Civic Entertainment Group launches accessibility practice

For many years, David Cohn, co-CEO of marketing agency Civic Entertainment Group, “downplayed” his deafness, partially because of how marketers would react. “If my clients realized how much I was struggling, I was concerned they wouldn’t hire me,” said Cohn, who co-founded Civic over 25 years ago. “While I identified as a deaf person, of course, I never really identified as disabled.” But now, Cohn is embracing his deafness and launching a consultancy practice within Civic focused on accessibility. One of the goals, he said, is to ensure high-profile brands better prioritize the disabled community. Also read: How diversity will show up at Cannes 2024 The offering will support brands with their marketing efforts, including creative, social media and publicity, according to a Civic statement. Civic will also work with companies on research and development to create inclusive products, as well as providing help on speaking engagements and AI innovation. Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards Join us July 23 & 24 in Boston Learn more here Pandemic brings a different view When COVID-19 struck and everyone started wearing masks, Cohn could no longer rely on reading lips. “I didn’t even know if people were addressing me, let alone what they were saying,” Cohn said. He ordered shirts from Amazon that notified people of his deafness and encouraged passersby to “be kind.” Virtual meetings complicated Cohn’s daily work life, too. “I had my first meeting and the captions were terrible. I couldn’t keep up with multiple people on the screen. I had no idea who was talking,” he said. Cohn eventually found solace in one company’s captions—Google Meet’s—and after repeatedly applauding the feature to clients and senior executives, word got back to the search engine giant. “They called me and featured me in a blog,” Cohn said. “Then, more recently, they asked me to speak at the Google Cloud Next conference, [where] I spoke about accessibility and the workplace.” With his personal and professional worlds intertwined, Cohn recognized what he calls an “opportunity,” and resolved to launch a consultancy practice within Civic focused on accessibility. The importance of accessible marketing About one in 4 adults (27%) in the U.S. have some type of disability and 1.3 billion people worldwide (16%) of the global population identifies as disabled, according to the CDC and World Health Organization, making accessible marketing not only brands’ moral duty, but also their “financial imperative,” Cohn said. “Brands need to understand the opportunity to engage with this community,” Cohn added. “I think this community will be stickier than most because they’re craving to be marketed to.” Cohn declined to name the practice’s launch clients, but said he’s looking to partner with those such as Apple and Airbnb, which he highlighted as “proactively looking to expand their accessible listings.” (Civic has worked with Airbnb before, according to the agency’s website.) Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

Civic Entertainment Group launches accessibility practice

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