With our partners Crown Commercial Service, NABS, the IPA, the Alliance of Independent Agencies, the Advertising Association and ISBA we’re  calling on the industry to pledge commitment to mental wellbeing and creativity by signing up to the Brilliant Creative Minds Code of Conduct.

We’ve launched the Code to stamp out behaviours that impact employee wellbeing and diminish creativity in our industry.

The Code was developed  by SoLo and the Brilliant Creative Minds partnership through a robust process of intelligence gathering. This included in-depth interviews with senior leaders across the client, agency, and procurement worlds including Government Communications Service; Stephanie Parry, Marketing and Procurement Lead at Crown Commercial Service; Tom Knox, Executive Partner at MullenLowe Group; Adam Skinner, COO at OmniGOV Manning Gottlieb OMD; and, Jane Asscher, CEO at 23Red.

The aim is to protect creativity by eradicating practices in procurement, commissioning and agency cultures that compromise mental health and wellbeing, for example: long hours culture and fear of job loss in agencies; excessive tender requirements and procurement processes; and unrealistic client timescales and demands.

Social & Local initiated, funds and manages Brilliant Creative Minds and is urging all agencies, clients and procurement professionals to sign up to the Code and embed its principles into their workplace cultures.

Our Managing Partner, Stephanie Drakes, says:

“Poor mental wellbeing is the enemy of creativity in our industry and our goal is to eradicate practices that cause unnecessary and dangerous levels of stress in agency environments. To meet our aim, Brilliant Creative Minds uniquely brings together three interdependent parts of the industry to work as one: client, agency and procurement.

“We’d like the industry to sign up to it and commit to embedding its principles within organisations to create an industry where negative workplace stress is reduced, talent is retained and the UK protects its pole position in the world for creativity as clients, once again, get the best out of their agencies.”

Sign up to the Brilliant Creative Minds Code of Conduct here.