Getting Personal: Tackling Taboos and Amplifying Women
DISMANTLING TABOOS ABOUT WOMEN: AGE, SEX, AND FINANCE
Meet Katie Keating, co-founder of Fancy, a strategically-minded, creatively driven advertising agency dedicated to elevating what’s important to women. They are feminist, feminine, and fun. In a word: Fancy.
“it’s time to bring the hush-hush into the wide open.”
HOW DO I KNOW KATIE?
During my career in advertising, I had the pleasure of working with amazing women on global beauty brands (shout out to Kristin and Mary Paula) who remain dear friends today. It is through these women that I know Katie.
Katie and her co-founder, Erica Fite, are radically transforming how women are represented in advertising - AND dismantling taboos, from age to sex to finance.
This liberating work is challenging the status quo and igniting conversations about how we may view ourselves, our needs, and the way we support each other.
It’s more critical than ever for us to discover and wield our power today - and keep it fiercely alive for the future.
LET’S GET PERSONAL WITH KATIE - AND WHAT SHE IS CREATING WITH FANCY
1. What catalyst started your path to founding Fancy?
Fancy was founded in 2011, the same year the 3% Conference announced that only 3% of creative directors were women. That meant that 97% of the work was being created and approved by men That didn’t sit right with us, considering that women are responsible for about 85% of buying decisions.
My co-founder, Erica Fite, and I knew we weren’t going to change the industry from inside the big global agencies where we had always worked, we needed to start from scratch. And it’s been just as important to build an agency that worked for women as consumers as it has been to make it work for the women who work with Fancy.
2. Your research about taboos and the gender gap is groundbreaking - particularly about women over 40, how they are (or aren’t) represented and talked to in advertising (and beyond). What are 3 unfiltered truths that drive your work.
Our survey of women 40+ revealed that 80% of them felt cooler, younger, or sexier than they ever expected they would. It’s clear that advertising and media have been selling us a false narrative of what mid-life would be like.
In that same survey, 90% of mothers wanted to be portrayed as something other than a mom in advertising. There are so many facets to a woman’s life, assuming her role as a mother (even if she is one) is the be all and end all, disregards the many other essential aspects of who she is.
Advertisers, marketers, and brands have huge influence. And with that comes great opportunity (or dare I say, responsibility). We can use our power and might to uphold the status quo or we can push the cultural needle and create the world we want to live in.
3. Can you share a significant moment or project that has been the most rewarding to date and why?
The Adult retailer Lion’s Den is a long-time client of Fancy’s. We’ve done incredible work together and are changing how women (and the world) see that brand. Still, it wasn’t easy for me to get on board with that first project. I worried about what other clients would think. I worried about what potential clients would think. I worried about what it would mean for the agency and our reputation. And then I worried that if we didn’t take on this client—who was actually 100% on our page and wanted to portray sex as the normal, everyday thing that it is—we would be missing out on an opportunity to help give women the confidence they needed to take their satisfaction into their own hands, learn to communicate with their partners and live their whole lives.
And, turns out, far from being a ding on Fancy’s reputation, it actually made our reputation. Clients, prospects, and women, in general, appreciated the way we handled taboo topics, and our roster and revenue have grown because of it.
Katie and Erica and on a shoot in Haiti making a video for a new maternal and neonatal center at the only hospital on the southern peninsula of Haiti - an area with 2 million inhabitants. The crew was almost all women. Despite a rigourous search, a female on location sound technician could not be found.
4. As an accomplished Creative Director and mother whose work has visibility, purpose, and impact, what is your approach to self-care and balancing your professional and personal well-being?
I started Fancy when my kids were 7 and 8, and I worked long, hard hours. I was away from my kids a lot, but when I’m being generous with myself, I realize I was also around a lot for the important things. Fortunately, Erica and I had young daughters the same age, so they had quite a number of sleepovers as we toiled late into the night at one apartment or the other.
And I started a tradition of taking a trip with just one of the kids when she or he finished a school milestone. Like finishing elementary school, middle school, or high school. It’s a fantastic opportunity to connect without the distractions of work and life, sure, but also the distractions of other family members or dynamics that can take away from the experience of exploring a new place and meeting new challenges together.
A lot of my ability to maintain sanity during those years is due to my husband picking up a lot of slack with the active management of the day-to-day responsibilities of running the house and family.
Finally, a really good massage can work wonders on a worn-down body, mind, and psyche!
5. What jewel in your collection brings you confidence and calm when you are speaking in front of audiences, pitching, or meeting new people and why?
This one’s easy!
I have an antique watch fob that used to be my great-great-grandfather’s. It has a locket on it that has the photos of his two daughters, one of whom is my great-grandmother Ethel Elliot Pike. She made that fob into a necklace which was passed down to my grandmother, then my mother, and now me. I wear it regularly.
I feel the connection to the strong women who came before me and am glad I’ll be able to give it to my own daughter to wear someday (not yet, Lulu!) and hope it will give her the same strength it gives me.
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO CONNECT WITH KATIE?
Learn more about Fancy’s work tackling taboos at Fancynyc.com.
Feel free to reach out to Katie via email or LinkedIn to:
talk about making advertising work for women
engage her as a speaker on “How to Normalize the Normal”, marketing the everyday parts of real life that often aren’t discussed until the third cocktail
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