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Smirnoff expands Equalising Music gender diversity programme
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 8 March 2018
Smirnoff has announced plans for the second year of its Equalising Music project, which aims to promote greater gender diversity in music. And vodka.
Launched last year, the three year project aims to improve the representation of women in the music industry – and especially in dance music – by 2020. For year two, it will focus particularly on club and festival line-ups. It notes that on average just 19% of festival headliners globally last year were women – and in the UK this figure drops to 11%.
As part of this, Equalising Music has announced a partnership with Global, which as well as being a major UK commercial radio station owner has also been buying up festivals in recent years. As such, Global has committed to an eight month advertising campaign across Capital, Capital Xtra and its DAX audio advertising platform. It will also host Smirnoff Equalising Music stages at the Snowbombing and Lost Village festivals.
On the clubbing side, Smirnoff has teamed up with bar and club operator Deltic, with the aim to triple the number of female headline DJs at its venues this year. Smirnoff’s existing ‘Big Night Out’ club nights will also feature exclusively female line-ups.
The project has also announced a mentoring scheme for emerging female DJs. Successful applicants will be will be mentored by The Black Madonna, Artwork, Honey Dijon, Peggy Gou and Nastia, as well as being given the opportunity to perform at Snowbombing, Lost Village and a launch event at Printworks in London.
“I think it’s important to celebrate all new talents, whatever gender, race or religion – whoever they are”, says Honey Dijon. “This is a positive move to promote more female and female identifying artists and I hope I can share some of my experiences with some people at the beginning of their own journey”.
Nicholas Cornbleet, senior brand manager for Smirnoff Europe, adds: “Since Smirnoff launched Equalising Music in 2017, we have been working with some of the most forward-thinking people in electronic music, to #PressforProgress and escalate gender parity in the music industry. Smirnoff stands for inclusive good times and together with our like-minded partners we want to ensure the best talent are headlining clubs and festivals, regardless of gender, and enable genuine, long-lasting change in the industry”.
Earlier this week, Smirnoff also launched The Smirnoff Equaliser, which analyses the gender diversity of your Spotify listening figures.
For more on the Smirnoff Equalising Music project – and the DJ mentoring scheme – go to smirnoffequalisingmusic.com
