Diversity: we're all bluster and fluster
Sadly, ageism in the advertising industry is not new news. The average age of staff in media agencies is 30, client briefs rarely stretch beyond those aged 49, and products that help me ‘maintain my youth’ are being marketed to me by models half my age. What is news is that we are finally having a meaningful conversation about it, and pushing for change.
Key points:
- For marketers in Australia, women aged 50-64 represent 2.4m of the population.
- In Bauer’s Defiant study, 41 per cent of those women are defined as confident, independent and relatively affluent women in their fifties and sixties.
- However, the category is seemingly invisible to marketers and their agencies. In their words: "when brands do turn up, they treat me like I’m an idiot, like I’m digitally incapable"
- The best way for brands and agencies to capture this valuable target market is hire those aged 50-plus
This industry talks a lot about the importance of diversity, but when push comes to shove, in most cases it appears little more than lip service. As both a member of the industry, and a consumer approaching my 50s, it’s clear that ageism is well and truly alive.
Step into any media or creative agency today and (outside of the C-Suite) you’d be hard pressed to find anyone over the age of 40 in the room - even harder to find a woman that age. Where have the wonderful, smart women that I’ve worked with gone? More importantly, where is the enormous collective IP they amassed over those years? Without it I fear that as an industry we are falling short when it comes to emotional intelligence, communication, leadership, kindness and the ability to nurture young talent.
We also lose the perspective of those women, which creates the next problem. How does group of 30-year-olds know how to connect with 50-year-old women in an engaging, compelling way? The short answer is that they generally don’t – which is why women over 50 are either being ignored or treated like your nana when it comes to marketing. The only demographic truly qualified to engage women over 50 is…women over 50!
I’d hazard a guess that ageism isn’t entirely to blame here. Our industry is tough. It expects 120 per cent from you every day, and even more when there’s a pitch/deadline/revenue shortfall. And that’s hard to balance in real life when you’re a mum, a wife, a grocery buyer, a chef, and the other 100 jobs we have - so something has to give, and often it’s the 50+ hour a week job.
If we were to make real, meaningful headway around flexible working arrangements in our industry we’d have a much better chance of attracting and retaining talent of all ages (and sexes) and succeed in creating the more diverse industry we need, to the benefit of everyone involved.
