As Agencies Grapple With DEI, Some Lean Into Learning and Mentoring Initiatives

Agencies have made countless pledges this year to make the advertising industry, which has long been overwhelmingly white, more diverse. Following the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, holding companies including Publicis and Omnicom shared plans for combating systemic racism in the industry, while dozens of agencies shared their workforce diversity data as part of #CommitToChange, an initiative started by advocacy group 600 & Rising. Since then, one way agencies have been trying to bring more Black and underrepresented talent into the fold is via learning and mentorship programs. Agencies claim these free, virtual programs are giving these individuals the chance to gain relevant skills and connections that can help them land a job, or at least get their foot in the door. Elephant, a brand experience agency owned by IPG, is one of those places. When summer internships were all but canceled this year, Elephant worked to pull together a six-week experience design program called Elephant XD Academy geared toward BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students. The agency was supposed to host two interns from MAIP, the 4A’s Multicultural Advertising Internship Program, over the summer, but since in-person internships were a no-go, Elephant instead worked with MAIP’s organizers to find students interested in experience design and offer them the chance to partake in the virtual program. Elephant ended up selecting nine students for its inaugural XD Academy, eight of which it found via its partnership with MAIP. Kevin Kearney, executive creative director at Elephant, said the agency focused on bringing in students who had the least amount of exposure to the field of experience design. “The first thing we did was shave off the people who had the most experience and the most significant education,” Kearney said. Those who took part in the six-week “design bootcamp” not only learned how to use software programs, but also got a closer look at how Elephant solves business problems for clients, according to Kearney. He also noted that students come out of the program with something to add to their portfolio. Kearney said the agency plans to continue the course and tweak it. For instance, he said the next one will be eight weeks long, rather than six. As for its first class of graduates, he said the majority are still in school, but one recently interviewed at IBM. Elephant CEO Eric Moore said that while the agency might hire some of the program's participants once they graduate, the course was not created as a hiring mechanism for the shop. “We all need to develop the next generation of talent,” Moore said. “That talent will not necessarily end up at our agency, but we need to basically pay it forward.” Making the industry more accessible Droga5 recently opened up applications for its third D5in10 Academy, a free 10-week crash course that isn’t geared toward students and recent graduates in the industry, and instead recruits people who work in jobs outside of advertising and are looking for a way in. Candidates who apply cannot have attended portfolio school or worked as a creative at an agency. Kevin Brady, Droga5’s executive creative director who runs D5in10 Academy, said the evening course gives people the chance to learn from creative professionals and craft a mini portfolio without committing to the price tag of portfolio school. Tiffany Edwards, Droga5’s global head of diversity and inclusion, said the program—which typically takes place at its New York headquarters, but will be virtual this year—has accepted everyone from nurses to poets in the past. So far, 50 people have completed the course. She said 25% of D5in10’s inaugural class ended up getting full-time positions at agencies such as DDB and Publicis. Last year, she said 83% of participants were “racially” diverse, but didn’t share how many have secured full-time employment. “We don’t launch the program with the promise of people getting a job at Droga5,” Edwards said. However, she said two D5in10 graduates have gone on to jobs at the agency. Forging relationships Some agencies have spent this year crafting experiences that focus on building connections between young BIPOC talent and professionals working in the industry. Take BBDO New York, which last month launched a mentoring initiative called “Beyond Introductions.” The agency collaborated with Keni Thacker, founder of the Growth Initiative, an eight-week program for multicultural college students that focuses on providing real-world marketing and advertising experience. The Growth Initiative’s first class graduated this summer, but Thacker said he’s still finding ways to help its “fellows” as they begin their job hunts. BBDO New York recently paired Growth Initiative fellows with agency employees for 25-minute virtual chats, dubbed Beyond Introductions. The mentorship program was organized by Kristin Tolbert and Jaime Chou, both of whom work in planning at BBDO New York and are founding members of IDEA, the agency’s employee-led diversity coalition that formed this year. Tolbert feels as though job fairs and similar events can make “actual relationship building” difficult, explaining that Beyond Introductions aims to solve for that. “We wanted to create an opportunity that would go beyond the intro and chitchat,” she said, noting that BBDO New York hopes to continue the initiative and expand it to other offices in the network. Chou said that while some of the conversations may not go beyond the mandated 25-minue time slot, others have served as starting points for a mentor-mentee relationship. “One of my colleagues at BBDO had said that he plans to continue to chat with his mentee and help him build a plan for applying to jobs after graduation,” she said. “They already have a plan in place for continuing that relationship.” Thacker said he realizes that programs like Beyond Introductions are not “overnight solutions” to the industry’s diversity problem, but he believes initiatives such are a step in the right direction, as they’re forging connections that otherwise wouldn’t exist. “[Finding] simple ways to slowly start to fix the problem is how we’re actually going to fix the problem,” he said.