Advertisers struggle to track progress on their media supplier diversity initiatives. Here is a new DEI scorecard tool that brings much needed accountability.
Lack of Media Supplier Diversity Tracking Tools
Many advertisers have goals to allocate a specified portion of their media budget to purchase advertising media from under-represented groups as part of their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Unfortunately, media planners lack media planning tools that enable them to track and make progress against DEI these goals.
So, DEI goal tracking currently happens outside the normal media planning process and outside media planning tools. As a result, shortfalls are found too late and DEI objectives are not achieved.
Media Supplier Diversity Initiatives Fail When Not Accountable
As reported in 5 Problems Thwarting Media Supplier Diversity Initiatives, there’s strong motivation behind DEI initiatives in the advertising industry. According to the ANA’s May 2021 Growth of Supplier Diversity Report, almost 90% of respondents indicated the importance of supplier diversity had increased.
However, even with clear communication of diversity objectives, diversity initiatives fail when not held accountable to those objectives.
As we learned from Tony Wells, SVP and Chief Media Officer at Verizon, you have to “inspect what you expect” when working towards DEI goals.
Introducing the DEI Scorecard
Bionic today unveiled a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Scorecard tool that tracks progress on media supplier diversity initiatives while media planning and media buying.
The DEI Scorecard is available when making media placement decisions, when analyzing media plans, when presenting media authorizations for approval, and when reporting on media spending.
The DEI Scorecard:
- Prominently displays media supplier diversity goals
- Calculates the budget for each DEI category in the media plan
- Displays the actual amount in plan for each DEI category
- Calculates the share of campaign budget planned for each DEI category
- Calculates the variance from DEI budget in the media plan
- Calculates the percent attainment of DEI goals
The DEI scorecard is continually updated as you formulate your media plan. When you make any change to your media plan, you instantly see how it impacts your DEI goal attainment. This helps you make smarter decisions and to make progress on your media supplier diversity initiatives.
Sourcing Diverse Media Suppliers
Many advertisers have difficulty sourcing diverse media suppliers.
According to ANA’s Supplier Diversity Report, the top two challenges for supplier diversity are “Finding diverse suppliers” (68% of respondents) and “Visibility to opportunities to recommend diverse suppliers” (52% of respondents).
Bionic’s new DEI Scorecard also helps you to source diverse suppliers.
While viewing the DEI Scorecard, simply click the DEI category name to discover media suppliers that not only meet DEI objectives but also match media planning objectives. This is accomplished by combining DEI search criteria with Bionic’s AI-powered media recommender.
Owners of Diverse Media – Check Your Listings!
If you sell ads on diverse media, please make sure your advertising programs are listed properly in Bionic’s catalog of advertising programs.
These listings are what drives the search function mentioned above. If your programs are not in the catalog, they will not be found when searching and may be excluded from the media plan.
You can access, create, and update your listings for free through Bionic for Ad Sales. You also get free training and support. If you’re new to this, we’ll guide you through the process of getting everything set up.
Setting Advertiser DEI Goals
Bionic will not tell you what your DEI goals should be. It’s up to you to establish your own objectives.
Once established, Bionic enables you to document the DEI goals for each advertiser through a new “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Goals” section of their settings. This sets the goals for the DEI Scorecards on each of this advertiser’s media plans.
Monitoring DEI Goal Attainment
Another challenge is monitoring the attainment of DEI media spending goals across all your clients and all your campaigns.
Bionic enables you to monitor DEI goal attainment through a new DEI column in all your campaign listings. In any case where a media plan is falling short of DEI goals, the DEI field displays in a red warning style to attract your attention.
How to Get the DEI Scorecard
If you’re already using Bionic for Agencies or Bionic for Advertisers, you already have the DEI Scorecard. You got all the tools mentioned above as part of a free software upgrade to your account.
Please let us know if you have any questions or want some training. Remember, your Bionic subscription comes with unlimited training and support. Don’t hesitate to contact us – we’d love to help you get started with the DEI Scorecard!
If you’re not yet using Bionic, you can request a trial through our website.
