Outvertising launches Pronouns in Adland guide to help organisations create safer and more inclusive workplaces

As part of the industry’s All In Action Plan, led by the Advertising Association, ISBA, and the IPA, Outvertising has launched Pronouns in Adland, a new guide designed to help industry organisations create safer and more welcoming environments where people can readily share their pronouns. 

Outvertising’s mission is to help the media and advertising industry to become truly LGBTQIA+ inclusive by educating and training the industry to become active allies, and encouraging and assisting brands and their agency partners to create more authentic LGBTQIA+ inclusive work. Pronouns in Adland is the latest in a series of resources produced by Outvertising to help facilitate this mission and give the industry the tools and insight to be more inclusive. 

Pronouns in Adland will help organisations on their allyship journey and improve the experience of their talent. Using and celebrating pronouns signals to LGBTQIA+ people that they are accepted and welcome and to non-LGBTQIA+ people that inclusion matters. The guide has been designed to remedy confusion over the usage of pronouns by exploring their importance, unpacking commonly used terms and pronouns associated with gender-identity, and guiding readers on tips to overcome challenging or awkward conversations. 

This guide also celebrates several organisations- dentsu, VCCP, the7stars and McCann Worldgroup- that have introduced pronouns into their workplace, sharing their experiences to unpack effective learning for others. This includes the importance of it being led by the CEO, being viewed as a gradual introduction and the start of an ongoing journey of education and training, and forming part of day-to-day, recruitment and retention activities. 

Outvertising welcomes four new Directors to supercharge the organisation as Marty Davies steps down

Today, we’re announcing the appointment of four new Co-Directors to its management board as part of its mission to attract the best industry talent to supercharge its growth mission. The new hires are: Sonnie Spenser (they/them) as Communications Co-Director; Kat Marshall (she/her) as Events Co-Director; Tash Beecher (she/her) as Creative Co-Director; and Marc Allenby (he/him) as Creative Co-Director. 

Sonnie Spenser joins Outvertising as the new Communications Co-Director. Sonnie is a Digital Marketing Manager at Fresh Pies, and the Director of Outreach for Trans+ History Week. They will work alongside the existing Co-Director to grow Outvertising’s reputation within the industry, the media and beyond. 

Kat Marshall takes on the role of Outvertising’s Events Co-Director. Kat is an events and marketing professional with a decade of experience in diversity-driven marketing, PR, and advertising. She has curated events for brands like Channel 4, JP Morgan, Getty Images, and Meta. In addition to her day job as a Paid Social Campaign Manager, Kat collaborates with Pride Edinburgh and Monumental Marketing. She will be responsible for delivering Outvertising’s year-long events programming, including monthly socials, industry events and Outvertising’s annual flagship event, Outvertising Live. 

Outvertising also welcomes Tash Beecher and Marc Allenby as its new creative team as they both step into the Creative Co-Director role. Tash brings nearly two decades of award-winning creative communications experience, and is currently a Creative Director at Syneos Health and Executive Creative Director at Pocc, an organisation effecting change through creativity, activism and non-traditional means. Marc Allenby is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Hijinks, the UK’s first female and queer-owned advertising agency. Marc has a passion for diversity in advertising which can be seen in his work throughout his career, an most recently his D&AD shortlisted campaign Legalitees, which put legal rights on the front of t-shirts.  Together, they will oversee the creative expression of the Outvertising brand and develop and execute through-the-line campaigns that celebrate and amplify Outvertising’s key projects. 

Marty Davies (she/they) will also be stepping down from her role as Joint CEO of Outvertising in August. Marty stepped into the Joint CEO role in February last year. Throughout her time within Outvertising, Marty has played a critical role in growing the organisation's position as a vital industry voice, delivering its flagship annual event, Outvertising Live, and advocating across the industry and beyond for businesses to take action. She has led the conversation on adspend’s role in funding mis/disinformation and dangerous anti-trans narratives in the media - a topic which now commands the attention of the industry.

