Earlier this month, Publicis Groupe execs faced a chilling experience, taking a dip (or Le Dip, if you rather) into ice baths around the country to raise money for Cancer Council.
But for Publicis, this was more than a feel-good fundraiser and a bit of amusement for staff. In fact, it was something rather more serious altogether and shows, in full technicolour, what the advertising industry can do to improve the lives of others.
To learn more, B&T sat down with Pauly Grant, Publicis’ chief talent officer for ANZ and APAC, and Naomi Watson, Cancer Council NSW’s director of marketing and fundraising.
Locally, Publicis and Cancer Council started working together a few years ago. It followed Arthur Sadoun, global CEO of the Publicis Groupe, releasing a moving video announcing to its more than 100,000 staff that he had cancer.
“He had an overwhelming response,” Publicis chief people officer Pauly Grant told B&T following Le Dip.
“He was receiving thousands of emails with people giving him their thoughts. But the other thing he noticed was that there were a lot of people telling him his video had opened doors for them because they had not known how to talk about cancer in the workplace.
“Sadoun made a promise to himself to remove the stigma of cancer at work. When he did recover, he worked with the Publicis team around the world and partnered with cancer institutes around the world, such as Macmillan in the UK and Gustave Roussy in France to find out what exists to support those working with cancer. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much”.
In response, Publicis then developed the ‘Working With Cancer Pledge’ in January 2023. The pledge secures the job, salary level and benefits of any Publicis Groupe employees diagnosed with cancer for at least one year, allowing them to stay focused on their health treatment as the priority.
All Publicis Groupe employees with cancer (and a series of other chronic illnesses) will be individually accompanied when they return to work through personalised career support.
All affected Publicis Groupe employees will have access to an internal community of volunteers who are properly trained to provide support, through the Marcel platform.
All Publicis Groupe employees in a primary caregiver role for a patient in their immediate family will receive custom personal and professional support to navigate the flexibility and time arrangements needed maintain their energy at work and as a caregiver.
Locally, Grant admitted that Publicis was not (at the time, at least) expert in supporting staff with cancer—noting that no two experiences, recoveries or emotional and physical reactions to the same cancer, let alone different ones, are the same.
“That’s why we explored the partnership with the Cancer Council, which is now going really strong, and how we can do things on top of the pledge,” she said.
“One of the things we heard a lot from managers across the business was that they just didn’t know how to talk to people in their team who were diagnosed. Cancer Council does some great training for managers and for people leaders on what to do,” she said.
Cancer Council is a client of Publicis’ too, but together the pair collaborate on work that goes beyond the normal client-agency relationship and beyond the Council’s strategic priorities.
“It seemed like a no-brainer for us,” said Watson.
“We want to be there to support people with cancer and we know that they employment and financial side can be a real challenge for people.”
Cancer, while often associated with older people, has a significant impact on working-age Australians. Half the population—yes, 50 per cent—will get cancer during their lives and 40 per cent of those will be of working age.
Watson described the impacts of cancer on workers as “multifaceted”.
“Absolutely the people who are impacted by cancer will need to take time off and, for each individual, that time off will look very different. Some people will need to or want to move away from work. For some, depending on their diagnosis, their workplace will be a refuge and support. We’ve been working with Publicis on providing wider support for everyone around those impacted by cancer, their managers, colleagues, and how they get comfortable having these conversations, not making assumptions about what they need and then being able to tailor work around it”.
Grant said staff response has been “overwhelmingly positive” and there is a “great deal of pride” in the business’ leadership on the matter.
Publicis, is returning the favour, and then some.
Le Dip, of course, is an en Français riff on the Daffodil Day Dip but with the added spice of some senior leaders getting the dip at its Publicis Groupe assemblies held twice a year and competing to raise the most money.
“We said if we could get to $1,000 in the assembly, they would take the plunge in Manly and there was a live cut to it on this call. By the end of that two-hour assembly, we’d raised $8,000,” Grant said.
“Then it just kept going. If we got to one target, another leader would go in and we did this across all our offices in Australia and New Zealand. Then we said, if we doubled our goal and got to $30,000 by September, we’d give everyone a ‘dip out early day’ so they could have half a day off. I’m really pleased to say as of today, we’ve raised $31,909.”
The first bosses to take the plunge were Clare Pickens, CEO of Leo Australia, Davy Rennie, CEO of Digitas and Neil Duncan, MD of Publicis Productions.
Then the ice baths appeared in offices with Imogen Hewitt, CEO of Spark Foundry ANZ and Publicis chief media officer, staying in the bracing waters the longest. Maurice Riley, Publicis’ chief data officer, following just behind. Publicis Groupe CEO Michael Rebelo took the plunge, too.
Grant called on other agency groups to get involved and that her door is always open to discuss setting up similar working with cancer pledges. B&T heartily recommends you do.
