Join us on 24th September at 11.50am for ‘The Empathy Unlock’, and hear from OMD’s EMEA Chief Strategy Officer, Mark Murray Jones, on the evolution of empathy planning as a driver for business success, and OMD’s EMEA Chief People Officer, Gina Ramson-Williams, on strategies to overcome the industry’s profound lack of empathy by delivering on the promise to put people first. 

According to Jim Carroll, ex-chairman of BBH; “The successful agencies of the future will be those that integrate technological excellence with profoundly human qualities: combining efficacy with empathy…”

However, the practice of empathy is one which our industry struggles to take on board; in fact, we have been criticised as not being particularly good at it. According to the 2019 ‘Empathy Delusion’ report by Reach; “There is a persistent belief in the industry that we have stronger empathy or that we are trained to overcome our biases. But it turns out we are more likely to be driven by these biases than the modern mainstream!”

The practice of empathy in all areas of our business is critical to unlock growth and improve performance for our clients and staff. Fundamentality, it is also the right thing to do to enrich the lives of all consumers. 

As we advance further from one-to-many to one-to-one targeted comms strategies, more than ever, we need to be able to see the world through the eyes of the consumers we’re trying to reach. Therefore, the more determined we are to put ourselves in the shoes of our clients, partners and consumers, the more we will question and correct our own choices. ‘Empathy planning’ will help us define better strategic opportunities, and thus the comms & media set to fulfil them.