More than 100 companies have met the requirements to be included in the ANA’s first ever list of “Certified Diverse Suppliers for Advertising and Marketing.”
The list includes agencies, media, production, promotion, and research companies and follows an ANA report released in May, “The Power of Supplier Diversity.” That study revealed a large majority (75 percent) of ANA members have strategic plans in place to hire diverse suppliers for their overall organizations, but only 40 percent have such strategies specifically for marketing and advertising services.
The release of the list also follows a June letter from the ANA and its diversity initiative, The Alliance for Inclusive & Multicultural Marketing (AIMM), the “ANA/AIMM Commitment to Equality, Inclusion, and Systemic Change.” The letter called for the development of an equitable creative supply chain through strategic investments in agencies, broadcasters, suppliers, and producers owned or run by Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, and LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities.
“The ANA is resolute in its belief that supplier diversity offers many benefits to corporations,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. “It provides opportunities for business expansion as new consumer needs emerge based on shifting demographics. Supplier diversity drives competition between existing and potential suppliers while promoting innovation, as diverse vendors can offer new products, services, and solutions.”
The May study also showed that the biggest benefit of a supplier diversity strategy is community empowerment and positive social impact, which were cited by 84 percent of respondents.
Identifying diverse suppliers represent a significant challenge for marketers, according to the May report. As part of its commitment, the ANA pledged to curate and publish a list of diverse suppliers that work in the marketing and advertising industries. Liodice stressed that the list just released is a “living” resource that will be updated on a regular basis. He added that the ANA welcomes suggestions for diverse supplier additions, or for providing other ideas or recommendations, here.
A copy of the complete list is available here. Note that all companies on the “Certified Diverse Suppliers for Advertising and Marketing” list have been certified as diverse suppliers by organizations which include:
- NMSDC: National Minority Supplier Development Council
- WBENC: Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
- NGLCC: National LGBT Chamber of Commerce
- WOSB: Woman-Owned Small Business
- MBE: Minority Business Enterprise
Review: Director John Crowley’s “We Live In Time”
It's not hard to spend a few hours watching Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield fall and be in love. In "We Live In Time," filmmaker John Crowley puts the audience up close and personal with this photogenic British couple through the highs and lows of a relationships in their 30s.
Everyone starts to think about the idea of time, and not having enough of it to do everything they want, at some point. But it seems to hit a lot of us very acutely in that tricky, lovely third decade. There's that cruel biological clock, of course, but also careers and homes and families getting older. Throw a cancer diagnosis in there and that timer gets ever more aggressive.
While we, and Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh), do indeed live in time, as we're constantly reminded in big and small ways — clocks and stopwatches are ever-present, literally and metaphorically — the movie hovers above it. The storytelling jumps back and forth through time like a scattershot memory as we piece together these lives that intersect in an elaborate, mystical and darkly comedic way: Almut runs into Tobias with her car. Their first chat is in a hospital hallway, with those glaring fluorescent lights and him bruised and cut all over. But he's so struck by this beautiful woman in front of him, he barely seems to care.
I suppose this could be considered a Lubitschian "meet-cute" even if it knowingly pushes the boundaries of our understanding of that romance trope. Before the hit, Tobias was in a hotel, attempting to sign divorce papers and his pens were out of ink and pencils kept breaking. In a fit of near-mania he leaves, wearing only his bathrobe, to go to a corner store and buy more. Walking back, he drops something in the street and bang: A new relationship is born. It's the... Read More