The Martin Agency Commits to Righting Gender, Race and Ability Imbalance Behind the Camera

Today, The Martin Agency announced their commitment to hire a minimum of 50% directorial/editorial talent from underrepresented groups with regards to gender, race and ability for all their video content production, as part of the agency’s goal to help reshape the advertising industry to better reflect culture. With over $100M in client-combined production spend annually, Martin is leveraging their influence to drive change in the ratio of underrepresented creators.

Galvanised by the goal and supported by clients like DoorDash, GEICO, UPS, CarMax and Buffalo Wild Wings, Martin is exceeding their ambition to date. “We started the year with the goal to award a minimum 50% of all content production to underrepresented talent,*” said Tasha Dean, EVP, head of production at Martin. “To date, we achieved 65% underrepresented directors and when we include editors, the number jumps to 85%. We felt it was not only the right thing to do — it also matters to the success of what we do.”

A few of the most recent projects include:

• DoorDash, Neighborhood of Good, Imperial Woodpecker, directed by Lisa Gunning and edited by Paul Martinez at Arcade Edit
• GEICO, Unsolicited Advice & I’ve Met The Gecko, Biscuit Filmworks, directed by Jocelyn and Dawn
• UPS, Latinx-Owned, Stink, directed by Leo Aguirre and edited by Alex Dondero at Vapor Post
  
• CarMax, Car Buying Reimagined, Biscuit Filmworks, directed by Los Perez
  
• Buffalo Wild Wings, NCAA March Madness, Hungry Man, directed by Amir Farhang with food styling shoot directed by Shanghoon at The Garage
  
• The forthcoming short film by Platige, “Lil’ Ruby Riding Hood,” part of an award-winning storytelling series “Now Upon A Time,” co-directed by Martin CCO, Danny Robinson.

“For DoorDash, it’s simple. We serve an incredibly diverse group of audiences — across Merchants, Dashers and Consumers. And we believe that in order to connect with these audiences, we need to reflect their perspectives in our work,” said Kofi Amoo-Gottfried, CMO at DoorDash. “The best marketing always starts with a deep understanding of the customer, and the chances of getting to great increase exponentially if the people behind the camera bring that insight and nuance to the table.”

“To keep growing the GEICO brand, we know it is important for us to ensure that our content is representative of audiences from a myriad of identities, backgrounds, and life experiences,” said Damon Burrell, CMO at GEICO. “We are driven to create work that resonates deeply, and we intend to do this by elevating new voices and perspectives in the production process. We’re creating entertainment that not only delights our audiences but also makes people feel seen, heard and ultimately invites them along in the work we do each day.”

To further the 50/50 mission moving forward, Martin has officially partnered with Group Effort Initiative (GEI), a program launched and financed by Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, that strives to create a pipeline for members of underrepresented communities to get real experience towards lasting careers within the entertainment industry. As part of the partnership, Martin will source eligible underrepresented Production Assistants from GEI. Martin will also participate in and sponsor GEI's inaugural production bootcamp and play an active role in GEI’s new mentorship program, launching in November 2022. “Our partnership with The Martin Agency will provide even more individuals from underserved communities with the opportunity to chase their dreams," said Sumi Parekh, executive director at GEI. “We are grateful that The Martin Agency is taking tangible steps to ensure that commercial production represents the diversity of all of its viewers.”

“As an industry, we’ve grown numb. We need to do the work to break entrenched biases,” said Dean. “We don’t want to be satisfied celebrating progress on screen while ignoring the glacially slow improvement in equity off-screen.”