Less BS, More Facts, Some Opinions
“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Mike Brooks, SVP of revenue at WeatherBug. In a few weeks, the first of several monolithic industry dominos is set to fall when Apple begins enforcing its AppTrackingTransparency framework on… Continue reading »
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ViacomCBS attempted to set itself apart in the streaming wars during a three-hour virtual investor event on Wednesday ahead of the launch of Paramount Plus next week. The company is making a deep push into an already crowded streaming space with Paramount Plus while also bolstering its AVOD Pluto TV service, as it looks to… Continue reading »
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Magnite’s revenue grew 69% YoY to $82 million in Q4 2020. Not including its merger with Telaria, revenue grew 20% YoY. The company will nearly double in size once the acquisition of SpotX closes in Q2. In Q4 2020, SpotX had $71.6 million in revenue. Here are the seven highlights you need to know from… Continue reading »
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Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Tikked Off Apparently TikTok doesn’t just feature amusing dance videos created by Gen Zers. Like its larger social media peers, TikTok was not immune to the sharing of misinformation during the election. According to The Wrap, TikTok shared in a new “transparency report” that… Continue reading »
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California’s privacy law has cost publishers and ad tech firms when it comes to legal fees and compliance software purchases, but it turns out it’s had little to no impact on ad revenues, prices or inventory, according to publishers. Yet despite the lack of immediate impact, companies Digiday spoke with say there are ripple effects from CCPA that they expect to feel in a much more tangible way in the near future.
When Rob Beeler, CEO at digital ad consultancy Beeler.tech conducted an impromptu survey of around two dozen publishers this week, all of them said the California Consumer Privacy Act has had no impact on CPM rates or ad revenue. The law requires website publishers to let residents of the state opt-out from sales of their personal data. “A ton of effort has gone into compliance on the part of publishers, but there is no upside or downside revenue-wise,” he said.
“I’m shocked that we have not seen any impact we can measure from CCPA,” said Clark Benson, CEO of pop culture list publisher Ranker. “We expected something.”
Since July 2020, ad tech firm Centro has removed ad inventory from its ad auctions if there’s a CCPA-related opt-out signal associated with it. But, said Derek Zolner, vp of legal affairs at the company, CCPA has “not made a meaningful change in our supply and demand.”
GDPR fears didn’t pan out in California
The impact of Europe’s stricter privacy regime — the Global Data Protection Regulation — on ad revenues and targeting capabilities had many publishers and other firms operating in the digital ad arena fearing a similar effect from CCPA. “We’re not seeing the impact the way we saw it with GDPR,” said Amanda Martin, vp of enterprise partnerships at digital agency Goodway Group.
While GDPR requires people to consent to data collection by opting in, CCPA takes a different route, requiring websites to give notice of tracking and the ability to opt-out. However, there is no defined standard required under the law, so sometimes compliance notices make it easier for people to click to accept cookies rather than to opt-out.
“Easier to hit accept,” so few opt-outs
Publishers and ad tech executives surmised that low opt-out rates among California residents are the key reason for the lack of impact of CCPA on their bottom line.
Ranker’s opt-out rate has been low, said Benson, who guessed at the reason based on his own experience as a California resident. “I’m confronted all over the web with different versions of these [notices] and I just find myself opting-in. It’s just easier to hit accept.”
Justin Scarborough, programmatic director at independent ad agency PMG, said he never expected a huge onslaught of opt-outs as a result of CCPA. “We kind of knew going into it as long as it was an opt-out and not opt-in type of scenario… I don’t think we were expecting to see a shock to the system,” he said.
Data from a November IAB survey of publishers, ad tech firms and agencies showed that companies were seeing CCPA-related opt-out rates of just 1-5% and had received at or below 100 requests for data access or deletion by spring of 2020.
Money still flowing to cookies
Publishers and companies they partner with to manage ad operations are taking a variety of approaches to comply with CCPA, in part because of the law’s ambiguity regarding acceptable opt-out methods and confusion over how the law defines the “sale” of data.
It’s led publishers without the benefits of subscriber revenue or large pools of first-party data for personalized ad targeting to perpetuate reliance on ad revenue from marketplaces fueled by third-party data.
Ad dollars are still flowing to cookie-based audience segments, said Goodway’s Martin. “The interpretation of CCPA is still so open right now — right, wrong or indifferent — so you aren’t seeing aggressive switches in offerings,” she said.
