March 29, 2019, New York, NY — Earlier today SeeHer, the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) leading industry movement for gender equality in media, named its marketing chairs for 2019-2020.
AT&T Communications Chief Brand Officer Fiona Carter and Procter & Gamble Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard will co-lead the movement towards its goal of increasing accurate portrayals of girls and women in media 20 percent by 2020, the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment, giving women in the U.S. the right to vote. The new marketing leadership succeeds former SeeHer Chair Stephen Quinn (former Walmart CMO), who retired at the end of 2018.
Since its launch three years ago, SeeHer has become the industry’s most-influential voice for eliminating unconscious bias and increasing gender equality in programming, advertising, marketing, and media.
The movement created a Gender Equality MeasureTM (GEMTM), the first methodology to help marketers identify bias in ads and content. Since its inception, the metric has been used to evaluate more than 60,000 ads and 700 Nielsen top programs. After the unprecedented success of GEMTM in the U.S., the world’s largest market, in late 2018 SeeHer made its methodology available globally. Now in 14 markets, with numerous transnational marketers using the metric internationally, GEMTM is recognized as the gold standard in global measurement for gender equality.
The movement has also achieved considerable success through its partnerships with media. Highlights include bestowing SeeHer Awards at the Critics’ Choice annually since 2017; airing SeeHer PSAs on CBS during Women’s History Month 2018 and 2019; one night of primetime SeeHer coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics with NBCU; PSAs with Viacom annually, programming with The CW and A&E; partnership with Meredith brands; and many other new partnerships to be announced in upcoming 2019-2020 schedule presentations.
“As the largest trade association with all the leading marketers, we were in the unique position to bring scale to the movement from the outset,” said Bob Liodice, CEO of the Association of National Advertisers. “SeeHer is good for business and good for society. With Marc’s and Fiona’s expertise and personal commitment, we will certainly reach, and likely exceed, our goal for 2020.”
Fiona Carter is a tireless advocate for equality. Besides her work with SeeHer, Carter sits on the boards of directors of the ANA and Women in Sports Foundation. “Many marketers have their own gender equality programs,” Carter noted, “but the full force of our industry dwarfs anything we can do individually. We are determined to make that clout count so that girls and women everywhere — be they mothers or chemists, artists or business owners — see themselves accurately reflected in the ads and programming that reach millions of people every day. I look forward to working closely with Marc on our goals for 2020 and beyond.”
As the top marketer for one of the world’s largest advertisers and chair of the ANA, Marc Pritchard is a global thought leader who oversees a worldwide advertising budget of $7.1 billion annually. “SeeHer is a powerful movement underway in our industry,” said Pritchard, “where brands and companies are collectively using their reach, voice, and resources to help make the world a better place. I am honored to partner with Fiona and the SeeHer team to make advertising a powerful force for good and a force for growth. This is a personal passion for me as well as a business imperative.”
“Fiona and Marc have been with us every step of the way, educating their own organizations and serving as dynamic spokespeople for positive change,” concluded ANA President and COO Christine Manna. “This is simply formalizing roles they have been playing.”
About the #SeeHer Movement
Despite the strides made to accurately portray women and girls in media, an unconscious bias persists against women and girls in advertising, media, and programming. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) launched the #SeeHer initiative in June 2016 in a partnership with The Female Quotient (TFQ) at the United State of Women. SeeHer’s mission is to increase the accurate portrayals of women and girls in media by 20 percent by 2020, the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote. The group developed a Gender Equality Measure (GEM™) to track progress and the marketing effect of removing unconscious bias from ads and programming. High GEM™ scores directly correlate to improved ROI. GEM™ won the 2017 ESOMAR Research Effectiveness Award. The methodology became the industry standard in the U.S., which led to a global rollout in 2018. For more information, visit www.SeeHer.com, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
About the Association of National Advertisers (ANA)
The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) makes a difference for individuals, brands, and the industry by driving growth, advancing the interests of marketers, and promoting and protecting the well-being of the marketing community. Founded in 1910, the ANA provides leadership that advances marketing excellence and shapes the future of the industry. The ANA’s membership includes more than 1,700 companies with 25,000 brands that engage almost 150,000 industry professionals and collectively spend or support more than $400 billion in marketing and advertising annually. The membership is comprised of more than 1,000 client-side marketers and more than 700 marketing solutions provider members, which include leading marketing data science and technology suppliers, ad agencies, law firms, consultants, and vendors. Further enriching the ecosystem is the work of the nonprofit ANA Educational Foundation (AEF), which has the mission of enhancing the understanding of advertising and marketing within the academic and marketing communities.
Patty Kerr
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