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International Women’s Day 2019: Putting diversity at the forefront of your creative process.

Diversity 07 March, 2019

It’s 2019, and only 10% of commercial directors are women. We want to change that.

On this International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the diversity of our global creative community. Especially our incredible female filmmakers – all over the world.

The advertising industry has struggled to embrace diversity in their creative and content production processes, and that lack of diversity represents a huge missed opportunity to effectively engage with increasingly diverse audiences including women, who yield 85% of the product purchasing power in households (GirlPower Marketing).

We spoke to a selection of our female filmmakers and clients to discuss why diversity is so important, the progress the industry has made and how brands can start embracing diversity today. We want to showcase the reality that there are thousands of highly talented and professional female creatives around the world who can help brands create content that is more inclusive, empathetic and relevant.

“Diversity is what fuels creativity. The different experiences and backgrounds that people bring to their work is what gives them a unique perspective and style, and that’s what really enriches the work that we do. I think clearly there’s a diversity challenge in the creative industry. So anything that for us as an advertiser gives us an opportunity to access a broader range of talent, and therefore more diversity can only be a good thing.”

Libby Stroud-Kroon, Global Digital Manager, Johnnie Walker, Diageo

If you’d like to discuss a video brief, get in touch with your local Genero team here.

If you’re a creative, find out about joining our community and getting commissioned through Genero here.

Thank you to all contributors to this video:

  • Libby Stroud-Kroon, Global Digital Manager, Johnnie Walker, Diageo

  • Shruti Ganguly, Director and Producer (USA)

    Shruti is an award-winning filmmaker based in New York City. She has made several feature films and VR that have gone to Sundance, Venice, Berlin, Telluride and AFI. Shruti has directed music videos and shorts for MTV, NYLON, Paper Magazine, Conde Nast, Chanel, and crafted the #MySentence series on prison reform for the Obama Administration. She started her own production company, honto88, which focuses on scripted film and television, narrative features and videos and VR, with strong female voices and through a socially responsible lens.

  • Carla Dauden, Director (Brazil / USA)

    Carla Dauden is a Brazilian director based in LA. She has directed and produced short films, commercials, documentaries and music videos, having screened her work in renowned festivals around the world. She has worked with major production companies (Made For Digital, Artifact Content, Kandoo Films, Revolver Films, Fullscreen, Passage Pictures) and recently co-directed the short documentary “The Discarded,” produced by Sound Off Films and released by Take Part.

  • An Bui, Director and Creative Director (Vietnam)

    An is both a Director and Creative Director based in Vietnam, currently working at Yolo Pictures, a collective of workaholic filmmakers who will do all it takes to make films. An has worked with Genero on several TVC’s for Dove and FWD Insurance.

  • Tenika Smith, Director (Australia)

    Tenika is a graduate of Australia’s prestigious Victorian College of the Arts and an alumni of the Melbourne International Film Festival’s ‘Accelerator Program’ for promising Australian and New Zealand filmmakers. Tenika has considerable experience directing, including productions for a number of global companies such as Coles, Salesforce.com, Mercedes-Benz, Tempur and OMO (a Genero production). Tenika’s first episode of the Australian serial ‘Neighbours’ aired in January 2019 and she is currently directing more episodes to be screened later in the year.

IWD 2019