ALERT! THIS IS YOUR LAST FREE NORTH STAR INTERVIEW!
From now on, only subscribers get them so you’ll miss insider knowledge from Rory Sutherland, Vikki Ross and senior execs from Deliveroo, Coca-Cola, Tesco, Patch, Dominos, Facebook, along with the hottest startups. Yup, we’ve been busy during the lockdown.
You don’t even need to hunt for the subscribe button. It’s right here. £20 a year. You’re welcome.
TBD alumni, Jane Evans is an all-round badass and advertising expert. Jane is behind the Uninvisibility movement - the network that has some of the world's most experienced creative businesswomen who are dedicated to creating a powerful image for women the world has never seen before - and she's going to tell you what's going to happen if it doesn't succeed. Jane is who Cindy Gallop calls when she wants advice, she also gave Cate Blanchett her first job and created Australia's first craft beer, oh and she also ran her own multi-million dollar agency with clients like Revlon and Maserati for years. I snagged five-minutes with her recently to ask a few questions:
PA: The disproportionate ratio of women in different sectors that are closer to the virus means women are getting hit harder than men. The opposite is usually true during a recession...but not the coming one per the WSJ. Do you think anything positive will come from this virus for women?
JE: The virus gives us the opportunity to look at every aspect of life and put right some wrongs. In this case, women are definitely the stronger sex. This is where our xx chromosome comes into its own, women suffer far less and make up only 30% of the COVID death toll, this should give us an employment advantage. However, this won't happen because we still do 70% of the housework. Currently, 37% of all jobs can be done from home and a hell of a lot won't go back to the office, more than ever men have to step up to the plate and give us our equality by damn well picking up the vacuum and popping on the washing. And they have to drop the bullshit. 50% of men say they are doing 100% of the homeschooling, only 3% of women agreed. Not only do men have to evolve but they need to completely change their management style, there has never been a more important time for empathetic leadership from experts in work-life balance. Midlife women should now be seen as the next additions to the C-suite, not the ones to go in the next round of redundancies. And sorry to say this, but younger women may regret silently standing by as the generations of career women above them disappeared, they are now going to face massive competition from an eager workforce with zero child-rearing obligations.
PA: Agencies have been rocked by the speed of change. Do you have hope for how they'll rebuild? Why? Any tips?
JE: Every single creative woman I interviewed for the Uninvisibility Project joined the industry to have a chance to use their voice and talents to make a change in society. Any creative who joined advertising to satisfy their ego with awards will struggle - only the most community-minded and strategic creatives will flourish. There will be plenty of work but the budgets will be smaller the only way to remain profitable will be working with much smaller teams who are given far more autonomy. This is the perfect time for highly experienced creatives who know which corners can be cut. Clients are going to have to take risks and trust their agencies. But most importantly, if business is serious about protecting the economy they have to drop their love affair with the even more broke millennials and rebuild consumer spending with the group that actually drives the economy - midlife women! The industry has ignored this group for so long they will fail unless they employ midlife female creatives who know how to talk to them.
PA: Creativity has been tested during the lockdown as much as flourished. What do you think will be some of the permanent changes that happen to the creative/ad industries post lockdown?
JE: Creatives have to start caring about the economy and society more than awards, they won't be back for a long time (if at all) and we're going to have to get our creative satisfaction from the public's response to our work - not a group of jumped-up ECDs. From personal experience, it is far more satisfying creating something that makes a difference than something that was really cool for about ten minutes. My biggest hope is we drop the concept that work is 'social' or ad agencies have a 'culture', all this leads to is creative departments led by white men who look scarily alike*. I want to see the fucking 'meritocracy' every white male creative director has espoused since the 80s actually happen, it no longer matters what we look like, how cool we dress, or what bars we don't go to on a Friday night, whoever can communicate through this to rebuild the economy and create a more harmonious society will be the new creative rock stars. And the big holding companies should be quaking in their boots as smaller more agile operations take the risks and do amazing things with smaller budgets!
*I can't say this but the two ECD's at Uncommon I swear are NIls Leonard clones (maybe a pic opp?)
PA: Will the message for Uninvisibility change post lockdown/out of pandemic? If so, how/why?
JE: Oh yes! Our message is now "From invisible to invaluable". Midlife women hold the key to creating the new normal. We have experienced massive change in our lives from decimalisation to digitisation. We know how to pivot. We have experienced everything life has to throw at us and we're still standing, actually, we're thriving. Over the last few weeks I've asked every midlife woman I know if this is the worst thing that has ever happened to them (fortunately, they've only been mildly touched by the virus) and they all laughed like drains, especially at the freak-outs from the generations below. For the first time in a long time, the world is starting to appreciate the importance of simple analogue pursuits like baking, walking, and spending time with your mum above rampant consumerism. For the generation of women who are digitally ambidextrous and emotionally intelligent, this is our time to calmly take the lead with practical, no-nonsense and empathetic answers to the myriad changes all of which can be positive.
PA: How should brands work with the Uninvisibility project during and post lockdown?
JE: Many of the creative women in Uninvisibility have been working together remotely for most of this century, so it's been business as usual for us. We welcome any client or agency who's struggling to restructure or produce creative, we have elite creative teams, strategists, and filmmakers all over the world, who are fast, efficient and the best resource for really gnarly communication problems. After lockdown, we will be working with agencies, media owners and clients on new campaigns for the new normal, we're setting up the Visible Venture where for every project we pick up from a major client we will give exactly the same service to a woman who is setting up a business that will bring something of value to a whole new world.
