Good morning Marketer, how can we, as marketers, drive meaningful change in our industry? 

The lack of diversity in the advertising and marketing world is nothing new. But in order to foster more diverse and inclusive teams, CJ Bland of the Minority Professional Network, Inc., says “companies need to be intentional, conscious and committed from the C-suite downward in their efforts.” 

Companies have long pointed to an upstream “pipeline problem” as the reason they’ve fallen down on diversity efforts. But oftentimes, it can be more complicated than that, Bland says. “How can companies be serious or truly committed to diversity if their executives, managers, trainers and suppliers are all predominantly white, and their employees are mostly white?” asks Bland. “In order to achieve ‘true’ diversity, and especially pertaining to equity and inclusion for Black and Brown people, companies must be willing to ‘put your money where your mouth is’ and stop putting up a farce.” 

So, if you’re looking for ways to elevate the minority voices and talent of your current teams and future hires, good on you. Here’s our take on actionable ways to drive diversity, equity and inclusion in your marketing organization.

In other news, account-based marketing platform Demandbase has struck a deal to buy Engagio – a competing ABM platform launched by former Marketo co-founder Jon Miller. The takeover will inevitably make Demandbase an even bigger leader in the ABM space. Monetary terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the company said it could eventually see a $150 million boost in revenue as a result of the acquisition. The deal brings added CRM features, more robust automation, and enables deeper integration between sales and marketing teams – which is especially key at a time when ABM is top-of-mind for B2B organizations.

Take care, 

Taylor Peterson,
Deputy Editor