Nathan Young's Journey Continues as He Lands at Deloitte Digital

Last summer, in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, the advertising industry faced one of its most pivotal moments. The nation's anger filtered down quickly to its institutions, exposing structural racism and calling for action on issues around diversity, equity and inclusion. In the ad world, that reckoning brought change in the form of 600 & Rising, the advocacy group co-founded by Aerialist content lead Bennett D. Bennett and former Periscope group strategy director Nathan Young. While the group's evolution was a massive positive, it wasn’t without bumps in the road. Young was a crucial voice in 600 & Rising’s beginnings and sparked a walkout with all employees' support at Periscope in Minneapolis last July. But Young also faced criticism after public comments on Twitter about a longstanding industry event, Adcolor, resulting in him resigning as president of 600 & Rising. In August, Young left Periscope, telling Adweek that the agency “has been incredibly supportive of me through all of this, and I consider the folks I worked with family. Periscope’s emphasis on empathy comes through in the work, and it comes through in how they treat their employees, myself included.” After some time away from the industry, Young is back as head of strategy for the Chicago studio of Deloitte Digital. It is the first role in the Chicago office (the consultancy has studios in Denver, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle), and brings Young back to his industry roots and passion. At the core of his new role will be working with brands to help them establish and understand their purpose. “Strategy is going to be extremely important [for brands],” Young said. “Every brand is contending with their purpose and how they can meaningfully contribute to all these issues that our country and society are facing. I’m here to help those clients really articulate that mission.” Crucial to this path is the impact that Young feels he will have on brands. Being at a consultancy instead of an agency provides a more in-depth opportunity to work more closely with higher leadership levels at Fortune 100 clients on projects beyond marketing. “I’ve always loved the business of creativity,” said Young. “But here, I’m in the business of change-making, and Deloitte is one of a handful of businesses that has the scale and scope of services to make large-scale, societal changes that the consumer is demanding.” While he embarks on his next chapter, Young said he is committed to continuing the work around DEI, armed with hindsight and experience—and a renewed perspective. “Coming into 2021, [I realized] there is a level of cynicism baked into the advertising industry, and it’s really unhealthy. I think I pointed too many fingers, but last year was important and it felt like the right thing to do,” Young said. “As I reflect, I think last year was about identifying and defining the problems facing our industry and country. For me, 2021 is going to be about solving them.” Part of that way forward is not forgetting some of the progress of 2020 and ensuring that the industry keeps its eyes on what’s important. “Without 600 & Rising, we wouldn’t have the level of transparency and discussion about DEI that the industry is having now,” Young said. “There are numbers on diversity that have never been released before that we can all examine. There are candid conversations happening within nearly every agency in the country around the topics of diversity, equity and inclusion, and 600&Rising forced that issue.”