Creative Equality in Advertising 2024

Creative Equality in Advertising 2024

AWARDS, LIKE IT OR NOT, ARE THE CURRENCY OF OUR INDUSTRY

Awards, like it or not, are the currency of our industry. However, women in Europe are only receiving 1 in 4 of them.


The EACA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force together with Nord DDB and in collaboration with TBWA have launched the report ‘Creative Equality in Advertising 2024,’ an initiative addressing the persistent issue of gender inequality in teams behind award-winning campaigns. Despite progress in gender equality, less than 25% of creative awards in Europe have been awarded to women over the past five years. EACA has highlighted this issue and offers a set of actions for change.

The research compiled winners from sixteen European countries, pinpointing the most creative award show in each country, as well as pan-European and global awards such as Eurobest and Cannes Lions. It found that over the past five years (2019 – 2023), the distribution of winners in each country’s top creative competitions reveals a stark gender imbalance.

Bar chart titled 'Distribution of Gold and Grand Prix Awards Among Creatives in Europe (2019-2023)' showing the number of awards received by men (in red) and women (in purple). The chart indicates that women receive significantly fewer awards than men each year, with the percentage of awards going to men represented by an orange line. In 2023, men received 1116 awards while women received 372.

Main Findings

➔ Only 24% of the Golds and Grand Prix at European awards between 2019 and today, have been won by women, despite women making up over 40% of executive boards

➔ The best-performing country was Greece with 42% of the Gold and Grand Prix awards available going to female creatives, with the next best-performing countries Finland (32%) and Sweden (30%)

➔ The worst-performing in Europe were France and Poland on just 12% and Ireland and Belgium close on their heels with just 14% of their top awards going to creative teams that included women

“This is now an urgent call to action for us all to reevaluate how we recognise bias and promote talent faster to speak to our consumer base, as across every age group women dominate purchasing decisions”.
Ali Hanan, CEO, Creative Equals