Black MBA - Spring 2008 - (Page 26)

COVER STORY Blacks in Advertising R M: We said that if we didn’t adopt a platform for diversity, we wouldn’t be able to produce the kind of work that would allow us to advise our clients the way we needed to. So if you think about this study, this is now a means by which we advise our clients of what they should be thinking about for multicultural segments. It serves this business purpose. When you ask, ‘How does this study help?’ it now provides a platform in the marketplace for the media partner community. I can go to a conference of television programmers and have a conversation with [the community] and say, ‘We need to increase the amount of content that’s coming in,’ which means either there are people out there who are producing content today who will now be able to sell it more easily, or it opens the door for other kinds of partnerships or people to develop content. This is one of the external components. The second external component is figuring out how we as management participate in the different communities that we live in and work in and how we support ventures that increase diversity from this standpoint. Then we have two internal focus areas. One is workforce – who are we hiring? Which internships? Who do we bring in? How are we looking at these people? How are we looking at the staff and the distribution of staff by different groupings over time and based on business need? The other is workplace – when individuals show up, what happens to them? How do their careers progress? Where do they go? So we actually have a fourpronged platform, which the research study addresses, because it has an indirect, internal effect as well. It was designed to be external and to go to clients and the media sales community. Internally, though, it now is a means for people to understand this segment easier. It makes the segment more approachable, if you will. BT: What’s the benefit here? R M: By making [the audience] less homogenous, you can develop understanding. Hopefully, this will make it easier to have conversations with the new media partners that will show up. So it does have an indirect, internal benefit as well. But the study is not supposed to directly impact hiring. It just isn’t required to. It shouldn’t carry this burden because it has enough burdens already. BT: Prior to this study coming out, most people had the impression that the study would address hiring in the advertising industry. Is this true? RM: That was never our primary intent, although we have said from the beginning that we wanted to elevate the debate about diversity in our industry. We believe lack of diversity is a symptom of a larger issue, which is how we value multicultural communities in our work and in our messaging, and the first step in valuing these individuals is to fully understand them. Our study gets clients in the broader advertising community to really think about how they’re looking at Blacks as a marketing segment, to revisit this and have permission to re-identify the opportunity that we see is there. You may have a bunch of MBAs who want to go into content production, and [the study] will be a platform for them to do this with. I would also be remiss if I didn’t say that there’s a lot of controversy over this issue in the industry. For instance, we are going to partner with Nielsen to get this information into the Nielsen rating system so that there can be better identification of which programs do or don’t reach different segments where there might be gaps in content. The measure I’m trying to work toward is census ratings. If you think about set-top boxes, the digital age, video on demand or anything that’s interactive – assuming we’ve paid proper respect to privacy laws – I should be able to know who’s interacting with media, and when and where – maybe not to the same granularity as people who fill in diaries or have people meters, but eventu- going to show up in television? Is it going to show up in broadband? And you’re thinking of which consumers. But even to this point, if I switch to your definition of where, it’s hard for me to understand that any marketer who’s going to treat the Black community as a monolith would know the right ‘where’ 10 years from now. You could never follow the thrivals, for instance. You might not even know they’re there, so how could you follow them? According to Nat, and I believe him, they’re the next generation and they’re going to shape their environment in their own fashion. So, for example, if the sweet spot on their age right now is 25, 10 years from now they’ll be 35. But if you didn’t start following them as an ad target when they were 25, you still may miss them when they’re 35. BT: So how does the study address their different groups? RM: The power of this research is to say, here is the variety – some are young and some are old. They relate to advertising and messaging differently, so you as a marketer/advertiser have to be willing to create different messaging to go to them, as well as support the development of different content that resonates with them. BT: The question that comes to my mind is, how will this study impact the fact that we’re looking at having a more diverse workforce in the advertising industry? How does it help change this? How are we addressing this issue? RM: It can indirectly do this because as multicultural or ethnic populations grow, it’s my contention – and people will argue with me vociferously – that agencies are going to need on their staff or in their employee base people who have firsthand knowledge of what resonates because sometimes you have to live the insight rather than read or be told the insight. Part of what we’ve done as a company with this study is to make the business case for diversity, which a lot of companies don’t do. BT: How does the study help make the case for diversity? 26 BlackMBA • Spring 2008 • www.nbmbaa.org http://www.nbmbaa.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Black MBA - Spring 2008

Black MBA - Spring 2008 Passion, Purpose and Power Contents Web Browsing From the President & CEO Up Front Advertising for Change CEO to CEO: Straight Talk with Barbara L. Thomas and Renetta McCann The New Executive Search Wealth Building: A Head Start on Investing and Saving Young Continuing Education: Lifelong Learning is Easier than You Think Making Good: Catching up with some of NBMBAA’s 2007 Scholarship Winners On Campus: Universities Win Grants to Fight Poverty Public Service: Does Your MBA Fit in the Government Sector? Bridge Building: Make a Career of Giving Back Steady Speed: Kim Harris Jones Shares what Drives a Successful Auto Industry Career Financial Planning: A New Way to Work Your MBA Global Focus: Keeping up with the Competition Clock On the Move: Member News, Promotions and More Industry Focus: Biotechnology, Energy, Food & Beverage, Global Media and Entertainment Employer Profiles: Campbell Soup, FINRA Financial Finesse: Denise Hales Harrod and CompuCredit Advocate for the Financially Underserved Creating Lasting Change: GE Impacts Quality of Life in Africa William W. Wells Jr.: Finding Strength in Diversity Leaders of Tomorrow® Community Service Program: NBMBAA® and Wal-Mart Partner to Reward Students Who Give Back Reaching Out: NBMBAA® Chapters Give Back to Their Local Communities How To… Buy a Franchise: Understanding the Basics of Acquiring a Franchise After the Gridiron: Keith Sims – Dunkin’ Donuts Franchise Confidential: Paul Hubbard – Papa John’s pizza Strength Through Adversity: Bob and Hortense Bobbitt – McDonald’s On the Ground Floor: Valerie Daniels-Carter – Pizza Hut, Burger King, Auntie Anne’s Use Your Superstar Status: Black Entrepreneurs Break into Japanese Economy Marketing Maven: Odyssey Media Entrepreneur Linda Spradley Dunn Staying the Course: Black Marathoners Share Lessons from the Race Relationship Forum: Soul-Mate Strategies for the Career-Minded Vacations that Matter: Travel to Make a Difference Advertisers Index

Black MBA - Spring 2008

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