If you’re anything like me, you love finding out about things that you didn’t know existed. It’s kind of like watching Planet Earth and realizing there’s a two-toned bird with blue feet living on this earth called the Blue-Footed Booby. What? When your mind is opened to new and exciting things, you feel as though you have a key that no one else does. So what is this key in advertising?
The Multicultural Talent Pipeline
Last month, I had the privilege of being selected to attend the Multicultural Talent Pipeline in New York, hosted by Publicis Media during Advertising Week. It was a two-day program directed towards multicultural students pursuing a career in advertising and its related professions. Industry leaders from various disciplines gave real-world insights about the business, as well as advice on how to leverage your career. However, the most exciting part about the program was that all this information was centered around getting more diverse cultures, faces, and stories into the industry.
Strategy
Standing as a double minority in this business (black and female), I am preparing myself to face challenges my traditional coworkers won’t necessarily experience. One of these might be being the only black woman at a table of white men and women. My responsibilities might even be to work on a “multicultural team” to gain insights for a general market account. But what if the whole agency was dedicated to multiculturalism? What if there was no pitch to gain the Hispanic audience because they were already accounted for? What if multiculturalism wasn’t just a good thing to do, but was actually good business? Oh, but it is. That’s what many people under the Publicis Media team work for every day. As I looked around the MCTP room, I saw a sea of faces with varying tones, and for the first time, I loved not sticking out.
Here’s the key: Everyone knows that 30 second spots with average content don’t cut it anymore. Branded entertainment and storytelling are on the rise to relate to audiences. But just as Caucasian-heavy stories relate to the masses, so do African American stories, Hispanic stories, and Asian stories. You name it. So, how many of these keys can we get into agencies?