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10 Rachid Ahouiyek, Henry Scotland and Nico Tuppen

Founders, Homeground

In March, the trio from Iris launched Homeground, a sports agency that aims to capitalise authentically on the role that sport plays in fans’ life. Having worked with clients such as Adidas and Manchester United, Homeground has debuted with social purpose. Launching during the pandemic meant it could hire from across the UK and from different backgrounds. A factor that “creatively, yields way more dividends”, Ahouiyek says. The team also launched Homeground Academy, which offers three-to-six month paid placements for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, with the intention of making people within this group realise that they could work for the sports in

9 Jerry Daykin

Senior media director, EMEA, GSK

Daykin has been a consistent advocate for the LGBT+ community within advertising, as part of the World Federation of Advertisers’ Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, commercial co-director at LGBT+ ad advocacy group Outvertising, and a volunteer director at the Conscious Advertising Network. The list goes on, as will Daykin in the fight for better representation.

8 Martyn Sibley

Co-founder and chief executive, Purple Goat Agency

In 2020, Sibley launched Purple Goat, an influencer marketing agency focused on people with disabilities. Since then, the shop has worked with Tesco, Virgin Media and Facebook. Rather than acting as a talent agency, Sibley’s agency finds influencers for each individual campaign and creates economic opportunities for them.

7 Sophie Broadbent

Project manager, We Are AdGreen

In March of this year, Broadbent joined the AdGreen team to oversee the launch of its carbon calculator. Broadbent, who has 20 years’ experience as a producer, has long been an advocate for green production. By September, she and the team had launched the carbon calculator, which will allow teams to assess the carbon footprint of elements within ad campaigns. It will also help agencies and production teams see where they can reduce their carbon footprint.

6 Amy Williams

Founder and chief executive, Good-Loop

On its launch in 2016, Williams’ adtech company Good-Loop had charity at heart as it helped consumers watching ads unlock free donations to charity. In October, Williams took this initiative one step further and launched Tabs for Good. The initiative allows people to make donations to a charity of their choice, just by downloading the Tabs for Good plug-in and opening tabs in a browser. Participating charities include WaterAid and Unicef.

5 Rani Patel Williams

Director of cultural collaborations, Livity, co-founder, #BrandShareTheMic, and founder, FanGirl

Williams’ list of credentials is extensive, and this year she continued her achievements. She approached Clarks Originals after observing its social media presence and knowing about its history with the black diaspora. Together, the partnership produced “InHerShoes”, a series of films that centred on the black female experience both in front of, and behind, the camera (pictured, above right). Her work follows on from last year’s “#BrandShareTheMic”, which called on brands to share their platforms with black voices and talent, enlisting brands such as

4 Jed Hallam

Head of communications planning, EMEA, Snap

In May, Hallam co-founded Common People, a network for those in the creative industries from working-class backgrounds. Its aim is to reduce barriers, assist career development and be a space where people can share their career journeys as a source of inspiration. Its WhatsApp group amassed more than 150 members in 24 hours and participants say they feel like they have “found their people”. Hallam believes people are keen to make connections within the group, because being from a working-class background is stigmatised within the industry.

3 Trevor and Rania Robinson

Founder, and chief executive and partner, Quiet Storm

The Create Not Hate campaign was launched by Quiet Storm in 2007 with a focus on knife crime, but the non-profit organisation was revived in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. This year, the duo maintained momentum, producing videos on the experiences of young black people with the Metropolitan Police (pictured above, centre) and launching an initiative with John Lewis aimed at underrepresented young people in the creative industries.

2 Ben Essen

Global chief strategy officer, Iris

In an industry that encourages consumerism, climate change and overconsumption were always going to be difficult issues to tackle. Earlier this year, Iris launched a global initiative to incentivise clients to fight against climate change (pictured above, left), with a focus on reducing international travel. Essen noted that £1tn was spent on international travel in 2019, but 2020 showed workplaces that they can work just as effectively without.

1 Zoe Scaman

Founder, Bodacious, and co-founder, MCX

Scaman well and truly rocked the adland boat this year with the publication of “Mad Men. Furious Women” in July. The piece brutally exposed the dark undercurrent of the ad industry, publishing first-hand accounts of sexism and mistreatment in the industry, from lewd comments to agencies pushing redundancy on pregnant women. Her viral post sparked what was called the industry’s “MeToo moment”. The founder of Bodacious, a strategy studio with clients such as EA Games, Netflix and Nike, Scaman continues to discuss issues and trends within the creative industry. Most recently, she published a white paper on the future of independent creators.