FOUR Scottish businesses which champion diversity and inclusion have each been awarded £25,000 of airtime from the STV Growth Fund, which makes advertising more accessible for the Scottish business community.
Social Stories Club, a social enterprise in Edinburgh, Daisy Tree Baby Boutique, a family run high street and online store in Aberdeenshire, Deaf Action, in Edinburgh, which supports the diversity of hearing-impaired people, and community interest firm Women's Enterprise Scotland (WES), will now develop a commercial campaign to run on STV within the next year.
They emerged top of the finalists earlier this month, who all had to present the ways in which they champion diversity, along with details of how they will grow their businesses through their focus on inclusion, to an expert panel of judges.
The panel comprised Femi Otitoju, STV’s diversity and inclusion advisor and managing director of the Challenge Consultancy; Barrington Reeves, creative director and founder of creative agency, Too Gallus; Lee Beattie, managing partner of creative agency John Doe; and Evelyn McDonald, chief executive officer of Scottish EDGE.
STV has ring-fenced £1 million in total for businesses specifically championing inclusivity from its £20m Growth Fund.
Danielle Kelly, director of sales and strategy Scotland at STV, said: “We were blown away by the passion shown by these businesses and their commitment to ensuring that diversity and inclusion is at the heart of everything they do. “We’re delighted to have them on board with the STV Growth Fund and can’t wait to develop and air what we know will be inspiring campaigns.”
Karis Gill from Social Stories said: “We are proud to champion diversity and it’s fantastic for us that this has been recognised.”
Daisy Tree Baby Boutique’s Claire Caborn said: “It is so important to me that Daisy Tree accurately reflects the world in which we live and I am looking forward so very much to working together with STV to further this aim.”
Fiona Lavender from Deaf Action said: “As a deaf-led organisation, this is huge for Deaf Action – deaf people, particularly BSL users, are under-represented in the media. This will give us the opportunity to raise the profile of hearing loss across Scotland.”
Carolyn Currie, CEO of Women’s Enterprise Scotland, added: “The airtime will allow us to share our dedicated, free to access resource with as many women as possible, giving them the information and advice they need to fulfil their business aspirations.”
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