The Future of Marketing Looks Like This

Last week I had the privilege of graduating Verizon’s inaugural class of AdFellows. I stared into the eyes of 19 young people – most of whom never thought they’d have a shot to make it to New York City, let alone land a job in the marketing industry – and I saw something.

I saw Angel Mora, a wonderful young man who spoke about his life-changing journey from South Central Los Angeles to a full-time position at Verizon’s in-house agency, 140, and Elissa McCool, who moved from a small town in Mississippi and is now going to live her dream of being a PR person “in the big city.” I saw tears and hugs between mentors and mentees. I saw proud new bosses welcoming the newest additions to their teams. I saw progress. Real progress.

When we launched this program in the fall of 2017, it was in response to the industry’s lack of diverse talent and the need to build a more inclusive environment. Verizon and several other companies with billion-dollar marketing budgets had already started to drive change, issuing a challenge to ourselves and our agencies to build marketing, advertising, and PR teams that look like our customers.

The results were good: nearly a third of leadership positions on our account were filled by people of color, up from under ten percent, and over half were women, up slightly. And at Verizon’s in-house agency, 140, new hires included 41 percent people of color and 53 percent women.

But that wasn’t enough. We had to go a step further and dream bigger and better.

We built AdFellows from the ground up around six key elements: fair pay and paid living expenses, strong curriculum, meaningful work, deep mentoring and networking opportunities, rotations to explore every aspect of the business, and strong employment prospects upon completion.

And now, eight months and four work rotations later, the fellows have exceeded even our wildest expectations. They’ve developed inspiring work, created lasting relationships with their peers and mentors, and gotten to work alongside some of the best in the business at Weber Shandwick, McCann, Momentum Worldwide, Rauxa, Zenith Optimedia and Verizon.

The result is an inaugural AdFellows class that built their skills and reached our goal of 90 percent landing full-time, permanent jobs at either Verizon or our partner agencies.

This is a milestone and it wasn’t by chance or luck. It was the result of true commitment – not only on the part of the fellows, but on the part of Verizon and our agency partners. Instead of just talking, we put our money, and time and businesses on the line. We made diversity a priority and enacted real change. And this must continue.

The marketing and advertising industry has a unique power to connect with people. And with this power comes the responsibility to act and build a bridge for the diverse, talented voices who don’t have the credential’s or network’s that traditionally help people find their first jobs.

And that’s why I am calling on all CMOs of Fortune 25 companies to join us. It’s as simple as inviting one AdFellow in for one rotation and opening a door to them that will be life-changing. You’ll see what I saw last week. And I promise you, it will also be life-changing for you, your employees and your business.