The Scene: April 2018 Issue

Ethnic Diversity Found Lacking Among Some CMO Ranks
 

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) client-side marketers reports that it is making strong progress in achieving gender balance among CMOs, but in stark contrast there remains significant work to do in attaining ethnic diversity.

Findings from the ANA’s inaugural CMO “scorecard,” an annual exercise designed to highlight marketers’ progress at establishing gender equality and ethnic diversity at the most senior marketing position in each member company, identifies the profile of the CMO/CMO-equivalent at each of ANA’s 747 client-side marketer company members, show that among its client-side member companies, 335 (45%) of the top marketer positions are female while the balance, 412 (55%) are male.

However, despite the acknowledgment of and significant emphasis on the necessity of having more marketers of color occupying the top ranks, the data also suggests a material shortfall in fulfilling diversity objectives. Only 13% of CMOs and CMO equivalents are people of color:

“Industry progress begins with understanding the facts about our marketplace,” ANA CEO Bob Liodice says. “For too long, we’ve relied on inference and innuendo rather than hard facts and data. We’ve now planted a ‘stake in the ground’ against which we can begin to track our progress annually. But knowing these results is just the first step. We need complete commitment throughout our industry to create lasting change.”

For the ANA, there are two major initiatives underway that are designed to engineer greater progress in ethnic diversity while maintaining gains made in gender diversity:

The ANA’s Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE) has championed the #SeeHer campaign to promote the accurate portrayal of women and young girls in advertising and the media. One critical goal of #SeeHer is to achieve a 20% improvement in women’s portrayal by 2020, the 100th anniversary of women receiving the right to vote in the U.S. As this campaign has spread, the effort has sparked a broader movement to pursue gender equality across many fronts. The #SeeHer movement counts more than 60 companies as members and is growing rapidly.

The ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) is working to unite the industry to elevate diversity and increase multicultural marketing as strategic marketing imperatives. With business and brand growth lacking, aligning ethnic-focused marketing with the demography of the U.S. is critical to fundamental growth objectives. Nearly 70 companies from all corners of the industry have joined the ANA in this movement. AIMM brings together senior thought leaders from the Black/African-American, Hispanic/Latin, Asian, LGBTQ, and general market communities to create a united blueprint for the evolution of multicultural and diverse-segment marketing in the U.S.

“We want to position AIMM as a powerful voice in diversity and multicultural and inclusive marketing,” Liodice says. “We want to engage senior marketing executives throughout the country in this conversation. That is why it is so important to have diverse leadership at the top of marketer companies.”

As part of its focus, AIMM shares multicultural marketing examples through distinctive forums; drives  ROI, primarily through audience targeting and segment relevance; provides leadership alignment and collaboration; develops unique, growth-focused insights through joint research and the creation of the Multicultural Marketing Knowledge Center; creates alternative approaches to addressing industry diversity; and disseminates best practices for marketing to multicultural and diverse demographic segments through a robust communications program.

 

An Event to Remember

HP showcases its events marketing prowess at VIP Customer Event

Leveraging its marketing knowledge as one of the most well-known household brands in the world, HP delivered an immersive and engaging customer event in the vibrant and lush Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv this February. The event celebrated 25 years since the installation of its first digital press, the E-print 1000. Alon Bar-Shany, GM for HP Indigo, described the occasion as marking “25 years of earning our customers’ trust and accompanying them on their path to incredible growth.” Further noting that it was the biggest VIP event yet, with more than 700 attendees including its print service provider customers and the world’s leading brands.

In addition to inspirational talks and educational technology tours, HP celebrated the region’s culture, both modern day and far before the region was named Silicon Wadi for its similarities to Silicon Valley in California.
 

Inspired talks
 

The event’s opening keynote speaker, Uri Levine, founder of Waze, was a nod to the area’s tech heritage. One of the Tel Aviv most well-known recent success stories, Wave is a mapping and directional app that uses crowdsourced information and interactive social rewards, such as badges, to help commuters choose the best routes to their destination while encouraging positive interactions with other drivers. The company was purchased by Google in 2013. Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz newspaper in Israel, deemed it “the most lucrative exit in Israeli history,” noting that each employee received an average of $1.2 million out of the deal.
 

Other speakers included leading minds from the most successful brands, including Gil Horsky, innovation director global biscuits, Mondele–z; HP customers, including Craig Curran, vice president of sales and marketing, Nosco; inspirational creatives from design agencies; HP itself, such as Bar-Shany; and many members of its team; and industry experts such as Mike Ferrari, president of Ferrari Innovation Solutions. Brand Experience magazine’s editor-in-chief was also part of a panel discussion about marketing and branding trends and how marketers and designers can tap the power of digital printing to elevate brand experiences.
 

