Two years ago, in 2016, HP Inc challenged their marketing and communications agencies to increase the number of women and minorities in creative and leadership positions. HP asked agency partners to set their own targets and to report results at the end of the year. The five participating agencies to date represent more than $2B in revenue and 30,000 employees.

Goal: The goal of the Agency Diversity Scorecard was to increase representation of women and underrepresented groups supporting the HP business within the marketing community.

What it is: Reports from the first year (highlighted below) showed that all agency partners had exceeded the goal for female representation on HP accounts and upward of 60% of HP’s worldwide agency account teams now consisted of women. In some cases the change was truly dramatic: BBDO went from 0 to 40% and Fred & Farid from 0 to 55%. However, results also showed opportunities for advancing representation among US minorities. 

Therefore, the second year of the scorecard was focused on increasing the presence of underrepresented groups in leadership positions and overall account teams – and the results were extremely positive. Underrepresented groups saw a 12-point year over year increase in representation on account teams, up to 36% of total staff, and a nine-point increase in leadership roles, up to 28%.

From a marketing results perspective, HP also found that our agency diversity initiative was having a positive impact on the quality of the creative and on consumer engagement. Measuring the impact of HP ads created before and after the launch of the scorecard, Brand Monitor showed an impressive six-point increase in purchase intent and Marketing Mix Analysis, run by Nielsen, captured a 33-point increase in revenue per impression.

Recognition: HP won Brand of the Year at the 2018 Digiday Awards. 

Second Year Agency Diversity Scorecard  (2017-2018)

First Year Agency Diversity Scorecard  (2016-2017)

The Unstereotype Alliance Member Spotlight highlights members’ innovative experiences and exceptional efforts in the areas of social impact, diversity and inclusion. The case study serves as an example of best practices to lead the effort in fostering an unstereotyped culture.