A SeeHer Series
Among the initiatives of Jennifer Halloran, Head of Brand and Advertising Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), is Fair Shares, a five-part podcast from MassMutual and WP Creative Group, featuring authentic and honest conversations about finances between smart women. In each episode, host Bola Sokunbi—a certified financial instructor and the founder of Clever Girl Finance—speaks with real women across different generations, life stages and career paths.
Women face a unique challenge in today’s difficult financial environment. They remain vastly underserved and underinsured, often because the subject, as it is for everyone, is so daunting. But also because of lack of knowledge about how to handle their finances.
At MassMutual, we tend to do a lot of work around women to address these needs, and we are committed to changing that scenario.
We created a female-focused podcast series about financing featuring an expert on the subject who could discuss common needs and suggestions, and partnered with the Washington Post to deliver third-party credibility. You have to speak directly and authentically to your customers but that’s not enough. You also have to offer pro-active support as well. The five-podcast Fair Shares program does that.
Mass Mutual is also working on a women-centric campaign with our new agency, Grey. “Uncomfortable Truth” focuses on the fact that people are hesitant to talk to advisors because they don’t think they have enough money to warrant professional counsel.
In addition, women are not as comfortable as men are talking about finance—especially if they are meeting with male advisors. We are using SeeHer’s GEM data and resources to insure we are on track throughout the process.
Staying on top of how women are portrayed in the media is everyone’s responsibility. We couldn’t do Fair Shares or Uncomfortable Truth without understanding that.
I often read in this blog about the kind of world our fellow SeeHer members want to leave their children, boys as well as girls. I also have strong daughters for whom I wish the same thing.
For all of us, the campaign is always on.
Halloran, a veteran financial services branding and marketing executive, oversees the collaborative development and implementation of the company’s brand marketing, community responsibility, digital content and social engagement initiatives.
About SeeHer
SeeHer is a global coalition of committed marketers, media leaders, agencies and industry influencers united in the mission to increase the accurate portrayal of women and girls in marketing, advertising, media, and entertainment, so they see themselves as they truly are and in all their potential. Led by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), in partnership with The Female Quotient (The FQ), SeeHer has become the industry’s leading global voice for gender equality in advertising and media. To help benchmark success, in 2016 SeeHer developed the Gender Equality Measure (GEM®), the first research methodology that quantifies gender bias in ads and programming. GEM® has become the global measurement standard, measuring 200,000+ ads, representing 87 percent of worldwide ad spend. SeeHer also developed #WriteHerRight Guides to encourage content creators to address potential blind spots and unconscious biases and integrate more authentic and nuanced depictions of women into their work. To address the specific inequities in the sports and music industries, SeeHer launched two verticals: SeeHer in Sports and SeeHer Hear Her. Gender equality and intersectionality in advertising and media is an imperative. It is good for business and good for society.
