Close to 70 ad agencies have been awarded the IPA’s People First Promise badge of honour for showing clear dedication to their employees’ mental health and wellbeing.
Announced during Mental Health Awareness Week 2024, the initiative was first launched by the industry body’s president Josh Krichefski in January this year, and encourages members to use the badge as a symbol of their commitment to care for current and future employees.
To gain the award, agencies had to provide evidence of how they had supported employees’ mental health and wellbeing, under the three overarching categories of empower, support and prevent.
Among the successful first wave of IPA members to be awarded the badge of honour were: Accenture Song, Adam&EveDDB, AMV BBDO, BBH, EssenceMediacom, GroupM, Havas, IPG Mediabrands, ITV, McCann, MGOMD, Mother, Ogilvy, Omnicom, PHD, T&Pm, VCCP, Wavemaker and Wieden+Kennedy.
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Research commissioned by the IPA also reveals that less than half of its members believe the ad industry is doing enough to support the mental health of its employees.
This is in contrast to the 60% of adults from the general population who believe that their industry is doing enough to support employee mental health, indicating a clear support gap within the advertising and marketing industries.
“This is a fantastic start. And it is just the start. As we’re seeing in this new IPA research, there is more work to be done – either to raise awareness of the mental health and wellbeing resources that some companies offer – for which more sign-ups to the People First Promise are key, or to increase the provision of relevant support, for which our IPA Adland Wellbeing Lab offers a wealth of free and paid-for resources to help,” Krichefski said.
“By all of us playing our part in this area, not only do we improve individual lives, but we raise the reputation and pull-factor of our companies and our industry by making it clear that we invest in creating supportive and inclusive working environments. In short, we all win.”
