Exploring the Impact of LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Groups on Adland

ERGs want more support from agency leadership

How much impact do LGBTQ+ ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) have in the advertising and marketing space?

Do the WeRQ and the 4A’s teamed up to field a study to shed light on the subject. It’s the first-of-its-kind, and the findings are available for all to read and learn from via this downloadable white paper.

Here, Graham Nolan, co-founder of Do the WeRQ, a platform all about supporting LGBTQ+ creativity and representation in the advertising and marketing space, discusses the study’s most striking revelations.

MUSE: Why was Do the WeRQ interested in conducting a study on the state of the LGBTQ+ ERG in the ad industry?

Graham Nolan: In the earliest days of Do the WeRQ—in our planning phase, before we formally launched in May 2020—we looked for where the “werq” was being done in a visible, meaningful way. And the most high-profile effort was coming from Employee Resource Groups, with work that sometimes manifested as campaigns and public programs, usually benefitting LGBTQ+ people in terms of day-to-day community and focus.

Our co-founder Kate Wolff said early and often that a national LGBTQ+ adland organization like Do the WeRQ would need to function as “an ERG for ERGs,” and she provided a powerful focus on how important data would be for creating any sort of change in the industry. After all, it’s only been a few years since LGBTQ+ people became a protected class from an employment standpoint.

We knew that surveying agencies’ LGBTQ+ ERGs—alongside the 4A’s, given their role in aligning the industry—could let us know more about how we could support organizations and structures that had worked for progress well before we arrived on the scene.

How long have ERGs existed in the ad space? Are they common among the bigger agencies?

Our sample demonstrated that most LGBTQ+ ERGs are young. Of those surveyed, most have been around for less than five years (85 percent), with 60 percent active for two to four years.

Of course, we know some ERG groups existed long before that time period. I was helping Starcom MediaVest Group’s ERG apply for the HRC Index as early as 2007.

But our new survey results imply that some of the earlier groups may have dissipated, while some are being reformed for modern needs with new team members.

We’ve seen that the ERG structure is commonplace for agencies of all sizes and areas of expertise—larger agencies have created some of the most enduring ERGs on our radar, often at the holding-company level. 

When you got the results of the study, did you find anything especially surprising, encouraging, discouraging?

What was most striking to me is that while surveyed ERGs receive support via company resources—93 percent of ERGs feel that they receive at least moderate support from their agency with structured involvement from executive leaders—fewer are able to have direct input or influence on business policy (67 percent) or creative (60 percent).

The stats point out a disparity that becomes more urgent in our current landscape of growing DEI hesitance from brands. If these groups aren’t empowered to impact ad industry product, they certainly can’t contribute to a company’s bottom line, nor can they inform work that better connects with an ever more LGBTQ+ public.

The opportunity always lies on the flip side of these disparities, meaning there’s great opportunity for companies that can re-engineer how their LGBTQ+ ERGs inform company policy and product. This could generate a competitive advantage in a world where queer people have an outsized impact on culture.

Given the increasingly conservative trends that swept Donald Trump back into power, can we expect ad agencies—particularly those with clients who have pulled back on depicting and supporting us—to continue to support ERGs? Will agencies listen to their views, implement their ideas? What are people who are members of these groups saying and seeing?

Our data was fielded pre-election, so we’d be interested to see how the needs of ERGs change in this shifted national climate. In fact, we are in discussions about a qualitative sequel to the study, whereby we could explore that specific impact.

It’s hard to predict what agencies will do next, or exactly what political pressures will be applied, though you’re right in assuming that they’ll likely follow their brands’ needs and objectives in determining their readjusted approach to inclusion.

That said, the most decisive action we can take is deciding how we’ll evaluate companies’ communications and actions going forward. “Authenticity” is a term that gets thrown around a lot, and it’s typically in regards to a company’s values—speaking to their intention regarding DEI efforts. But intention isn’t as important as impact. That’s why we should prioritize integrity over authenticity. And integrity is simply doing what you say you’ll do. Integrity means impact.

Whatever agencies do next, consider them through the lens of integrity and committed action. And if you’re looking to hold anyone accountable for action, reconsider the structure of your ERGs to make sure they’re positioned within the company for a direct line to leadership, product development and bottom-line growth.

We’ll be in our best position to weather the storm ahead if we’ve formalized the value of ERGs to company business development. Leaders can better stand by these groups if they’re clear on how our cultural insights and queer creativity can translate to new opportunities. 

Will you continue to monitor and study ERGs in the ad industry going forward?

Absolutely. These insights give Do the WeRQ, the 4A’s and all our partners the ability to immediately apply the survey insights to how they consider companies’ commitments to ERGs.

Our report recommends some of the most helpful ways companies can support and evolve these groups—through tracking and measuring their impact, facilitating networking opportunities, and collaborating for impact and inspiration.

It should be a collective industry effort to hold agencies and their leaderships to these standards of support. And Do the WeRQ will continue to work with partners like the 4A’s, DISQO and more to generate more insights, so we might elevate public and private conversations around how impact is achieved.