Tech changes will have real impact
Agencies like PMG have pushed away from third-party data amid pressure from regulators and impending changes in the technologies that undergird digital advertising. “We haven’t really been buying third-party cookies for a few years now in any large degree,” said Scarborough. “We’ve actively been pushing away from that area in terms of data; we intentionally wanted to be in a scenario where we didn’t see [an impact of CCPA].”
CCPA is having a an impact though, just indirectly. It has inspired potential privacy laws in other states, which, in turn, has put even more pressure on federal lawmakers to pass a comprehensive national law that industry hopes will simplify compliance.
“If more states adopt a similar approach, or there is a national version, publishers would feel the impact of users opting out,” said Beeler.
CCPA is just one element of a broader privacy zeitgeist that has inspired the biggest platforms to upend the technologies that have enabled digital data flows throughout the media and advertising ecosystem. With Google disabling third-party cookies in the most popular web browser, and Apple drastically restricting capabilities for identifying people for ad targeting and attribution in its operating system, more drastic changes are on the horizon, said Zolner.
“The bigger impact is going to be the technological changes,” he said. “The legal changes reflect a sentiment; tech changes reflect some action to change that.”
The post California’s privacy law has had ‘no impact’ on ad revenues or inventory, but indirect effects could hurt appeared first on Digiday.
Delivery wine brand Usual Wines has gotten the jump on first-party data by utilizing SMS and text messaging communication in its marketing strategy.
Since its founding in 2019, the direct-to-consumer wine brand has cultivated a two-way relationship with consumers, encouraging wine drinkers to directly ask the brand about everything from wine and cheese pairings to delivery status updates. The company began using text and SMS in 2019. But last year, it generated more than 20% of the brand’s revenue at that time via directly attributed orders, said Usual Wines CEO and co-founder Matt Dukes.
In turn, the brand is able to utilize what it learns from consumers to inform its marketing strategy, blog content and even product development, which most recently led to a new rosé.
Meaning: fans can tell them in real time if it’s something they’re interested in seeing.
“We were able to effectively validate the product even before building and selling it based on having that direct line of communication,” Dukes said.
Phone numbers, email addresses and website reviews are important for the brand as part of its two-fold effort to grow its consumer database and its community. The brand’s strategy is evolving as consumer privacy is getting new attention.
First-party data is becoming increasingly important as privacy regulation will likely continue as Google Chrome is expected to phase out third-party cookies. In turn, first-party data such as phone numbers and email addresses may become the industry’s golden children as it looks to replace cookies, as As Digiday previously reported.
For its strategy, the DTC brand focuses on live text via their Wine Hotline, where consumers can ask questions, and cart recovery, reminding consumers of items in their cart and nudge them to purchase. Outbound communication is a much smaller part of the brand’s strategy.
“We only text customers first when we drop new products or when we have member promos going on,” Dukes said in an email. “If anything, it’s an open forum for the consumer to reach out, and strike a real conversation with Usual.”
For some marketers, SMS and marketing can be daunting. But as technological advances democratize the platforms, marketers should move it out of the experimental media budget and incorporate it into their core strategies, according to Jamie Sutton, general manager at email and SMS marketing automation platform Omnisend.
“The ability to synch that first-party data with Google ads and Facebook ads is something a lot of people leave on the table,” said Sutton.
However, it’s a line that marketers must toe carefully, Sutton said.
With saturation in the email marketing space, SMS and text messaged-based marketing could allow marketers to stand out from the competition. Transactional messaging (such as updates on an order) can be a good gateway to promotional messaging and data collection to inform marketing strategy and ad spend, he said.
“You’re slowly gaining the trust of that consumer,” Sutton said, discouraging marketers from gaming the system with constant communication. “You can’t treat this as a money maker.”
Since launching in 2019, DTC wine brand Usual Wines has rooted itself in the digital space, with one third of its ad spend going to Facebook and Instagram, according to Dukes. The brand has a bit of a checks and balances system for its digital ad spend (although Dukes declined to share exact marketing figures) to ensure no one platform takes priority over another.
Another third of the brand’s budget goes to earned media, emails and resources toward its blog. The final third is dedicated to paid search on Google, sponsored posts and influencer programs.
Currently, the brand is working to diversify its channels and is building content on the site blog.
Looking ahead, SMS technology will continue to become more accessible and consumers will be looking for seamless communication, Sutton predicts. That means more marketers may start to flock to the platform.
“If you don’t do it a year and a half from now, you’re not going to keep up with your consumers,” he said.
