“Advertising is part of the fabric of our society and it plays an important role in creating role models,” says Mark Runacus MBE and Co-Founder of Wax/On. Runacus is talking about PrideAM, the LGBTQ network founded in 2015 to “represent the LGBTQ community and ensure that they were supported”. As chair of the network Runacus has been instrumental in bringing about change across the industry, principally in the representation of the LGBTQ community.

This commitment has been acknowledged by Runacus’ recent recognition in the Queen’s birthday honours list, where he was awarded an MBE for services to advertising. It is a monumental and well-deserved award, yet when he received the letter, his first thought was that it was a hoax. When asked if the week following the announcement had been any different, Runacus laughs and reveals that “it’s all been very normal, usual day to day stuff. Although it might be different when I see my mum tomorrow.”

The recent introduction of the new ASA guidelines around gender stereotyping are reflective of a progressive step-change in the industry. But, when it comes to LGBTQ stereotyping and representation, there is still a long way to go. In fact, 52% of consumers believe that the LGBT+ community is invisible in advertising according to research from UM. This is why Runacus believes networks such as PrideAM are so vital for the industry: “[Our purpose is] lobbying brands and their creative and media partners for better LGBTQ representation in advertising…because for too long advertising has been bereft of LGBTQ role models.”

Marketing was a job that Runacus only came to in the second wind of his career, having begun his working life as a journalist when he was 18. He has fond memories of reporting from the court rooms and trawling through the journalistic law book on the bus. It was only upon reapplying to university and completing graduate training in marketing that the agency world beckoned.

He quickly realised he was, by his own admission, “the anxious planner” having not followed a traditional route into the industry. “I don’t have the credentials, I didn’t do a degree in psychology, I didn’t work for Unilever,” he explains. Having spent many years agency side, he reveals he reached a point where “my own insecurities and anxieties meant that I decided that my future didn’t lie in the big Accenture.” His concern, however, was that “I might struggle with people who don’t get my little eccentricities.”

So, he set about finding his business partners, which as he revealed, should not be taken lightly: “Choose your business partners at least as wisely as you choose your life partners.” Partners found, Wax/On was born, an agency which, says Runacus, wanted to bridge the siloed gap that the industry had found itself falling into: “We all agreed that we’d witnessed the disappointing silo behaviours of agencies in the way that media and creative had become disconnected…clients were not getting the best work and they were not getting the best value.”