Founded in Wisconsin, GMR Marketing is an engagement marketing advertising agency under the Omnicom Group umbrella. For International Women’s Day, the agency is celebrating by highlighting meaningful, local women’s charities and supporting two organizations focused on women.
DIVERGE talked to Lisa Cieslak, Global CFO to find out more:
How are you celebrating IWD?
Wednesday, March 8 marks International Women’s Day (IWD) and this year’s theme is #BeBoldForChange. Partnering with GMR’s GLOW (Growth, Leadership and Opportunities for Women) initiative, each of our offices will host their own activities including highlighting meaningful, local women’s charities in our Milwaukee and San Francisco offices.
GMR has chosen to focus on two organizations dedicated to supporting women: Milwaukee nonprofit Grateful Girls and San Francisco-based Girls Inc. Grateful Girls works to inspire, motivate and encourage young girls, teens and women of all ages who are victims of the sex-trafficking industry. Girls Inc. encourages young women to embrace their full potential as smart, strong, bold women through service and advocacy.
Where did this idea come from?
Since GLOW’s inception in 2015, we have tried to highlight the importance of women in leadership. Over the past two years, GLOW has used International Women’s Day to participate in the community in a meaningful way, which has allowed us to increase awareness of our mission.
Why is it significant?
GLOW’s mission is to become a catalyst that drives community and balance at GMR by empowering personal development, igniting professional influence and growing representation of women in leadership. Since its inception, GLOW has been an emerging resource group for diversity and a launching point for many key initiatives across the agency. We continue to provide programming such as guest speakers, networking opportunities and mentoring to empower personal development.
What is the message you hope to get across?
This year our main emphasis is cultivating leadership, which is at the crux of the GLOW mission. We want to explore the various facets that characterize leadership and help women (and men) in the organization realize their potential.
Why is it important to take part in this for your agency?
Women in leadership is a business imperative as GMR moves forward as an agency. Diversity generates diverse thoughts, and GLOW as an organization provides the opportunities around that goal. The more GLOW can interact with the community, the more we can integrate and inform people of our mission. Today, we have over 150 GLOW participants across GMR’s North American offices.