The post How a DTC wine brand is finding first-party data in SMS appeared first on Digiday.
The Digiday+ Media Briefing this week takes a look at what was at the forefront of conversation among attendees at the first day of the Digiday Publishing Summit.
Publishing execs today are confronted with big questions about how to value their audiences and who holds the keys to that value. On the first day of Digiday’s Publishing Summit held Feb. 24, nearly 200 people around the world tuned into virtual town halls on revenue and audience data to discuss what’s keeping them awake at night — from the best ways to diversify revenue streams to avoid “getting screwed” by the wrong identity data approach.
The key hits:
These execs spoke during sessions governed by Chatham House Rules, which lets reporters share sentiments expressed without using names. Here is some of what those execs had to say:
On the changing conversation around diversifying revenue
“What is more successful than diversifying revenue is diversifying the way we sell. Rather than, say, add 15 products to my portfolio, the way I’m having conversations with my customers is going to change. It’s not ‘What ad do you want? What space do you want?’ but ‘What are your goals?’ and we will determine the best audience and measure the outcome of it to reach your goals.”
On “getting screwed” by identity vendors
Publishers worry if they choose the wrong identity approaches, their first-party audience data could end up floating around the open marketplace, commodified and devalued. Two comments to share:
“Ad tech and middlemen are usurping that value and trying to claim it as their own.”
“If they want to put your IDs into the open auction, you are getting screwed. Period.”
On identity vendor promises
“Congrats. You’re coding my data off of my Hotmail address from 2002.”
“There’s a lot of vendor burnout out there.”
The case for programmatic
“Unfortunately direct sales in the programmatic age are almost non-existent unless you are one of the top 100 world publishers.”
Or not…
“During the pandemic, [programmatic] was definitely sustainable because my agency budgets had shrunk, but I’m still getting the higher CPMs from more dynamic placements and the opportunity to try to sell across the portfolio and build custom plans with a direct team. I’m not really getting that in programmatic channels.”
On smarter paywall plays
“You can’t just look at reader revenue versus ad revenue, but not look at total revenue… I’m not going to offer an ad-free experience to a high value ad user.”
“You should focus on content rather than blocking ads for a subscription… You should approach it with the value of the site rather than how you monetize it.”
On the stress of building data infrastructure
The goal for publishers today should be to become “a living, breathing marketing engine.”
“I literally didn’t sleep last night [thinking about data infrastructure].”
Gen Z may drive the return of the cookie, or better ads
“If you have to log into every site or take out a credit card and pay for every site, people will realize the internet isn’t free. They will want to bring the ads back, bring the cookies back. No way Gen Z hates ads more than they hate logging into a site. When they have to log into every site, then they are going to want the ads back.”
“Subscriptions and advertising ultimately are going to have to play really nicely together otherwise we will spin ourselves into circles talking about this.”
Differing views on Google
“I’m not going to trust Google further than I can throw it.”
“I don’t think Google’s going to hang us all out to dry and say the end all be all is just Chrome cookieless.” — Sara Guaglione and Kate Kaye
We haven’t been able to break through [on Snapchat] with traditional scripted stuff. The successful Snapchat shows are more editorial content. There’s no patience as far as the Snapchat audience is concerned.
— Digital video executive
TikTok may be best known as the preferred entertainment platform for teens and twenty-somethings. But it’s also emerging as a potentially valuable source of traffic to publishers’ sites and customers for their subscription businesses.
“We’re running a series of TikTok pages and promoting our content on there, and not only are our followers increasing, but it’s driving subscribers to our platform,” said an executive at a company that operates a subscription-based streaming service. The company includes a custom subscription sign-up link on its TikTok accounts’ profile pages.
“It doesn’t sound super hot, but it actually kind of is,” this person said. They declined to say how many subscribers TikTok has spurred to its streamers or what share of new subscribers are coming from TikTok. Nonetheless, TikTok “has made a big difference for us,” said the streaming executive.
Similarly, an executive at a digital publisher said their company had started to test buying ads on TikTok to direct people to its sites. This publisher began buying traffic on TikTok late last year but ran into some issues. First, “a certain amount of traffic had a high bounce rate,” said the executive, who declined to share specific figures. Second, the publisher saw advertisers’ bids for its TikTok-driven traffic was lower than its average price-per ad click.
