For The One Club, finding and fostering creative talent from
multicultural sources has always been the goal. Every year, The One Club helps
people from diverse backgrounds unlock their creativity and break into the
advertising world.
With a host of initiatives including The One Club Creative
Boot Camps, Here Are All The Black People creative fairs, and the Young Ones
festival, The One Club is making a real difference to the lives of young
creatives, whilst also helping the industry itself tackle diversity head on.
For Traecy Smith, Diversity Director at The One Club, the
forecast is positive. But to create a truly diverse advertising industry across
both race and gender, adland needs to commit.
“Many in our industry are just paying lip service to the
topic of diversity,” says Traecy. “But The One Club is honestly trying to walk
the walk, and not just talk the talk. We always aim to keep the topic of
diversity in the media spotlight, but we are also addressing the problem
directly by providing people from multicultural backgrounds the real
opportunities they need and deserve.”
The One Club’s diversity initiatives have given hundreds of
young students, graduates, and professionals new to the business the
opportunity to showcase their creative talents in front of some of the biggest
agencies and creative powerhouses in advertising.
The One Club’s Creative Boot Camps, for example, have been
running since 2010 and test attendees’ creative talents by providing them with
a challenging creative brief. During the four-day event, participants not only
learn about the creative process at the core of advertising, but are also given
the chance to create, present and pitch to a real client.
This baptism of fire forces those involved to be at the top
of their game from the off, but, according to Traecy, the participants have
created such incredible work on such a consistent basis that she is no longer
surprised.
“The originality and creativity of the work our boot campers
deliver is incredible. We’ve been running the Creative Boot Camps for so long
now that I’m rarely surprised at how talented the participants are, but the
skill levels and artistry on display always reassures me that achieving a truly
diverse industry will benefit everyone.”
Since the first Creative Boot Camps in Atlanta and New York,
The One Club has taken its program global. Spanning eight cities across three
continents, the events have opened up the advertising industry to a whole new
cross-section of talent. From Cape Town to Chicago, Los Angeles to London, The
One Club is bringing together a diverse range of creative talent.
For Camille Yaptinchay, who attended the 2014 LA Creative
Boot Camp before securing a role at 72andsunny, The One Club’s events are
characterised by a feature essential to the growth of diversity –
collaboration.
“What’s wonderful about the Creative Boot Camps is that they
let everyone who applies participate. The entire experience is very
challenging, but I learned a whole new level of collaboration through it all.
Getting to the best ideas meant accepting every member of the team’s thoughts
and opinions.”
Beyond the hugely successful Creative Boot Camps, The One
Club also hosts the annual Here Are All The Black People (HAATBP) creative
fair. The brainchild of industry veterans Jimmy Smith and Jeff Goodby, HAATBP
was created to give real world solutions to a question that advertising and
many other professions should be asking themselves – ‘where are all the black
people?’
For Sonja Johnson, who won the live talent pitch contest in
2015 before landing a Junior Art Director role at Droga5, this was exactly the
question she found herself pondering: “After applying to about 50 different
agencies in California, only to be told that while my work was great my lack of
experience made me too hard to hire, I was feeling truly defeated. One
afternoon as I sat in my parents’ house thinking about this conundrum, I typed
into my browser, ‘where are all the black creatives?’. I was shocked when it
threw back a blog asking the same question. I read through one creative’s
account of being black in advertising and saw myself in his story. At the end
of the blog there were three suggestions for what a young black person could
do, and one was the One Club’s Here Are All The Black People. The rest as they
say, is history.”
With portfolio-building workshops, portfolio reviews and
invaluable opportunities to network, interview and learn from some of the most
respected creatives in the industry, all anchored around the immensely popular,
if a little daunting, live talent pitch contest, the one-day HAATBP event has
given many their first career break.
Winners of the live talent pitch are guaranteed interviews
with the HAATBP agency sponsors, and for Danielle McCoy, a two-time HAATBP
attendee and 2013 live talent pitch winner, the event opened the door to an
industry she never even considered, leading to her taking her first steps
towards her current role as a Junior Designer at Wieden + Kennedy.
“I think the unique thing about the way HAATBP promotes
diversity is that it doesn’t feel like some mandated agenda,” explains
Danielle. “Often, when diversity gets discussed in the advertising
stratosphere, to me, it can feel very hollow. There’s a genuineness about
HAATBP that conveys a sincere desire to highlight multicultural emerging
talent.”
“From my experience as an attendee, as well as hearing about
the experiences of my friends who have also attended, the consensus is that
HAATBP feels like it was created with us in mind. I think The One Club has a
unique understanding of how critical diversity is to the success of the
industry, as well as a unique grasp of the needs of diverse and multicultural
individuals.”
In order to create real diversity, adland must learn that
actions speak louder than words. As Traecy comments: “Just talking about
diversity isn’t enough; the industry must take real action to create real
change. Having said that, I am an optimist and I see agencies implementing
forward-thinking initiatives all the time. What drives The One Club, and should
drive the entire industry, is making this innovative thinking standard rather
than scarce.”
To tackle the issue of diversity, and many other issues for that matter, collaboration is the key, as Traecy concludes: “We’re very fortunate to have the support of The One Club Board of Directors, a collection of industry leaders who are dedicated to promoting diversity in our industry. They have sponsored our programs over the years and provided our attendees with expert advice and job opportunities, including Glenn Cole, CCO at the ever supportive 72andSunny, and recently appointed Board member Mark Tutssel, Global CCO at Leo Burnett, which has supported our Creative Boot Camps for the past six years."