Omnicom Celebrates International Women’s Day 2019

In honor of International Women’s Day (IWD), Omnicom agencies around the world will come together to celebrate the professional and personal achievements of women within the Omnicom family and to reflect on progress made. This includes several events hosted by Omniwomen, Omnicom’s internal organization that is dedicated to developing female leaders of tomorrow.

For a comprehensive list of Omnicom’s IWD activities, check out the roundup below. If you have any questions about a particular event/campaign or inquiries on how to get involved, please reach out to Katie Beaule at [email protected]    

Omniwomen

Chapter Plans:

  • On March 8th in London, Omniwomen UK + Allies will host their fifth-annual Leadership Summit. This year’s theme is “Supporting Diverse Paths to the Top”, as the event will celebrate and encourage women from all backgrounds to fulfill their potential. Around 300 employees will enjoy a day of workshops and discussions, including talks from speakers such as disability inclusion activist Dr. Caroline Casey, Ruth Hunt of Stonewall and Sophie Walker – former leader of the UK Women’s Equality Party. 
  • Omniwomen San Francisco is hosting a panel and networking session the evening of March 7th, gathering leaders of Omnicom agencies in San Francisco to talk about #BalanceforBetter and what “balance” means to them in their agencies, careers and lives.  
  • Omniwomen China (with support from TBWA\China) is creating a video titled “I’m an Omniwoman”, featuring women from diverse backgrounds sharing their experiences and supporting the Spring Bud Project, whose goal is to assist girls of poor areas of China to return to school.
  • Omniwomen Dallas will launch its chapter on March 7th, with an event embracing the theme #BalanceforBetter.
  • To give back for IWD, Omniwomen France (with support from TBWA\Paris) will be partnering with “La cravate solidaire”, a charity that gathers professional clothes and distributes them to unemployed women to fight against appearance discrimination during job interviews.
  • Omniwomen NY will be hosting an event on March 7th, delivering on the IWD theme of #BalanceforBetter with a focus on self-care. Jeanette Bronee, a performance and culture strategist, international keynote and TEDx speaker and founder of Path for Life, will be featured.

BBDO

To amplify IWD, BBDO San Francisco has partnered with The Global Fund for Women, an organization that invests in female leaders all over the world who are fighting for women’s rights. The organization focuses on a wide range of rights, spanning from productive rights to driver’s license rights and everything in between. On March 8th, BBDO SF will launch a campaign amplifying IWD through Instagram. A multitude of celebrities and influencers, like Ashley Judd, will give up their Instagram feeds to give a voice to female leaders and activists around the world.

CPM

In honor of IWD, CPM offices across the globe will participate in a selfie campaign where employees will pose in the #BalanceforBetter stance using CPM-branded selfie-cards. The selfie-cards plus a recap movie will be shared on local and international social media platforms using the hashtags #IWD2019, #BalanceforBetter and #Omniwomen. In addition, local offices will have a variety of activities to recognize its female employees. 

Critical Mass

This International Woman’s Day, Critical Mass is supporting a group of creatives who are launching #ChoiceWords, a campaign standing up to commonplace, sexist language. This campaign calls out every day microaggressions like “You’re smart for a girl” for what they are—indirectly derogatory and discriminatory messages—and challenges people to pause, choose their words better, and reverse the damaging effects these messages have on women’s self-confidence and advancement. 

#ChoiceWords swag will be sold starting March 8th at choicewords.shop, with a physical display at Critical Mass’ Calgary office. The swag and accessories will empower supporters while also bringing awareness to anyone within sight. Plus, every dollar raised will go directly to UN Women.

DDB

In honor of IWD, DDB’s North American offices will be recreating black and white photos of its fearless founders Doyle, Dane, & Bernbach. However, the images will be re-enacted by the future of DDB, a.k.a. powerful women in the agencies whose first or last names start with “D” or “B”. DDB will share these images on social media.

FleishmanHillard

FleishmanHillard will be celebrating the depth, dimension and diversity of women across the FH network with a video series that will highlight its female colleagues across function and geography. FleishmanHillard will promote the video series throughout the month, recognizing both International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month. New videos will be released in batches weekly (featuring 25 total women) alongside an integrated promotion strategy of its owned channels and proactive media outreach using #BalanceforBetter.

GMR Marketing

To raise awareness for IWD and celebrate a gender-balanced world, GMR Marketing will be scheduling activities throughout the week. The activities will start on Monday, March 5th with a business clothes drive that allows employees to donate gently-used, professional wardrobe items to Dress for Success, a non-profit organization that empowers women to achieve economic independence. The week will also include a #BalanceforBetter panel featuring women in leadership from several top companies (GE Healthcare, KPMG and Facebook) who will talk about their leadership journeys, challenges and pivotal moments in their careers. In addition, at the end of the week, the company will continue donation efforts for Dress for Success, with GMR matching the donations.

