HP today revealed the results of its diversity challenge issued to its global agencies – BBDO Worldwide, Fred & Farid, gyro, PHD and Edelman – from 12 months ago.

The company also announced a comprehensive platform to drive systemic industry change and outlines a new challenge for 2018 centred on increasing agency minority and underrepresented group representation around the world.

HP’s 2016/2017 assignment to its agencies was to set targets and diversify their ranks to improve the ratio of women and minorities working on the HP account and in senior creative roles.

The main findings of the report included:

• All agencies exceeded the goal for women representation on HP account teams by over 5 per cent – today, 61 per cent of HP’s worldwide agency account teams consist of women.
• All agencies exceeded the goal for women in senior roles by four per cent. Today, 51 per cent of HP’s agency account teams have women in senior roles.
• HP’s two lead creative agencies met targets for women in creative leadership; BBDO went from zero to 40 per cent and Fred & Farid from zero to 55 per cent. However, there is still opportunity for improvement overall.
• While progress has been made, particularly in the second half of 2017, work remains in advancing representation among US minorities. Three out of five agencies saw a positive, upward trend in minority representation. However, minority representation was still below target for 60 per cent of HP’s global agencies.
• Overall, eight per cent of all employee growth across HP’s global agencies year-over-year were minorities
• More than 15 new programs fueled the agencies’ diversity progress including recruiting processes, internal events and community outreach.

Commenting on the results, Antonio Lucio, global chief marketing and communication officer at HP, said: “Advancing diversity is a business imperative. It fuels our reinvention journey, helping drive transformation in marketing and beyond. HP is a stronger brand and better company because of it. We are proud of our agencies who took on this challenge. They’ve made great progress.”

Driving Systemic Industry Change
To help accelerate industry transformation, HP is introducing a range of initiatives designed to reinvent diversity and inclusion in the global marketing industry.

Increasing representation of underrepresented groups

• HP Announces a New 2018 Global Agency Challenge – Agency partners to define specific underrepresented groups by country and set clear objectives, measurements and plans to increase diverse talent on HP business.
• HP Launches New Diversity Program with Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity – New program will open the door to the Cannes Festival for underrepresented groups worldwide through an immersive experience to network, meet jurors and share creative. Complementary to Cannes Lions See It Be It program, this new program will focus exclusively on underrepresented talent to provide a foot in the door to the creative community.
• HP Awards a Grant to ADCOLOR – The grant will fund a professional development solution for diverse talent focused on growing young talent in creative industries.

Maintaining progress with women

• HP Awards a Grant for 3% Conference – The grant will fund a 3% Conference livestream to support efforts to continue to advance opportunities for women in marketing and creative industries.
• HP Renews its Sponsorship for Free the Bid – HP became the first sponsor of Free the Bid to increase women in director’s chairs and is continuing to fund efforts to give women director’s equal opportunities to bid on commercial jobs in the global advertising industry.

“When it comes to driving diversity, we cannot slow down. Our updated, comprehensive platform will help drive long-term, sustainable, systemic change,” Lucio concluded.