• by Gina Grillo , July 11, 2013

As advertising's power players gathered at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity in June, it was exciting to see so much diversity. I'm not referring to diversity of ethnicity, gender or nationality -- rather, it was the wide-ranging backgrounds, ideas, cultures and experience that showcased just how diverse the creative industry is.

That's the point of ad festivals: 11,000 diverse people gathering from around the world to generate conversations and ideas around creativity that wouldn’t necessarily happen inside the walls of their own organizations. But why should global business leaders care about diversity when they were there to celebrate creativity?

As our world becomes more connected through technology, advertising has transformed into a truly global business, with people collaborating all around the world. The issues we care about here in the U.S. become more relevant elsewhere, and vice versa, so ads must ring true for more than one audience. Diversity on teams inspires a heightened level of creativity and makes it possible to deliver work that resonates with a wide variety of people from different backgrounds and cultures. It can also result in a really cool and original ad campaign.

Our workshop with McCann Worldgroup aimed to shed light on this issue. Delegates learned about a variety of ways that marketers and agencies can harness the power of diversity of thought in creativity. Take, for instance, the Million-Hoodies March for Trayvon Martin campaign. McCann recognized the opportunity to support the unique idea created by one of its digital strategists to tackle a cultural and societal issue -- the killing of Trayvon Martin -- via a social media campaign. By supporting the diverse ideas and passions of its team, McCann successfully created a social movement that increased awareness of the Trayvon Martin case. It also resulted in the fastest-growing petition in the history of the Internet.

We’re all on the same playing field now, and this means there’s an opportunity for marketers to talk to a global audience in a universal language. Without diversity on creative teams, finding that universal language won’t be easy. The diversity of ideas and backgrounds among talent is crucial in the marketing and media world.

Having a team of diverse thinkers and doers can do more than create cool ads; it can collectively help to shape and change the world we live in for the better. The more marketers and agencies recognize this, the more we’ll see the advertising industry create unprecedented, effective solutions for cultural, societal and business issues that touch every corner of the globe.