Tiffany R. Warren, SVP and chief diversity officer at Omnicon, took heed to her grandmother Josey’s advice, “There is always a time for everything.”
Five years ago, she knew that the time had come for her to realize her dream and create a platform for people of color and diversity champions to be showcased.
“As a journalist, you know when you have an idea for a story, you have to get it out and you think that the world has to hear it? Well, that’s how I felt about ADCOLOR. It was this thing that I logged in the back of mind for a long time,” Warren explains, minutes before she was due on stage to commence the inaugural ADCOLOR Live! event.
“I really took the time to understand the industry, to come up in it, to really make the right connections and learn about my craft as a diversity agent and to also learn the craft of advertising.”
The ADCOLOR Industry coalition was founded by Warren in 2005. She was seeking to support and inspire professionals of color and diversity champions within the advertising, marketing and media industries.
“We launched ADCOLOR at AOL five years ago. It was 15 of us and I was like ‘I think we can do it!’ We had four categories and now we have 10. We have grown so much because of the feedback that we get from our honorees, the ADCOLOR family and our sponsors,” shares Warren, the oldest of 10 children. She is often teased by her colleagues that she tries to replicate her family everywhere she goes.
Warren is a pioneer because she was instrumental in the birth of this historic collaboration between the Advertising Club of New York, the American Advertising Federation, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Arnold Worldwide and Omnicom Group through ADCOLOR.
“It’s a really proud night because we are at the halfway point of celebrating our fifth anniversary of creating a space of positivity … and adding color to the landscape of the stories of success,” she beams.
There are three things that Warren hopes supporters, alumni, sponsors and industry influencers glean from ADCOLOR. “An appreciation for success for those in the business of advertising, marketing and media; a sense of family; and pride. We are doing this … we are professionals of color but also diversity champions too – people of all colors, those who support diversity and inclusion come from all walks of life and backgrounds.”
The ADCOLOR Awards and Industry Conference will be held Sept. 16-17, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. –yvette caslin