The executive speculated that the latter issue could be attributed to TikTok’s in-app web browser not registering properly for programmatic sales, leading advertisers to have less insight into the audience and thereby being unwilling to pay as much to reach them. “We saw some of that in the beginning with Snapchat, and I suspect it could be something similar with TikTok,” said this executive.
Despite those setbacks, “we have had a couple campaigns where the click-through rate was pretty good, so there’s definitely intent there,” the publishing executive said. — Tim Peterson
BuzzFeed is leaning harder into affiliate commerce in 2021 than ever before. According to the company, the digital publisher’s commerce revenue increased by 67% year over year from 2019 to 2020. To further capitalize on consumers’ penchant for online shopping, Ali said her team is building out a more user-friendly site for shopping that also serves as another way to engage sponsors. — Kayleigh Barber
How is BuzzFeed further investing into its commerce business in 2021? Do you see specific opportunities for engaging readers with more commerce content?
We are doubling down on [commerce] innovation in a way we haven’t in the past. A lot of our content currently converts on social media and we’ve figured out which types of content converts on different platforms, but one area to invest more in is onsite. We want BuzzFeed to be the point where the shopping journey starts. We’re trying to think of BuzzFeed Shopping as a digital shopping mall. I don’t see us trying to replicate the tried and true retail model of a grid of product [because we] found that the more context we provide in our content, the more impactful the content becomes [in converting consumers]. The changes to the site are to come by the end of the second quarter and will open up opportunities for partnerships there as well.
Is there an opportunity for commerce to benefit the other areas of BuzzFeed’s business like advertising? Possibly through hybrid sponcon models that have product links, or using insights from readers’ habits on commerce content to inform partner campaigns?
E-commerce is a big opportunity for publishers this year and in coming years with us moving into a cookieless world. It’s only additive to our advertising business, not a trade off. A robust affiliate business is the gold standard for what data sets advertisers want to align with, like price point sensitivity. As we build a marketplace, there will be more opportunities for sponsorship integration. We work with a vendor that effectively allows us to capture behavior on our site for what’s being consumed and which links are being clicked on, then we leverage [that data] for campaigns on our site. We can target behaviors for campaigns to be efficient in a way that brands would be able to do on Facebook.
Should publishers be investing more into growing e-commerce capabilities right now?
[E-commerce] is not an easy business for publishers to optimize towards. You have to think like a retailer and not every media company can wake up and start doing that. Now is a good time to double down on content and commerce because platforms [like Google and Facebook] are prioritizing content that is easy for transacting on.
13%: Drop in traffic to Australian news sites the day after Facebook announced it was shutting off news distribution in Australia and for Australian news outlets.
$150 million: The amount Pocket Outdoor Media has raised in a Series B funding round that will be used to add more brands to its portfolio of 22 active lifestyle publications.
Affiliate revenue is now part of most publishers’ diets. But the ways they pursue it differ widely:
• A full two thirds of respondents to a recent Digiday Research survey now generate at least some revenue using affiliate commerce.
• Local advertisers, marketplaces and shopping carts are emerging as opportunities for various publishers.
Read more about the strategies here.
Ad tech was supposed to be in big trouble because of the end of third-party cookies. So why are ad tech vendor valuations through the roof?
• Criteo is worth more now than it was when Google announced it was going to stop supporting third party cookies.
• Ad tech acquirers are betting that scale will help them weather what should be a tempestuous couple years.
Read more about the wave of ad tech consolidations and IPOs here.
Some publishers are taking a more casual approach to the California Consumer Privacy Act than others:
• Some legal experts believe the IAB’s CCPA compliance framework exposes publishers to violations because of how data is shared with third parties.
• Some publishers, particularly those that are more focused on subscriptions than advertising, are following CCPA’s rules very cautiously.
Read more about publishers’ CCPA interpretations here.
The brands have invaded Clubhouse
• Instead of trying to squeeze ads into the audio-only app, brands are coming for the app’s hosts, who control the app’s rooms and decide who can speak.
• Others are exploring ways to host their own rooms, where they are doing everything from discussing their corporate earnings to building out profiles for their brands.
Read more about how brands have crashed the party here.
McClatchy and Gannett had a hard time competing for national ad budgets on their own. Some ad buyers think they could change their luck by working together:
• The news group is hoping to pitch itself as a “brand-safe” alternative to platforms such as Facebook.
• It is offering news-wary advertisers a chance to advertise solely on positive or uplifting stories.
Read more about ad buyers’ perception of the network here.
