For Charlotte Saatchi, everything was impossible.

Would Davina Droga ever get her name above the door?

Would Jane Hegarty have been allowed to zag?

These are three of the hard-hitting taglines from a new campaign designed to change the face of creative leadership from AnalogFolk.

The campaign, which forms part of a wider push to drive equality in creative leadership roles, utilises AI to turn some of advertising’s most ubiquitous creative leaders into women. Entitled ‘Changing the Face of Creative Leadership’ the social campaign is fuelled by a push to create an open-source pool of talent that all agencies can share.

The creative leaders featured in the campaign range from Rory Sutherland to Nils Leonard, all of whom have been recreated as women. The campaign poses the question: if the advertising legends we know today were women, would they have reached the same heights?

Would they have been given the platform to build their personal brands in the first place? For while it is 2024 the sheer profile of the leaders chosen underline that women in the creative industries still attend conferences dominated by male speakers, get daily news updates from industry publications which are dominated by male faces and the myth of the ‘creative rockstar’ persists. While editors may stop themselves before asking junior reporters ‘Is he a name?’, the long shadow of this narrow lens continues to stop women’s creative careers before they get started.

Change the narrative 

Stereotypes matter because they stop people from achieving their full potential and as this campaign surfaces so powerfully the stereotype of a creative leader remains a default to the male.

These stereotypes are having a negative impact on women’s creative careers. As the campaign underlines only 17% of ECDs and creative leaders are women. This is despite the fact that women comprise 54.7% of the creative industry.

As AnalogFolk embarked on its search for a Head of Creative it became clear that the current talent pool is neither diverse nor balanced. Yet the team harnessed this frustration as fuel with a mission to create an open-source talent pool which all the industry can benefit from.

According to the agency, this initiative marks a pivotal moment in AnalogFolk's evolution, as it has reimagined its studio from a traditional agency model into a dynamic, inclusive space driven by a diverse mix of creatives, creators, and makers.

This new direction necessitates a fresh kind of creative leader who has the skills and experience aligned with AnalogFolk’s new studio of talent and the type of strategy and creative it is delivering that is proving successful for its clients. AnalogFolk explained that the ideal candidate for its Head of Creative will be poised to lead a team that is adaptive to the pace of culture, collaborative, and empowered to create exceptional content and experiences for clients that help brands grow through cultural vibrancy.

Anna-Louise Gladwell, Managing Director at AnalogFolk, explained:  “Our goal is to kick the door open wider for societal success by ensuring diverse leadership in the creative industry. We’re pushing this campaign to help drive a solution to the lack of visibility and representation of female creative leaders in advertising.”

She continued: “We’re not specifically looking to hire a woman for this role, but right now the pool of talent we’re seeing is neither diverse nor balanced. Where are all the women? I'm incredibly proud of the new model we are creating around our future of work. AnalogFolk is composed of diverse talent, bringing a breadth of experience and fresh perspectives that are essential for innovation. The only way to predict the future is to create it, and through this campaign, we are taking a step towards shaping a more inclusive and dynamic future for the creative industry."

AnalogFolk is asking the industry to fill its Head of Creative role, but fill the equality gap, by nominating themselves or others as creative leaders. Encouraging everyone to contribute to and share the rich pool of female creative talent with peers in the industry so that they too can build balanced and representative teams.

If you want a different result you have to do things differently. In an industry ecosystem dominated by male creatives AnalogFolk underlines the strength of coupling championing equality with taking meaningful action.

For more information and to apply or nominate a leader please click here.