Rewriting what an agency can be: Inside Initiative UK’s INIclusion Day
Opinion
Initiative UK’s chief strategy officer reflects on an inspiring agency day focused on supporting three disability-focused charities.
There are days in agency life that feel routine, then there are days that remind you why you fell in love with this industry in the first place.
INIclusion Day was one of those rare, luminous days. Held on 3 December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, it was not intended as a symbolic gesture but as a clear statement of intent. This was my agency, Initiative UK, choosing to use its skills where they matter most, for communities who are too often left out of the conversations we shape.
At the heart of the day were three extraordinary disability-focused charities whose missions anchor them firmly in the fabric of the UK.
Special Olympics GB, a movement that champions people with intellectual disabilities through the transformative power of sport and belonging. Beyond Autism, which works tirelessly to create communication pathways, educational opportunities and family support in a system that can be painfully difficult to navigate. And Caxton Youth Centre, a vibrant community hub for young disabled Londoners, offering connection, independence and confidence in a world that frequently assumes they need none of those things.
Each charity had worked up a live brief. Each brief reflected Real barriers, Real tensions, Real urgency. The kind of work that reminds you how potent our craft can be when it is directed at visibility, dignity and access rather than just awareness metrics.
Watching our teams dive into these challenges was one of the most quietly moving parts of the day for me. You could feel people recalibrating what media can actually do.
We opened with a panel on how media can be used for good, grounding the day in intention rather than performance.
Charlotte Jackson from RNIB then delivered a powerful session on inclusive communication, offering case studies that showed the difference between work that nods to accessibility and work that genuinely centres it. There was a perceptible shift in the room. You could almost hear people’s instincts sharpening.
Our partnership with Media Trust, whom we approached to co-curate INIclusion with us, has, over months of planning, grown into something far deeper than coordination over logistics.
They have become our friends, our allies, and the people who nudge us to see the latent power in our own influence. We’ve really appreciated Media Trust’s insights and experience of connecting media professionals with charity representatives for social impact, the disability awareness pre-training it ran for the whole agency, which brilliantly anticipated and prepared people for potentially awkward scenarios around appropriate language to use around disability and what reasonable adjustments to offer, and above all, the way it combines being flexible and easy to work with, with a determination and passion to drive change in media representation.
With its guidance, six Initiative teams are spending this week refining campaign-boosting ideas for our three participating charities before presenting back next week. The energy and empathy in those rooms have, at times, felt like watching an agency remember its heartbeat.
Across the building, the day radiated outward in ways that felt very human. More than forty colleagues walked through London’s winter sunshine with Special Olympics athletes, a moment that was as grounding as it was joyful.
In our canteen, a bake sale drew support from neighbouring agencies, raising funds for our charity partners and sparking conversations that would never have happened otherwise.
And at Caxton, a group of employees threw themselves into restoring the youth centre’s garden space. Some of them have already asked whether they can continue to return. Those are the details that stay with you. The ones that tell you something real have shifted.
One of the most affecting moments came from our DEI Manager, Vanessa Sackey, who spoke with honesty and clarity about her neurodivergent experiences at work and the open network she leads for neurodivergent and disabled colleagues.
Her contribution was a reminder that inclusion is not an outward performance but an inward practice, strengthened by every person who feels safe enough to speak.
Across UK adland, the latest All In Census reveals that while 13% of industry professionals identify as disabled or living with a long-term condition, senior representation remains disproportionately low. It’s a discrepancy the industry must address with urgency.
At Initiative UK, we’re proud of our 0% gender pay gap and of being part of IPG Mediabrands – recognised by MEFA Network as All In Champion of the Year for our commitment to inclusion. But on INIclusion Day, I felt something numbers rarely capture: a sense of alignment, of shared purpose, of people leaning in rather than looking away.
Helping these charities has sparked genuine innovation and a deeper instinct for inclusive planning. It has raised money for organisations whose work is vital and often under-resourced. But beyond that, it has created a kind of collective pride that you cannot force with away-days or frameworks. It comes only from doing something that really matters. I watched colleagues from different teams, disciplines and backgrounds working together with a generosity that reminded me why this agency is special.
And in a turbulent moment for our industry, where uncertainty can so easily dampen creativity and connection, it felt powerful to create something that grounded us instead. Something that made us look outward with purpose rather than inward with anxiety.
Kicking off our partnership with Media Trust is only the beginning. Together we will continue building the tools, behaviours and confidence needed to become the most inclusive media agency in the UK, not just this year but for the years ahead.
This work will deepen our craft, sharpen our planning, and ensure that accessibility and inclusion become instinctive rather than optional.
I have never been prouder to work at Initiative than I was on 3 December. Not because we paused our day jobs, but because, for one extraordinary day, we showed exactly what they are capable of when directed with heart, intention and care.
Rachel Coffey is chief strategy officer at Initiative UK