GSD&M

On Monday, March 1, GSD&M launched a 30-second spot in support of IWD spotlighting the powerful female pilots of the U.S. Air Force and inspiring more women to join. Watch the spot titled “Origin Story” here. #HigherFurtherFaster

Interbrand/C Space/HMKM

To keep the spirit of International Women’s Day alive beyond March 8th, Interbrand, C Space and HMKM will ask employees to write down at least one suggestion for change to help build a more gender-balanced world in 2019. Every office will have a stack of “I’m balanced”cards and the suggestions will be amplified on social media.

Ketchum

Ketchum will launch a series of short videos in which women (and men) across its network share their advice and insights about creating a more balanced future – in the workplace, at home, and in society at large. For each video made, Ketchum will donate $10 to Room to Read, a non-profit focused on girls’ education and children’s literacy in Asia and Africa. The videos will be positioned as a virtual time capsule addressed to professionals of the future, showing where we are at the current moment in women’s history and ultimately demonstrating how we as individuals are working as a Force for Good to make that future a reality.

Omnicom Health Group

Omnicom Health Group is celebrating IWD and Women’s History Month by recognizing the female leaders and mentors who inspired agency members. Employees will be encouraged to bring in pictures of women they admire and to watch empowering Ted Talks that focus on themes such as women in leadership. Entrée Health NY will also take part by hosting a class on celebrating women accomplishments, which is a Google initiative called #IAmRemarkable, and by holding a panel discussion with women who are increasing access to healthcare.

Omnicom Media Group

To amplify International Women’s Day, OMG will launch a microsite to showcase men and women from OMG offices around the world giving their thoughts on womanhood, equality, empowerment and more. The site will remain live for the month of March, Women’s History Month. 

PHD

To promote this year’s #BalanceforBetter theme, PHD will change its social media headers to its tagline “Finding a better way balance” and share messaging about its 43% female leadership. It will also tie in its #PeopleofPHD initiative by sharing photos of female and male leadership in the #BalanceforBetter pose and sending an internal newsletter from the CEO of PHD Worldwide, Mike Cooper, on the business case for supporting gender balance.

Porter Novelli

In celebration of International Women’s Day, Porter Novelli will host a panel discussion on Thursday, March 7th, featuring three female leaders who will share actionable strategies for women to empower themselves to progress and thrive in their careers.

The panel will focus on the most recent Women in the Workplace study published by McKinsey with Leanin.Org, which found that not only has the proportion of women at every level in corporate America hardly changed, but progress has stalled. Women remain underrepresented and are still hired less in both entry-level roles as well as management positions.

The panel will be moderated by Soon Mee Kim, Global Diversity and Inclusion Lead of PN. Featured panelists include:

  • Kendra Clarke, VP of Data Science and Product Development, Sparks & Honey
  • Angela Chitkara, Branding & Integrated Communications Assistant Professor, CCNY
  • Cheryl Houser, Founder & CEO, Creative Breed

RAPP

In honor of IWD, RAPP will be hosting a panel, that will be broadcasted to all its offices via a webinar on March 8th. The panel will feature senior female leaders across RAPP’s international network, each with a different point of view and background. The agency will also be creating IWD content for a takeover of its digital channels.

Siegel+Gale

In the run-up to International Women’s Day on March 8th, Siegel+Gale will be hosting an event seriesacross the globe featuring preeminent leaders who are helping to build some of the world’s most influential brands, including AT&T, Nike, Unilever and Google. Led by Siegel+Gale’s CMO, Margaret Molloy, the dual-focused conversations will explore the challenges brands face in 2019. Thirty-two influential panelists across five cities (Dubai, London, San Francisco, LA and New York) will share their personal journeys as executive leaders and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.

TBWA

On IWD, TBWA\Worldwide will celebrate women who have been promoted and hired across the collective in the past year with an internal film, as the company continues to push toward its Take the Lead 2020 goal. Take the Lead was launched on International Women’s Day 2015 with an initial goal of increasing the percentage of women in leadership roles by 20% by the year 2020. The company is more than 3/4 of the way to its 2020 goal, with women occupying 42% of leadership roles at TBWA globally.

On a more local level:

  • Juniper Park\TBWA will publish a series of short interviews with the agency’s senior female leaders.
  • TBWA\Africa is hosting a Women in Management event, bringing leaders from different agencies across TBWA Africa together to network, connect and mentor each other.

The Marketing Arm

The Marketing Arm will host IWD celebrations across all offices, with each event featuring a poster series that showcases the agency’s empowering female leadership. A version of this content will be shared on The Marketing Arm’s social channels on IWD and throughout the month in order to highlight inspiring women leaders and tell their stories. The agency will also launch a gratitude program that allows employees across offices to congratulate and recognize the women and allies that they work with.

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