Robyn Streisand: the Ingredients for Marketing DEI
When Robyn Streisand created her agency, the opportunity to certify as a woman-owned or LBGT-owned business did not exist. Twenty-five years later, she has helped blue chip brands leverage DEI, and built the first collective of certified-diverse agencies.
“This was just a hunch then, as the industry was still evolving, to create a place where a brand could go for help in meeting their goals and objectives around working with diverse suppliers.”
By E.B. Moss
There’s no one more people-oriented – of all stripes and varieties of people – than agency CEO Robyn Streisand. And since some might say marketing comes down to “People…People who Need People” (to buy things) that’s especially apropos when speaking to a member of the Streisand clan who has been mixing it up in the industry for more than 25 years. Recently celebrating her silver anniversary as founder of The Mixx, Streisand shared how she went from being on the client side at a Fortune 500 brand to running her own multi-certified diverse agency and agency consortium, both designed to fill the big gaps in inclusive advertising.
It was several successful years into providing creative solutions before Streisand was first required by one client to confirm her status in something she’d never heard of: WBENC, the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, which certifies businesses as woman-owned and operated. That eye-opener led her to discover and gain additional certifications, such as NGLCC, the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, which verifies LGBT-run organizations.
“When you're a woman-owned and LGBT-owned business and you want to be seen and heard among the pack, it's not always as easy. I learned there were other national certifications I'd never even heard of before: like the NMSDC, which has the largest number of certified minority-run businesses in it.
“So now I have a certificate that says I'm woman-owned or I'm gay owned and all of a sudden, it's a new day. It gave us an opportunity to register our company in these portals that help diverse suppliers get found [by Fortune 1000 companies.]”
Streisand, who joined a still fairly nascent WBENC 18 years ago, feels there’s still limited awareness of certifications today, and even the benefits they offer. However, she credits the ANA [Association of National Advertisers], for shining a light on the opportunity to find and engage diverse suppliers via, in part, its fairly recent creation of a list of the top 100 diverse suppliers. “Why didn't they just come to me for the list because I am the list,” she jokes.
She’s referring to her brainchild for scaling The Mixx: Titanium Worldwide. Inspired to partner with other equally diverse and certified agencies across marketing, media, and communications, Streisand created and bills Titanium as “the world’s first collective of certified-diverse independent agencies.”
When the consortium was created almost seven years ago companies rarely focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. But Streisand wanted DEI to be the USP for Titanium, to make it, as she says, “a force to be reckoned with.” It turned out to be a prescient move for today’s times. “This was just a hunch then,” notes Streisand, “as the industry was still evolving, to create a place where a brand could go for help in meeting their goals and objectives around working with diverse suppliers.”
Streisand personally vets each agency then contracts to them, managing all paperwork on behalf of clients. The single-point ease of access, along with the rise in both consumer and procurement mandates that purpose be built into purchases, has made Titanium the force she aimed for: “I don't want to say that there's a silver lining to what's happened with COVID and everybody looking inward, but it has unlocked this need for a brand to really look at itself and wake up to the power of diversity, equity and inclusion. And so, we’ve won a lot of new business.”
“But,” she cautions, “you don’t see us out there tooting our horn or promoting ourselves like a new shiny object. We've been this way the entire journey. And now we're just getting to actually work with brands that see the value.”
The Brands Demanding Diversity
Major brands, with significant bottom lines to think about, can still take some convincing. Even for long-time client Mercedes-Benz, Streisand first needed to demonstrate the value of the LGBT consumer, pointing out “how the LGBT audience and the Mercedes-Benz customer demographic and psychographic actually ladder up perfectly.” She adds Absolut, H&M and even Disney as other examples of blue-chip brands that have grown to recognize the value of communicating and resonating with this customer.
So, how does she recommend other brands consider embracing prospects in more demographic groups? “It’s got to start with leadership buying into this, whether making it one of their pillars or a top commitment. I've seen a lot of brands lately actually reporting [this commitment] in their earnings reports, as they're now accountable to the street against KPIs, whether it's hiring BIPOC, women, veterans...But it's got to come from the top down.”
Streisand cautions against deploying DEI targeting and messaging as a one-off activation: “It's good [to support Black History Month] for February. But what about March and April and May and June? How do you really look at this marketing mix and celebrate these individuals all year long?”
Social Change as Business Catalyst
Pressure from “the street” and top down directives matched with voices on the streets makes a powerful combination. “Two years ago, for the 50th anniversary of Stonewall,” says Streisand, “a lot of brands got their houses in order. So, I think that was the real starting point where everybody felt like they had to do their part.”
Forward movement by brands has been sparked by vocal and diverse demographic groups. And, as Streisand plainly adds, “...you want to talk about Gen Z and that community? That thing is coming like the bat outta hell. And it is not going anywhere. They are powerful and they care about this stuff in a way that you and I might not have ever seen or realized when we were looking for our first opportunities.
So, these benchmarks of success around purpose,” she strongly advises, “must be front and center on websites: ‘We see you. We appreciate you. We embrace you. We stand for gender parity, transgender, equality’, all of it.”
Brands Rising to the Demand with Marketing
The question for the lens of The Continuum readership is on the efficacy of awareness and performance — or “brand+demand” — marketing investments. And per Streisand, it’s more of the former. “The KPIs have been mostly focused on awareness,” she answers. “The reason is that as brands enter into these new markets, they tend to spend only a little money and a little money only gets you on the map in a small way. ... They're dipping their toes into diverse messaging and not diving in full on wild.
“But,” Streisand points out, “when the George Floyd situation happened, everybody was everywhere. There wasn’t one brand that didn't have some kind of commitment towards Black Lives Matter. I think February was a good benchmark because Nielsen and all of the reporting properties will be publishing, I hope, by the end of March, to read about what impact this past February had on the African American consumer, around marketing and advertising. Because it's the first time where brands were out there in a way that I have never seen in my 30 years of doing this.”
She cautions against deploying DEI targeting and messaging as a one-off activation: “It's good [to support Black History Month] for February. But what about March and April and May and June? How do you really look at this marketing mix and celebrate these individuals all year long?” (Note: This interview was conducted on International Women’s Day, but happily “purpose” these days can be a year-round initiative!)
Looking Ahead
What she’s picking up with her cultural antenna? “I'm also seeing lots of work in the transgender community. It is a hot topic. Every brand is racing to understand this audience.” Now that they’re looking to reach wider demos, brands also need to stay alert for the issues that matter to them. “I'm seeing a lot, a lot of work around sustainability -- like the 2.0 of DEI, looking at environmental sustainability and governance best practices and setting the tone for how all these individual initiatives fit into a package.”
“Invest in diversity, equity and inclusion training programs,” Streisand advises. “Invest in what matters to the broader audience. Talk to people in their voice, and be consistent and authentic about it. It's not about how much you do, it's that you do it, do it well, and do it consistently.”
Ed. Note: You can hear the complete interview as a podcast here or via YouTube:
March 30, 2021