“Because our objective was to inspire customers and prospects to print differently, and to leverage HP Indigo capabilities to grow, we looked for speakers who were already doing that,” says Keren Yakolev, HP Indigo business development manager. “For example, we selected customers who have been successful at leveraging our technology to do creative work and who were growing because of it. We also chose speakers who represented our five [printing business] segments so the audience would get inspired to leverage our technology too. We wanted to share our excitement around the outstanding growth of HP Indigo’s liquid electrophotography (LEP) digital printing technology and the growth of HP Indigo across business segments (general commercial printing, photo, labels, flexible packaging and folding cartons). We also wanted to invite our customers to listen to what brands are doing to engage with consumers and to inspire them to innovate with new ideas and business opportunities that support brands’ needs.”
 

Show and Tell
 

In addition to the educational sessions, HP created several technology demonstrations to show brands and print service providers how the technology can improve the customer experience, including the INDI to GO pop-up coffee shop on wheels. “The Starbucks experience was the inspiration behind our very own coffee shop for the event,” Yakolev explains. “When you go into Starbucks, everything around you is printed and no two Starbucks around the world look the same. We wanted to show HP Indigo’s capabilities to produce applications across five different segments so we designed more than 40 products, from coffee cups, sugar packets and tea boxes, to loyalty cards, coasters, and coffee bags.”
 

The technology story continued with the event’s Tower of Production. “We had three towers of production: one for labels printed on the HP Indigo 8000, one for commercial printing on the HP Indigo 50000, and one about the HP Indigo 30000 for folding cartons,” Yakolev says. “Through these massive towers of production, we were able to show that Indigo technology can be used to print larger volumes of marketing and branding materials. We showcased large numbers of jobs with different SKUs, printed on different types of media, from colored to synthetics, and more.”
 

At the event’s Pack Ready for Labels station, HP spotlighted its Pack Ready for Labels, a solution that enhances the labels’ level of resistance against chemical, thermal, water and mechanic exposure. Different environments, e.g., a steam bath, a moving truck and a tub of oil, were recreated so the company could demonstrate how labels printed on its HP Indigo 6900 press have enhanced resistance for better performance in just about any environment. The Indigo 6900 press was also launched at the event.
 

Cultural Explorations
 

This year is also the 70th anniversary of Israel, and the HP team worked in collaboration with its events partner Vision Productions & Tourism to ensure that attendees could experience Israeli culture. Following the educational portion of the conference, HP transported guests to historical sites, including a tour of Holy sites in Jerusalem. The tour of the Old City started at an observation point on Mt. Scopus overlooking the Judean desert. Guests descended along the Mt. of Olives to the Gethsemane Church, where Jesus spent his last night. They entered the Old City via the Zion Gate, walked over to the Jewish Quarter and visited the Western Wall. They walked through the Byzantine Cardo to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is the site believed to be the place where Jesus was crucified, and is said also to contain the place where Jesus was buried (the Sepulchre). The church has been a paramount pilgrimage destination since at least the 4th century, as the purported site of the resurrection of Jesus. Towards the end of the tour, they walked along the Way of the Cross (Via Dolorosa), and through the open-air markets.
 

Other guests had a guided tour of the remains of Caesarea Maritima, a city that experienced the heights of pomp and glory as well as periods of regression and decline. According to the Israel Nature and Park Authority, the city began life as a trading station on the Mediterranean Sea shore, containing a protective fort.  This town was part of the line of settlements established by people from Tyre and Sidon along the coastline, down to Egypt.  The name of this small town was “Straton” (in Hebrew, Migdal Sharshon), after the name of the person who founded it—the King of Sidon.
 

In the Roman period, Herod identified the city’s potential and built a port city there and named the city Caesarea, in honor of Augustus Caesar who gave the territory to Herod as a gift. Many believed Caesarea, to be the largest and most sophisticated artificial port in the Middle East at that time.
 

Visitors experienced both beautifully restored ruins and carefully made replicas of the city’s artifacts. A tour guide took HP’s guests through the ancient and immense outdoor bath house with its beautiful views of the Mediterranean Sea. The ruins also had an innovation remarkable for its time but often taken for granted today—a lavatory complete with a water system that transported waste away.
 

Art and Revelry
 

Arts and culture were further explored with a Purim celebration, complete with costumes, dancing and music, including performances by Bar-Shany on guitar. Understanding that many of the event’s guests were flying in from other countries, HP had costume pieces and face painting available so attendees could participate fully in this cultural celebration. Michelle Regev, associate partner at Vision, explains, it was important to make the “HP guests feel welcome, comfortable, yet excited with the new experiences they go through by entertaining the guests and introducing them to local culture through food, beverage and music.”
 

Perhaps the most important part of the event planning came after the guests left the Mediterranean coast. Regev explains, “We always sit with our customer and produce lessons learned for the next event—what worked well and what can work better.”