With more minorities in advertising, promotions and marketing, particularly in decision-making capacities, there will be more commercial campaigns that speak to minorities in a meaningful manner. That also translates to more dollars being transferred to African American media outlets that we love and subscribe to. Most important is the fact that we must realize that advertising, whether through television, radio or print, greatly influences our purchasing decisions — oftentimes subliminally or subconsciously. A more inclusive environment is therefore paramount.
“The advertising industry, particularly the agency business, has not historically done a good job recruiting, retaining and promoting people of color, particularly African Americans,” says Reginald Osborne, SVP of Arnold Worldwide. “I’ve been the one to be a mentor or help build those pathways to bring younger African Americans into the business. That’s very important to me.” –terry shropshire
Here are several key people inside the industry who are actually implementing programs and procedures to increase the number of African Americans and minorities in this important and rewarding field:
Adrianne C. Smith, Executive Director for the Center of Excellence in Advertising, Howard University, Washington D.C.: Howard University developed a … learning initiative that would allow us to train people of color to make that transition into the advertising industry. So Howard University partnered with the American Association of Advertising Agencies [4A’s]. The 4A’s have been a great sponsor of ours. … I am responsible for fundraising and being a project manager … to develop these learning modules. We are launching our “Make a Later Move into Advertising” pilot program … to [help] mid to senior level … African American managers [who are in other fields] … transition into advertising. I’m also responsible for our next generation advertising boot camp. It is designed to identify and recruit talented HBCU students for entry-level positions in the advertising industry.
Nancy Hill, President and CEO, American Association of Advertising Agencies, and a Director on the CEA Board [The 4A’s provided an initial $250,000 grant to establish the CEA]: “I’m pleased that Adrianne has joined the CEA and the 4A’s look forward to working with her and Howard University to expand the ranks of African Americans in middle and senior roles at agencies.”
Heather James: SVP and CMO, Advertising Research Foundation: “[The Advertising Research Foundation] is a trade association that was spawned from the 4A’s and the ANA, the Association of National Advertisers. We’re in the middle of the largest research study in the world, Census 2010. the results are coming in, and my organization deals with market researchers, agencies, advertisers, media companies. We all realize that the opportunity is great. We must take advantage of this opportunity to speak to market consumers in a culturally relevant way, make the connections, and more importantly, appeal to their desires,” she says.
Danny Robinson, SVP and Creative Director, Martin Agency: “At least the consciousness has been elevated as to why they need to hire people of color. I spend a lot of time talking to kids at the Boys & Girls Clubs, going to elementary schools, high schools and colleges just to get kids to understand that it is an industry. They don’t have any role models. They don’t know what that is. They know there are commercials on television, but they don’t make the connection that it is an industry. I’ve always said that we don’t have a pool of kids coming up thinking about it. We need to talk to them as young as we can get them. What I also do is find kids who are in graduate schools for advertising or are in school for advertising and talk to them and tell them what’s going on and help them figure out how to navigate getting a job in advertising,” he says.
Tiffany R. Warren, Founder, ADCOLOR and ADCOLOR Awards. This organization was established to in 2005 to celebrate the accomplishments of diverse role models and industry leaders. In 2009, Warren expanded the mission to foster more minority retention throughout the industry. “This year’s class of honorees,” Warren says of the ADCOLOR Awards, “represents not only truly outstanding and powerful examples of achievement, but also the humility of reaching back as one rises up. We are honored to highlight them and their positive contributions to the advertising, marketing and media industries so that others may follow.”
Reginald Osborne, SVP, Multicultural Marketing, Arnold Worldwide, New York City: “With my company we are trying to establish relationships with historically black colleges [Osborne is a 1995 alum of Clark Atlanta University]. Advertising is one of those fields where African Americans have never been encouraged to go into. So there is not a lot of understanding of what an advertising agency does, how it works. I don’t think there’s always been a pipeline there. We need to continue to build the awareness of the different career paths of the careers that exist within the advertising agency. And when you think of the different directions that some of young people go into like the music industry or the graphic arts industry, a lot of that talent and skill could be used in the advertising industry,” he says.
