“I’m a mum,” is an admission that hundreds of thousands of women have tried to avoid making in job interviews throughout the world.
The topic of working mums has sparked endless discussion and promises. But most industries have yet to commit to mums, either in terms of recruiting them or by creating a work environment where mums can thrive. Mums need it. Businesses need it. StrawberryFrog has decided to do something about it.
In honour of Mother’s Day, celebrated on May 8 in countries from Canada to Cambodia, Belgium to Bermuda and the US to Uruguay, and in Australia a few hours before most of them, StrawberryFrog, the agency already known for sparking cultural movements for clients like Sun Trust and Emirates Airlines, is giving mothers a viral campaign to help instil the idea that “mom is not a bad word.”
StrawberryFrog founder and chief executive officer, Scott Goodson, explained, “We are passionate about finding solutions to persistent problems. And there has long been a particular lack of leadership roles for women, and especially women who are moms, in the marketing and advertising sector, particularly at agencies. Our goal is to help the workplace overcome its bias against moms in industry, starting with the advertising and marketing industry, and to change the face of the modern workforce by actively recruiting moms and creating a work environment where they can thrive.”
The movement begins at StrawberryFrog. At the core of the campaign is a 2 minute video in which FrogMoms, the mothers working at Strawberry Frog, tell their stories about combining working like and motherhood in an industry that welcomes neither with entirely open arms.
“Advertising can be fun but it is intense and demands long hours. For many moms it’s simply not possible to work round the clock and be a mom. The result is many agencies don’t actively recruit moms, particularly for leadership roles. And that means many clients targeting moms don’t actually have any moms working on their business. Time to bring on the mom incubators,” StrawberryFrog said in its statement.
Karin Drakenberg StrawberryFrog co-founder and chief operations officer, plus mum of two, added, “Making structures work for moms in the work force makes a lot of sense given women make up 50% of the population but drive an estimated 70% -80% of consumer spending through purchase power and influence. In fact, 50% of products marketed to men are actually purchased by women. Globally women control $20 trillion in annual spending – in the next five years it’s expected to rise to $30 trillion.”
The agency has created a campaign website that holds the video, a Meet the FrogMoms section – profiles of StrawberryFrog mothers, a blog and a podcast.
The first podcast episode features Goodson interviewing Nancy Hill, head of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) on the challenges women and new moms face in advertising and how to overcome these obstacles by embracing things like non-traditional work weeks which make it possible for moms to succeed at both their jobs. The podcast also can be found here.
Drakenberg noted, “Since our founding 20 years ago, we have worked with independent contractors, many of them mothers who didn’t fit into a male dominated ad industry. We quickly realised that we had to customise around needs to support great talent. If this means a four day work week or distance working or flexible hours and that leads to brilliant strategy and creative excellence then so be it. Time at your desk doesn’t equate to higher productivity, plus with technology we can and often do work beyond the old fashioned 9-5.”
Goodson added, “When we started StrawberryFrog we wanted to create an environment that was customised around each client’s needs but also around the realities of our talent. What we realised at the start was that the systems of the past don’t represent the structures of tomorrow. The old way, the pretentiousness and lack of understanding, leads to bad or disconnected work. It is important that clients get top tier talent in leadership positions and talent that has real world experience with the target market, in this case women buying for themselves, their partners and their families.”
StrawberryFrog has put its money where its mouth is, building a staff where women are well represented in key positions. As well as Drakenberg there are client service director, Christine Piper; executive creative director and mum, Shayne Millington; chief financial officer and mum Susan Bueser; head of strategy and mum, Beth Knight; Group account director, Taleah Mona-Lusky; head of project management, Liz Scordato and head of production, Afsaneh Berjis.
Credits:
Agency: StrawberryFrog
Founder and CEO: Scott Goodson
Executive creative director/art: Shayne Millington
Executive creative director/Copy: Craig Love
Director: Brook Pifer
Photographer: Lisa Houlgrave
Account director: Taleah Mona-Lusky
Producers: Courtney Trent, Venessa Merrin & Kit Liset
Head of production: Afsaneh Berjis
Designer: James Politi
Design drector: David Orton
Hair and makeup: Lynn Lamorte
DoP: Michael Cogliantry
2nd camera: Mat Gaver
Video editor: Adam Hellan
Mums:
Karin Drakenberg
Shayne Millington
Elizabeth Scordato
Rachel Birnbaum
Afsaneh Berjis
Beth Knight
Venessa Merrin
Courtney Trent
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