event website.
This years awards were sponsored by: Facebook Creative Shop and One Minute Brief and partnered with: Creative Equals.