Marty will be redirecting her focus towards her consultancy, Smarty Pants Consultancy Limited to support brands in getting LGBTQIA+ representation right. She also seeks to grow Trans+ History Week CIC, which held its inaugural event in May this year. The new not for profit will invest in trans+ creative talent to tell trans+ history stories. Marty will also continue their role on Transport for London’s advertising steering group where she’ll advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community and champion Outvertising’s work. 

Outvertising will be recruiting for a new Joint CEO, alongside a number of other Management Board roles in the Events and Advocacy teams, to help lead the organisation on its mission to make the industry truly LGBTQIA+ inclusive. 

Chris Dunne (he/him), Joint CEO, said: “I’m thrilled to welcome our new Management Board members to the team. They are a group of amazing, talented people with the kind of experience and expertise that will help to supercharge Outvertising for the next phase of its evolution. More than ever before, we need the best in the business to join our mission to make the industry a better place for LGBTQIA+ talent. It’s particularly vital after a near-silent Pride Month, in which brands have continued to pull back from their investment in the community. 

Of course, with the happiness that comes with an expanding team, we’re also saying goodbye to Marty, who has been an integral part of Outvertising’s success over the last few years. She is a force in the industry and has supported my transition into the Joint CEO role with grace and patience. I will miss working alongside her but I cannot wait to see her continued impact through everything she does.” 

Marty Davies (she/they), outgoing Joint CEO, said:  “I gained such an incredible amount from my time at Outvertising. Stepping into the CEO role enabled me to find my voice in trade press and lead the industry on issues that mattered to queer people - catapulting my profile in the process. It opened up my network dramatically in the queer sector. It gave me leadership experience managing all sorts of interesting challenges in a not for profit org which instilled me with the confidence to set up Trans+ History Week CIC. I’m excited for Outvertising to grow as a catalyst for change in the industry and I will be watching and cheering proudly from the sidelines”. 

Cross-industry collective, Allies Coming Out for Trans+, forms to encourage action to support the trans+ community and end dirty attention as hate crimes increase

Creative Equals, Outvertising, Smarty Pants, The Unmistakables and Utopia announce the launch of a new collective, Allies Coming Out for Trans+ (ACT+), which seeks to encourage support of the trans+ community amongst Marketing and Communications leaders. The collective will join forces to provide positivity as well as practical and tangible ways that leaders in the industry can come forward as allies in the election year. 

This comes at a time of a record breaking number of hate crimes against trans+ people in England and Wales according to the Home Office. A recent report recognised that “transgender issues have been heavily discussed by politicians, the media and on social media over the last year, which may have led to an increase in these offenses, or more awareness in the police in the identification and recording of these crimes.”.  This is an even more important task following Ofcom Chairman Michael Grade’s address to the industry that we must ‘get ahead of the harm’ and make ‘trust and safety a priority’, at the Lead Conference last month. 

Outvertising's Consumer Research report found that 60% LGBTQIA+ people in the UK are more likely to say that brands should express their views on political or social issues, and 64% say they are more likely to reject a brand if its views are not aligned with their own. 50% of non-LGBTQIA+ people say the same. More importantly, the majority of people say they are "not prejudiced" toward transgender people. And critically, marketers are aligned: three in four say the Bud Light fallout didn’t change their attitude towards purpose, according to the latest Contagious Radar report. 

Companies that have joined the collective include Bloom, Cannes Lions, Contagious, D&AD, Join Our Table, Pocc, Reckitt Benckiser, SheSays, Trans in the City, Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, YouTube, WACL, WARC and WPP Unite. The executive briefing will gather agency and brand leaders including WPP and Google in an evening of discussion, including interrogating the media being funded to end ‘dirty attention’, specifically advocating for the divestment from disinformation and sensationalism, and increasing representation in the industry’s creative output.