SHE Media Takes Home DEI Driver Award at Google Certified Publishing Partner Summit
We are pleased to announce that SHE Media was awarded the 2021 DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) Driver at this year’s Google Certified Publishing Partner (GCPP) Summit. This is awarded to the GCPP company who has demonstrated continuous efforts in the last year to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within their company and among their publisher base.
As a select Google monetization partners to be included in the Google Certified Publishing Partner program, SHE Media was nominated in all 4 categories this year, and selected winner in the DEI Driver category for our Meaningful Marketplace Program.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Driver
It’s been over a year since the media intensity surrounding the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and others, shed light on the imbalance of financial support and inclusion of minority-owned businesses by the advertising industry. It was the heat of the Black Lives Matter movement that prompted the launch of Meaningful Marketplaces, designed to pave an accessible and intentional path to match promised dollars with historically underserved communities.
SHE Media and BlogHer have always prioritized diversity and inclusion among community members, and today, our mission feels more important than ever. It’s imperative that our words and actions are aligned, and we use our platforms to further this message. As with any acknowledgment we receive, like this award, we direct the attention back to our SHE Media publishing partners.
Meaningful Marketplaces are curated publisher communities from our over 2,000+ publisher partners that allow advertisers to support Black, Latin, AAPI and LGBTQAI+ Owned media businesses.
Several months ago, we surveyed our Meaningful Marketplace publishers, to hear how they feel ad spending has changed since the public commitments of many large-scale brands and agencies to turn their dollars into deals for Black-owned businesses. And so far, despite these promises, over 73% of survey respondents say they have not experienced an increase in direct outreach from advertisers in recent months. This prompted our series of Accountable Advertising campaigns this year, reaching leadership at top agencies and advertisers and creating content with ad industry trades, to reveal the need for investment to follow.
Further aligning with this goal, Meaningful Marketplaces provides a pipeline of speakers and content creators for our BlogHer event series that reach global audiences of influencers and entrepreneurs, while continuing to provide educational and networking opportunities. Across all of our virtual conferences in 2021, 60% of speakers were women of color, and we consistently promote a diverse slate of partners in our Sponsored Content and Influencer programs.
As we look to 2022, we anticipate positive change in the industry and commit fully to supporting DE&I initiatives.
To learn more about Meaningful Marketplaces, please email Marketing@shemedia.com