Study: As brands champion gender representation, male voices still lead ad narratives

When it comes to gender representation, the best performing ads were from fashion, technology, beauty and F&B industries. In particular, Kotex Malaysia's "Kotex: 100 years of championing women's progress, Avon Philippine's "Welcome to the nude normal", Colgate Thailand's "Yimsu", Apple Singapore's "Daughter", and Nike Japan's "The future isn't waiting" were the top five ads driving change in gender representation, according to R3's Diversity: From agency to ads report. The report was created based on a survey of agencies in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines. 

According to the report, all brands surveyed scored positively in areas of avoiding objectification, positive body image portrayals, and positive portrayal of gender roles and characteristics. The best performing advertising addressed female empowerment, body positivity, ethnic and economic diversity, and sexual orientation.

That said, the report still found that 44% of advertising reviewed for the report limited women to domestic, familial, and maternal roles, with narratives being told from a male perspective. 

Many brands still continue to depict women in singular roles of mother, wife, and caregiver. While subtle shifts have been observed, there are missed opportunities for brands to set themselves apart by portraying women in environments outside of the home. This means that stories that are being told through ads can come across as one-dimensional. Instead, more people from diverse backgrounds are needed to control the storytelling and production.

Meanwhile, marketers can play a positive role and encourage greater change in the narratives being developed by requiring diversity among creative directors and producers and demanding more inclusive organisational design. On the agency front, R3 found that 40% of agencies never saw client briefs including specifications for DE&I.

Majority of agencies (60%) surveyed said they do not have a formal process in ensuring there is DE&I in their work for clients. At the same time, 40% of agencies surveyed in Southeast Asia saw no change in representations of race and ethnicity, ability, sexuality, gender identity and age in their work over the past 12 months.

Equal gender identity split but local talent needs better representation in senior leadership roles

Southeast Asia's agency scene has a good representation of women and men in the workforce, with the gender identity split being almost equal. For example, 42% of employees in Southeast agencies identified as men and 58% as women. Meanwhile, 55% of senior leadership teams identified as men while 45% identified as women. 

While it is common to see a diverse workforce in multi-ethnic countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, compared to monoethnic countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia, there is a trend of agencies from big holding groups having people who identify as Caucasian helming senior leadership roles. This is despite the racial group not holding a high percentage in the agency's workforce. According to the report, 5% of employees in Southeast Asia agencies identified as Caucasian while 28% of senior leadership teams in Southeast Asia agencies identified as Caucasian.

R3 explained that the imbalance can be attributed to local employment laws where work visas are limited to expats in senior or management roles. The impact of this, however, results in "cyclical behaviour" and the lack of opportunitiy for local talent results in agency heads hiring from overseas to find suitable candidates.

Nonetheless, agencies in Southeast Asia are doubling down on efforts to empower their women employees in their workforce. Female labour participation rate in the region is high, at 60% compared to 49% globally. While agencies in Southeast Asia are not as active as their North American or European counterparts, R3 noted that steps are being taken to improve DE&I. However, the cultural nuances in each country and the soft approach that agencies take towards DE&I makes it difficult for real tangible change to be seen.

Agencies with formal DE&I policies in place have seen an increase in workplace diversity, R3 said. In fact, agencies should consider adding areas such as pay parity, flexible working arrangements and better parental leave policies for maternity and paternity into their formal policies to encourage DE&I. Other areas also include leadership training programmes, learning and development programmes, and having a fair and equitable hiring process. 

Additionally, agencies can make the change from intent to formal processes by having a diverse portrayal and representation in communications. Next is to implement policies to increase the DE%I in the agency. The policies agencies could implement include a fair and equitable hiring process, employee well-being, talent diversity and regular unbiased training and programmes. Agencies should also consider strategic alliances and partnerships, one which will enable diversity and change, as well as review their process and procurement. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's inaugural Adland Diversity & Inclusion Index 2021 showcases the region's most diverse and inclusive policies. Click here to find out how agencies are doubling down on workplace diversity through initiatives such as empowering female leaders and pay parity. 

Photo courtesy: 123RF 

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