Underrepresented talent shadows on commercial shoots—behind a nascent DE&I training program

WorkInProgress is inviting the industry to join its initiative that brings underrepresented talent onto commercial production sets, aiming to inspire them to enter the industry. Following three successful shoots in partnership with its client Domino’s within the past 18 months, the Boulder, Colorado-based agency is encouraging more brands and agencies to sign on. The first participant in the Opening Shot program was Alena Cuebas, who didn’t have an advertising background and was working as a bartender when she connected with someone from the agency. She attended the shoot for a Domino’s carryout tips ad that aired early last year. Since then, Cuebas has enrolled at the Denver Ad School. “It sincerely changed my path for the future and created a solid foundation for my future in the advertising industry,” Cuebas said in a statement. “I am leaving this experience knowing way more than I walked into it.” Recent news: Entry-level job seekers face bleak prospects Diversity within the industry continues to be low and it has become harder for agencies to retain and train junior talent amid continued economic pressures. Matt Talbot, WIP’s co-founder and chief creative officer, said ad schools and undergraduate programs are “financial barriers” for many who might be interested in advertising. “There’s always so much conversation about diverse hiring practices and hiring more diversity,” Talbot said. “You can try to hire more diverse talent from who is [already] in the industry, but the way we make this industry more diverse is by having more diverse people enter the industry.” See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Creativity Award winners here Storyboarding to final edits Talbot said the idea came out of a brief given to the entire agency to recruit more diverse talent to the industry, the agency and Boulder itself. Morgan Collins, WIP’s group account director, came up with an idea that eventually became Opening Shot. The goal is to have the participants become part of the end-to-end process of a shoot, Talbot said. They are brought on to shadow the agency during the storyboarding process, wardrobe fittings, client events or meetings, are on-site during the shoot and get a look at first edits and the final product. WIP invested $130,000 to launch the program, including costs for designing and building the website, writing the terms and agreements, leading outreach, managing participants and following up after the program. Participants are not paid. So far, the agency and Domino’s have split the cost of travel expenses including flights, hotel and meals, which amounted to an average of $3,000 per shoot. The program is aimed at diverse participants who don’t always have an advertising background. “What’s scary about any industry, including advertising, is people want to have a job out of school they want to hit the ground running,” Talbot said adding that the agency aims to find people who don’t know a ton about advertising. “At any given time it’s more difficult to find a job out there. So there’s a lot of those private, pragmatic questions around ‘How did you get in?’ And ‘How did you make it into this?’ I can speak to that creatively, and others can speak to it in other paths.” Each shoot varies. Cuebas, for example, was at a shoot in Los Angeles; the program’s second participant, Lina Duchene, was flown to Atlanta for a three-day shoot for an ad promoting Domino’s electric delivery vehicles. The initiative’s latest participant, Justice McWilliams, attended a shoot that took place in Ann Arbor, Michigan—where Domino’s is based—over five days. ‘How do you make change?’ Kate Trumbull, chief brand officer at Domino’s, said the decision to have Domino’s involved was a “no-brainer” and confirmed plans to have Opening Shot involved in more of the company’s shoots this year. “When they brought this forward it was honestly a simple but brilliant idea,” said Trumbull, who attended some of the shoots with the participants (and appears in the ad shot in Ann Arbor). “There’s a lot of industries that you look around, and you’re like, ‘Why isn’t this diverse?’ Then you ask yourself, ‘How do you make change?’ You make change by getting talented people in the door.” Right now, the program is geared toward people 18 and older. An unexpected result of the program was the ongoing mentorship once the program finished. “Someone can learn things from the shoot—[but then] what happens next?” said Talbot, adding that people from WIP have engaged beyond the shoots, offering participants advice on their books, for example. The agency is also working with 100 Roses from Concrete, an organization that aims to create a network for people of color to find jobs within the industry and collaborate. The organization’s founder, Keni Thacker, sits on WIP’s DE&I board and helped advise the agency on getting the program started, including helping find recruits when the initiative was in its beta phase. 100 Roses will also help with future recruitment. Talbot said WIP would help agencies or brands interested in becoming part of the program with vetting and connecting them with applicants. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

Underrepresented talent shadows on commercial shoots—behind a nascent DE&I training program

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