Media doesn’t meet diversity pledges
Last summer sparked a reckoning in the media world around the lack of diversity within its ranks. Publishers from Condé Nast to The Boston Globe elevated Black employees to higher-level positions, created diversity and inclusion positions and teams dedicated to the issue, and pledged to hire more people of color. However, employee data from Condé Nast, Hearst and Vice and obtained by NBC News show newsrooms continue to lack diversity. Last year brought attention and a new focus on the issue, but more work needs to be done.
Young journalists navigate new newsrooms in remote setting
Young reporters are navigating new training ground as they work remotely without the support of colleagues and the resources that typically accompany the vibrancy of an in-person newsroom, according to the Nieman Lab.
Building censorship for ByteDance
A former ByteDance employee spoke to Protocol about their efforts to help build content moderation mechanisms for ByteDance, the China-based company that created TikTok.
The post Media Briefing: ‘I literally didn’t sleep last night’: Publishers share their concerns about the future of data appeared first on Digiday.
Football clubs are scrambling to get into the content business, and AC Milan is jumping on the trend.
The Italian football club has joined the likes of Chelsea, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich in owning its own production arm. Like those divisions, ‘The Studios: Milan Media House’ will develop, produce and distribute all the club’s audiovisual content, whether it’s a training montage for its social channels or a commercial video for a sponsor.
The new unit is led by AC Milan’s marketing and digital director Lamberto Siega, who will manage a team of 40 execs across production and creative from the club’s headquarters. Some of those roles are part-time, around 20% according to the club, giving Siega the flexibility to dial spending up or down depending on what projects are lined up. He oversees it all from one control room with seven workstations and a voice-over room for match commentary and podcast recordings. On occasion, the space will be rented out to commercial partners and other companies.
In other words, AC Milan is focused on turning all its digital content into cash generators. Doing so means publishing content on as many third-party channels as possible in the hope that doing so raises the chance of someone in one of those places consuming content from AC Milan and subsequently moving to one of its owned platforms to view more. Having a cadence of content and broad distribution should — at least in theory — grow a social media following and opportunities to capture first-party data. This helps bolster sponsorship value, said Siega.
Take the club’s Twitch channel. It has amassed over 41,000 followers since it launched in December. Over this period, AC Milan has produced around 40 videos for the channel. Posts mainly focus on interviews with special guests such as players, legends and VIPs. Soon, viewers will have the chance to interact live during the pre-match press conference with the first team coach.
It’s a similar plan for TikTok, where the club has had a profile since last January. Since then, it has racked up more than 20 million likes, which puts it ahead of other Italian football teams on the social network, said Siega. It goes some way to supporting the club’s plan to keep its output on TikTok focused on giving fans a more lighthearted take on the club, from footage of a player performing tricky skills to behind the scenes posts designed to capture the rapport among the team. That’s why in December, AC Milan launched an official TikTok challenge with sponsor Skrill, a digital wallet provider, that’s just passed one billion views.
Having a cadence of content and broad distribution should grow a social media following and opportunities to capture first party data. This helps bolster sponsorship value, said Siega.
“It’s a way to get the fans into your ecosystem to get data from them as well as identify touchpoints that we can leverage so that we’re not only reliant on third-parties,” he said. It’s why his team is developing a membership program that wil span all the club’s owned channels, from its e-commerce site, to its TV channel, the ticketing platform to its app.
“Whilst for many clubs media rights payments, matchday revenue and sponsorship make up a large share of income, they recognise these traditional income streams each face their own challenges,” said Malph Minns, managing director of agency Strive Sponsorship. “So they are looking to both diversify revenue whilst also increasing the depth of assets they have available to sell to maintain value.”
AC Milan’s media house is the culmination of a two-year process that saw AC Milan either centralize or internalize all aspects of content production. Previously, it hired writers from an agency to produce and present content for its TV channel, for example. Now, those writers are on the club’s payroll, giving Siega license to expand their coverage to other areas like presenting streams for the club’s Twitch channel.
The cost savings are clear. However, chief revenue officer Casper Stylsvig is adamant that any cost efficiencies gained are a byproduct of the club’s efforts to reach more football fans who live abroad through content.
“We need to see ourselves as a media business and so much of that is dependent on how close we can get those fans in Brazil, the Middle East, Japan and other countries where people are too far to reach the stadium,” said Stylsvig . “It’s the big problem for football clubs and no one seems to have cracked it yet.”