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NORTH STAR INTERVIEW: Jane Evans, CEO of Uninvisibility
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ALERT! THIS IS YOUR LAST FREE NORTH STAR INTERVIEW!
From now on, only subscribers get them so you’ll miss insider knowledge from Rory Sutherland, Vikki Ross and senior execs from Deliveroo, Coca-Cola, Tesco, Patch, Dominos, Facebook, along with the hottest startups. Yup, we’ve been busy during the lockdown.
You don’t even need to hunt for the subscribe button. It’s right here. £20 a year. You’re welcome.
TBD alumni, Jane Evans is an all-round badass and advertising expert. Jane is behind the Uninvisibility movement - the network that has some of the world's most experienced creative businesswomen who are dedicated to creating a powerful image for women the world has never seen before - and she's going to tell you what's going to happen if it doesn't succeed. Jane is who Cindy Gallop calls when she wants advice, she also gave Cate Blanchett her first job and created Australia's first craft beer, oh and she also ran her own multi-million dollar agency with clients like Revlon and Maserati for years. I snagged five-minutes with her recently to ask a few questions:
PA: The disproportionate ratio of women in different sectors that are closer to the virus means women are getting hit harder than men. The opposite is usually true during a recession...but not the coming one per the WSJ. Do you think anything positive will come from this virus for women?
JE: The virus gives us the opportunity to look at every aspect of life and put right some wrongs. In this case, women are definitely the stronger sex. This is where our xx chromosome comes into its own, women suffer far less and make up only 30% of the COVID death toll, this should give us an employment advantage. However, this won't happen because we still do 70% of the housework. Currently, 37% of all jobs can be done from home and a hell of a lot won't go back to the office, more than ever men have to step up to the plate and give us our equality by damn well picking up the vacuum and popping on the washing. And they have to drop the bullshit. 50% of men say they are doing 100% of the homeschooling, only 3% of women agreed. Not only do men have to evolve but they need to completely change their management style, there has never been a more important time for empathetic leadership from experts in work-life balance. Midlife women should now be seen as the next additions to the C-suite, not the ones to go in the next round of redundancies. And sorry to say this, but younger women may regret silently standing by as the generations of career women above them disappeared, they are now going to face massive competition from an eager workforce with zero child-rearing obligations.
PA: Agencies have been rocked by the speed of change. Do you have hope for how they'll rebuild? Why? Any tips?
JE: Every single creative woman I interviewed for the Uninvisibility Project joined the industry to have a chance to use their voice and talents to make a change in society. Any creative who joined advertising to satisfy their ego with awards will struggle - only the most community-minded and strategic creatives will flourish. There will be plenty of work but the budgets will be smaller the only way to remain profitable will be working with much smaller teams who are given far more autonomy. This is the perfect time for highly experienced creatives who know which corners can be cut. Clients are going to have to take risks and trust their agencies. But most importantly, if business is serious about protecting the economy they have to drop their love affair with the even more broke millennials and rebuild consumer spending with the group that actually drives the economy - midlife women! The industry has ignored this group for so long they will fail unless they employ midlife female creatives who know how to talk to them.
PA: Creativity has been tested during the lockdown as much as flourished. What do you think will be some of the permanent changes that happen to the creative/ad industries post lockdown?
JE: Creatives have to start caring about the economy and society more than awards, they won't be back for a long time (if at all) and we're going to have to get our creative satisfaction from the public's response to our work - not a group of jumped-up ECDs. From personal experience, it is far more satisfying creating something that makes a difference than something that was really cool for about ten minutes. My biggest hope is we drop the concept that work is 'social' or ad agencies have a 'culture', all this leads to is creative departments led by white men who look scarily alike*. I want to see the fucking 'meritocracy' every white male creative director has espoused since the 80s actually happen, it no longer matters what we look like, how cool we dress, or what bars we don't go to on a Friday night, whoever can communicate through this to rebuild the economy and create a more harmonious society will be the new creative rock stars. And the big holding companies should be quaking in their boots as smaller more agile operations take the risks and do amazing things with smaller budgets!
*I can't say this but the two ECD's at Uncommon I swear are NIls Leonard clones (maybe a pic opp?)
PA: Will the message for Uninvisibility change post lockdown/out of pandemic? If so, how/why?
JE: Oh yes! Our message is now "From invisible to invaluable". Midlife women hold the key to creating the new normal. We have experienced massive change in our lives from decimalisation to digitisation. We know how to pivot. We have experienced everything life has to throw at us and we're still standing, actually, we're thriving. Over the last few weeks I've asked every midlife woman I know if this is the worst thing that has ever happened to them (fortunately, they've only been mildly touched by the virus) and they all laughed like drains, especially at the freak-outs from the generations below. For the first time in a long time, the world is starting to appreciate the importance of simple analogue pursuits like baking, walking, and spending time with your mum above rampant consumerism. For the generation of women who are digitally ambidextrous and emotionally intelligent, this is our time to calmly take the lead with practical, no-nonsense and empathetic answers to the myriad changes all of which can be positive.
PA: How should brands work with the Uninvisibility project during and post lockdown?
JE: Many of the creative women in Uninvisibility have been working together remotely for most of this century, so it's been business as usual for us. We welcome any client or agency who's struggling to restructure or produce creative, we have elite creative teams, strategists, and filmmakers all over the world, who are fast, efficient and the best resource for really gnarly communication problems. After lockdown, we will be working with agencies, media owners and clients on new campaigns for the new normal, we're setting up the Visible Venture where for every project we pick up from a major client we will give exactly the same service to a woman who is setting up a business that will bring something of value to a whole new world.