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By Minda Smiley, Reporter

March 8, 2016 | 2 min read

Omnicom’s DDB Worldwide has rolled out a campaign called ‘Talent Has No Gender’ in honor of International Women’s Day that the agency hopes will encourage everyone working in the advertising industry to make gender equality a top priority.

The campaign includes a video that features both male and female executives, clients and partners of the DDB Network including founder of the 3% conference Kat Gordon and Omnicom’s global head of communications Joanne Trout.

In the film, interviewees are asked to define what talent means. While the answers vary, one thing is meant to be clear: talent has nothing to do with gender.

Aside from the video, DDB Worldwide is encouraging its network of thousands of employees to change their LinkedIn profile picture and abbreviate their name (to first initial and surname) in order to appear genderless. The Talent Has No Gender website includes a profile image and upload instructions.

Of the campaign, president and CEO of DDB North America Wendy Clark said: “At DDB our highest metric of success is recruitment and retention of talented people who, in turn, fuel our clients' businesses with their thinking and work. Today, on International Women’s Day, we have the opportunity to further that belief across the DDB Network and the industry at large. Our goal is to recognize pure talent in our industry and take gender out of the equation.”

DDB is also kicking off an unconscious bias training program within North America that will initially focus on senior leaders and those in a position to hire.

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