Off Label is the first agency in Berlin to be led by a female management trio. For many, this would already suffice as an explanation. But this is too short-sighted, so we think.
In agencies across Germany, about 60% of the workforce is female, but at the top management levels we only have 18% female leaders. And despite multiple indications that this structure is in a changing process, there are often rather urban rumors on more diversity and rainbows than real actions and consequences.
Yet we and many other female leaders in the agency industry have stood our ground in this man’s world. We have led teams, managed clients, negotiated and fought hard, like real men would do. Driven by ambition and the desire to do better, we also copied and applied male leadership attributes, because that's how it seems to work quite good.
And yet Off Label was not founded with the aim of correcting the gender statistics at top-employment-levels — because it should be less about those who sell than those who buy. Even if the gender debate is a contentious one, it cannot be denied that gender-specific preferences and behaviors can be identified that make it easier for the marketers of this world to get their products sold to men — and to women.
Women recommend products they like. They appreciate dialogue at eye level, marketing with empathy and get excited about services and products when they feel understood in their views on things. Attention to detail and understanding runs through the veins of this buyer group — which is why it is even more important to know how to address them correctly.
And so two worlds become one: digging in, struggling through, the ambition, the focus, the tougher stand, the masculine, combined with the empathy, the love, the intuition, the feminine. It is an extension of the known agency-boss-repertoire, an addition to the known services and benefits, the future of modern and agile marketing.