A Core Shift in Recognition: Laura Kell, Havas Media Group

par Carol Mason , AdForum (NYC)

Havas Media Group
Média
New York, Etats-Unis
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Laura Kell
Chief Data and Product Officer Havas Media Group
 

In our series of interviews that ask what barriers women still face in the industry, we spoke with Laura Kell, Chief Data and Product Officer at Havas Media Group, about attracting more diverse talent to agency teams and recognizing those with quieter talent or skills that are often neglected to support more equal opportunities.


What barriers do women still face in our industry and why are they still there?

I’m certainly a minority in my field! This isn’t specific to the media industry – women are under-represented across the board in data and analytics roles, particularly in data science and data engineering, and this is even more evident in senior positions within agency organizations. There are simply not enough applications from women for these roles, and this is something I am working hard to address.

I’ve been encouraged by partnerships with firms such as Faculty (their Fellowship scheme helps data scientists get into the workplace) where there is a much higher representation from women than we see in our agency job applications. Generally, partnerships with universities or organizations such as Faculty are a great way of attracting more diverse talent to agency teams.

What has also struck me regarding talented women who work in our industry, is that they tend to have far greater loyalty to the business they are working for. Unfortunately, in many cases, our industry does not reward this loyalty and instead moving every two years to get a salary bump is seen as the best or only way to raise your monthly income. If women are less likely to jump from job to job as regularly, this goes some way to explaining the salary gap.

 

How should we tackle an issue such as equal opportunity, not solely for women’s equality but across the entire DE&I spectrum?

Primarily, I think this comes down to the type of talent that the agency chooses to value and reward, and an understanding that the modern agency needs a much more diverse range of skills to be successful. Historically, it has been those people able to talk the loudest and most confidently, that shine in an agency. It is important to recognize that the people best able to do this often come from privilege.

We need to be better at recognizing those with perhaps ‘quieter’ talents, such as leading and developing a team, or subject matter expertise – skills which are often neglected in an agency world still primarily focused on winning awards and new business performance. Things are changing, albeit it slowly, but I believe we need to make this core shift in recognition, to fully support more equal opportunities moving forward.

 

How would brands react if their ad strategy was created and produced by a majority male team?

I’d hope that they would care – they certainly should! Even if they are not concerned about the social or moral impact of advertising (and I still don’t think that’s a given) – they should care about the impact on driving brand or business performance.

In my role we are always focused on proving that media works. Did it deliver a positive return on investment? It was interesting to read the recent Kantar study; 5 Habits of Effective Advertisers, which showed that inclusion and diversity are a key driver of both creativity and effectiveness for advertisers. Progressive representations of women (and men) perform better for longer-term brand growth and short-term sales ROI. Women are 50% of the population! If a team is composed of all men, there is naturally a risk that you won’t represent women as effectively in your messaging or placements.

This matters in business, but also matters for society. I’d hope that we all recognize the importance that advertising plays in shaping how people think and feel (or else, why are we here?!). Ensuring that the teams that create ads are well balanced is an obvious first step in producing work that challenges the gender bias.

 

What experiences did you have joining the industry?

I joined the industry in 2005, and it’s pretty much unrecognizable compared to now! Data and digital didn’t really exist, TV was king and in all honesty a media agency was quite an intimidating place to work. But equally, as the agency world has changed (in many ways for the better), it’s still important to me to keep that sense of fun and comradery that existed back then.

I have found that throughout my career fighting for what I thought was right (for myself and for my team) has been perceived as “pushy” or “difficult”. Also, in my experience having a northern accent hasn’t always helped! However, recently I’ve been struck by what a difference it makes to work with a more diverse leadership group (45% of our leadership team is female) and moving forward it will make a huge difference to have greater diversity in leadership teams across the industry.

 

Who inspires you the most and why?

Within the agency world, I have been proud to work with a great mentor throughout my career – Omnicom Media Group’s Sally Dickerson. What Sally has achieved within data and analytics has been a huge inspiration to me. She has built an industry leading team in BrandScience and has always been incredibly commercially astute – driving a huge amount of revenue for both the agency and her teams. She is intimidatingly smart, very caring and I am hugely grateful for all the support and training she has given me throughout my career. She is also a huge ambassador for the women that she works with, and I am proud to say that she has also become a great friend.