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Lisa (her name has been changed for this story to protect her anonymity) has dealt with “a degree of toxicity” at every agency she’s ever worked. As a Black public relations executive who has worked at major PR firms as well as inside ad agencies, Lisa has felt isolated and taken note of how she’s often held to different standards than that of her white colleagues.
“It’s really hard to thrive in those environments when there’s no one who will take you under their wing, show you the ropes and mentor you,” said Lisa of the isolation she’s felt throughout her career, adding that she’s witnessed executives mentor and befriend her white coworkers, inviting them over for the weekend or on vacation. “I’ve never had those experiences and it is hard.”
Without that mentorship, Lisa has felt isolated throughout her career in PR and believes she has not been given the same opportunities as her white colleagues even when she’s performing at the same level or better. She’s not alone in that feeling and observation. Digiday spoke with five Black women in public relations — one interview was previously published as part of our Confessions series — who say they’ve felt the same throughout their careers and believe that PR agencies need to reexamine internal culture as well as their hiring practices to become more inclusive.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are happening in advertising but it has not really been addressed at the PR level,” said a Black PR exec who requested anonymity. Throughout her career, the exec has dealt with biases and prejudices about who she is as a person as well as her ability to work on specific accounts based on her race.
“Working at PR agencies, I got a major education in code switching and I got a major education in being a ‘token,’” said the exec. “I don’t think I realized that I was a ‘token’ until I got deeper into my career. Then it was like, ‘Oh, they want me to have a seat at the table because it makes the table look better, but they don’t really want me to have a voice.’ And when they do want me to have a voice it’s only related to Black initiative, or for Black brands, Black companies, Black products, because I think the perception was, ‘Oh, she’s Black. She must know this stuff.’”
The exec also noted that when working on Black brands for PR agencies, she has often been left to handle a major account with little to no help from her white colleagues. Without the resources necessary for the size of the account, she’s felt overwhelmed, left to manage an unreasonable workload and realized she’s held to different standards than her white colleagues. When that’s been the case, finding a way to ask for the resources and help needed has also been a difficult task.
“[Sometimes you’re] not able to stand up for yourself because you don’t want to be seen as a trope,” said the exec. “You don’t want to be the angry Black woman.”
Being aware of tone and how it may be perceived differently by coworkers, bosses or clients who may have biases and prejudices about Black women is a common issue for Black women in PR who say they often think about how they word what they say and that it can be exhausting to do so.
A PR director at a PR agency who requested anonymity recalled an incident while she was training an employee during which she used similar language to that of her manager. Even so, a coworker pulled her aside and told her she was being aggressive in the training, which gave her pause.
“This was everything my manager has said to me and more and in the same environment,” said the director, who added that she’s often one of the only Black women in her workplace. “So why is it when she says it to me, as a white woman trying to build me up, it’s different from what is being said to [the trainee]?”
The exec believes PR agency leaders need to grapple with the biases and prejudices they have about Black women that have been prevalent throughout her career to make it a better career path for other Black women in PR now. Unless they do so, Black people in PR may leave for competitors and win over clients — as she has done as owner of her own shop now.
Making sure there is a clear path forward is crucial, according to the women. The director noted that when there’s no one in leadership that’s a person of color — often they are support staff, entry or mid-level employees — it can be difficult to see a future at major PR agencies. To break it, it starts with putting people of color in leadership positions where they have support and can make a difference, she said.
Recognizing the work Black women in PR are doing to build brands is also crucial in the push to make the field more inclusive, explained Latasha DeVeaux, principal and PR strategist for DeVeaux Enterprises and president of Black Public Relations Society in Los Angeles.
“Black PR professionals have been told to stay behind the scenes, stay quiet because it is about the client or it’s about the work,” said DeVeaux, adding that because of that Black PR professionals are not recognized to the same degree as their colleagues. “You see our counterparts in photos or stories about the work that they’ve done.”
To begin to change the culture inside PR agencies and to make it a better space for Black women, Lisa believes colleagues should speak up when they notice Black women being treated differently or held to different standards.
“It’s obvious, it’s clear when someone’s not getting put on a big account and they’ve worked there just as long as you have, do just as much work as you have and you get rewarded and they don’t,” said Lisa. “You know that’s unfair, but you sit there quietly and don’t say anything. Speak up and be aware.”
Kimeko McCoy contributed reporting to this piece.
The post ‘They don’t really want me to have a voice’: Black women in PR say they feel isolated, held to different standards from their colleagues appeared first on Digiday.