By Will Novosedlik

In 2020, the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) pledged to combat racism, discrimination and systemic barriers to inclusion in the marketing profession. To launch that effort, it conducted a survey with both marketers and agencies. Released earlier this year, the third edition of its research revealed useful insights about the challenges that BIPOC employees and those from other marginalized communities face in the workplace, identifying steps that organizations can take to improve outcomes not only for individuals but also for the collective.

In an effort to spark conversations about how to DEI, as it were, this month, the CMA circulated a discussion guide with thought starters that are designed to help marketers and agencies assess their own levels of diversification. It includes topics such as building an inclusive workplace, employee sentiments, diversity of interview panels, employee loss, ageism, mentorship and employment of newcomers to Canada.

Strategy spoke with Alison Simpson, President and CEO of the CMA, about the new industry tool.

What are you hoping to achieve by sharing these thought-starters with marketers?

The goal of DEI in the Workplace: A Discussion Guide for Leadership Teams is to help organizations – both within the marketing industry and the wider business community – articulate a commitment and define their scope of activities to create a more inclusive and equitable work environment. It can also help organizations develop actionable ways they will deliver on their commitment.

How will you measure the effectiveness of these thought-starters? Are you doing follow-up research?

As part of our ongoing commitment of fostering DEI in the Canadian marketing industry, the CMA team supports our members by helping facilitate these important discussions. We have worked with our DEI Committee on developing the discussion guide. We’re also facilitating the discussion sessions with some of our members’ teams, so we will have firsthand learnings to further develop our DEI research and resources.

The CMA’s DEI Committee [is] comprised of marketers and other professionals with deep expertise and lived experiences who work to help advance the profession and guide our annual research, which is always developing in tandem with the working landscape and the current priorities of marketers. This year marks the third year of our annual DEI research, and we are currently developing our fourth annual survey, set to launch in 2024, which incorporates key learnings from our discussion guide.

Have you developed any other tools that organizations can use to foster diversity?

The CMA offers many resources to help organizations further their education and advance their DEI efforts. The CMA launched our DEI Resource Hub on our website earlier this year that is available to all marketers.

The DEI Resource Hub covers important topics such as diversity in media, building diverse teams and partnerships, multicultural marketing and diversity in advertising. The hub provides thought leadership, research and actionable steps for marketers across these four key areas. We also recently released a two-part episode of our CMA Connect podcast, titled From Talk to Action: Championing DEI as a Marketer, in which two members of our DEI Committee share their experiences, advice and best practices.

Just as you recognize marketers for exceptional marketing campaigns, are there any plans to recognize brand leaders for the level of diversification they have achieved?

We are currently reviewing member feedback and looking at ways to further recognize and celebrate meaningful DEI work as part of our CMA Awards. Currently, the CMA Awards feature the Meta Business Equity Award. This special award is all about highlighting representation – including race, gender, sexual orientation, and people living with disabilities. The objective of the award is to identify increased opportunities to represent diverse people in online ads, inspire more inclusive and authentic advertising content, and recognize the positive impact of inclusive portrayal — for people and businesses.