Diageo supports female creatives returning to work

Diageo is showing its support for women in the workforce by becoming the exclusive sponsor of the briefs for the Creative Equals ‘Returners’ scheme.

The scheme dubbed 'CreativeComeback' is designed to support women in the creative industries in the UK as they return to work after a career break of at least 12 months.

The programme is backed by the UK Government Equalities Office and sees 50 women returning to work as art directors, producers, copywriters, data analysts, designers and concept creators.

The women have the opportunity to take part in a two-week programme that ultimately aims to help place them back into work. It focuses on bringing the cohort up to speed on all the latest creative and tech developments, and sees the group working on briefs for two of Diageo's iconic global brands – Baileys and Guinness.

All this is followed by a four-day programme after which the returners enjoy a 2-6-week placement or a flexible job with one of the Creative Equals founding partners and are supported throughout by a dedicated coach.

Women executives share their support for the scheme

Women in important roles at Diageo are voicing their support of the scheme and company’s involvement as a sponsor.

Syl Saller, Chief Marketing Officer, says: “We are proud to sponsor the #CreativeComeback Scheme as when just 12% of creative directors are women it’s not enough to talk about our ambitions for change, we need concerted action to turn the dial. The International Women’s Day theme must be championed in the creative industries. Balanced creative teams produce better work, balanced leadership makes better decisions and gender balanced workplaces benefit everyone.”

Grainne Wafer, Global Baileys Brand Director, comments: “There is a wealth of top female talent and experience leaving the creative industries that we cannot afford to lose. The returners will be working on challenging and exciting briefs for some of our biggest brands and I can’t wait to see what they come up with!”

Ali Hanan, Founder of Creative Equals, also adds: “#CreativeComeback is how we create real tangible action to change the ratio of women in creative. We have had more than 195 applicants for our programme – an overwhelming response. With training from D&AD, Facebook and many top coaches, we know this programme will help put bridges back to work for those who have left due to children, cancer, caring responsibilities or other reasons. We are thrilled to have Diageo behind #CreativeComeback – its continued investment and commitment to fast-track diversity and inclusion is making profound change.”

Increasing inclusion and diversity in marketing

Diageo has been working to increase inclusion and diversity in marketing – both in terms of progressive gender portrayal in advertising and by supporting initiatives that contribute to gender balance in the industry itself.

Work in this area includes being a member of the UNstereotype Alliance and a signatory of Free the Bid to help to increase the number of female directors on adverts. Diageo has also reviewed its creative work globally to see where it needs to improve on progressive gender portrayal and is training its 1200 marketers and agencies globally in a framework covering representation, agency, perspective and characterization of gender in advertising.

Diageo has also been recognised in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, as well as previously named named by Thomson Reuters as the fourth most inclusive and diverse company in the world, as well as being ranked by Equileap as the best company in the UK for gender equality.