As part of its Hearst Empowering Women initiative, the publisher has launched a competition inviting all female UK creatives of all experience levels and disciplines to submit to a creative campaign called ‘Empowered Women’.
The competition was launched at a special industry breakfast hosted by Anna Jones Hearst Magazines UK CEO at Cannes Lion yesterday. The winning creative work will be judged by a panel of senior clients and creatives and will appear in Hearst’s UK magazines and/or websites in June 2015. Entry to the competition can be found at the Empowering Women website.
According to research in the US, women control as much as 70 per cent of household purchases and $20 trillion of consumer spending worldwide. Yet, according to a recent IPA census, more than three-quarters of all copy writers and art directors in IPA member agencies are male and only 14% of digital creatives are women. On top of that, only 3% of senior agency creatives worldwide are women – a figure largely unchanged in fifty years.
Hearst Magazines UK, whose magazine brands claim to reach a third of all UK women, says its new initiative will help raise awareness about the lack of women creative and champion the ones who are doing great work. Through its campaign and breakfast discussion at Cannes, the Publisher wants to find out why women find it so difficult to break through, what the industry is doing to rectify the imbalance, and what impact, if any, the lack of women creatives has on how woman are portrayed in advertising.
Hearst Magazines UK CEO, Anna Jones says: “I hope our initiative will help raise awareness that women are under-represented in this important creative field. It will also offer a compelling way for the women who are breaking through, to showcase their work via our portfolio of powerful brands.”
The competition is among a number of events taking place under the Hearst Empowering Women umbrella – an initiative which debuted at Advertising Week Europe in March this year, in association with TheirWorld, Sarah Brown’s charity for women and children.
Capturing the spirit of feminism at the heart of Hearst’s titles, the initiative brings together expertise from across Hearst’s portfolio via a practical online resource as well as inspiring talks from powerful and influential women, providing tips for success and offering invaluable advice with the power to change women’s lives.
Hearst Empowering Women kicks off its UK tour later this week, starting in Bristol on June 26 and finishing in London on July 7. Editors of several of Hearst’s biggest brands will be on hand to answer reader questions about anything from building body confidence to kick starting your career.
