In celebration of those accomplishments, MediaVillage will host its annual Advancing Diversity Hall of Honors in January at CES. The ceremony is an opportunity for the advertising and media community to join hands in solidarity and support for diversity and inclusion.
In this installment of the podcast series, MediaVillage's E.B. Moss, head of content strategy, and Ginger Conlon, editor-in-chief, talk with ADCOLOR's Tiffany R. Warren. Before founding ADCOLOR and joining Omnicom, Warren led the multicultural and diversity programs at the 4As and then Arnold Worldwide. Her many honors include the AAAF Pioneer in Diversity Award for Omnicom Group, MAIP/Digitas Multicultural Scholarship Award, and Gladys Prior for Career Teaching Excellence. She discusses the genesis and future of ADCOLOR, how its mission and her work at Omnicom dovetail, and the milestones both have achieved in advancing diversity.
This article is a topline of the conversation. Listen to the podcast to hear why Warren keeps awards "in the basement" and how she helps raise up new ADCOLOR participants, as well as her advice on how to leverage data around diversity to inspire creatives but balance being driven by KPIs. Warren even describes how she lost her "imposter complex" and found a new family.
Please subscribe to the Advancing Diversity Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or watch on YouTube or listen to the entire podcast here, and share widely to help promote more awareness of diversity and inclusion issues and initiatives.
Ginger Conlon: The lucky 13th annual ADCOLOR recently wrapped, give us some of the highlights?
Tiffany R. Warren: This year's theme, Take a Stand, really hit home. Right now, in society, we're being called to take a stand and to be on the right side of things. The constituency that supports ADCOLOR within their companies and agencies strongly believes that taking a stand is what we all have to do — not rely on leaders or government; instead, each of us personally can take a stand … at our companies [and] in our personal lives.
Also, we had 1,300 attendees, including 650 first-time attendees.
The biggest group [of attendees] is African American, and the second biggest group is Caucasian. And that's exciting because we know the group is full of allies and full of people who can make decisions to change culture, including CMOs and CEOs. We actually had a panel where we spoke to [Facebook CMO] Antonio Lucio and [Verizon CMO and 2019 Hall of Honors inductee] Diego Scotti, as well as Carla Hassan, [global chief brand officer] from Citi.
But one of my favorite moments was the conversation with M. Night Shyamalan, the director…. It was unique to have him talk about his immigrant story.
Moss: How did you get inspired to even start ADCOLOR?
Warren: The idea came to me when I was in Boston, before I got my huge break working for the 4As as their manager of diversity programs. I was all of 23 when I approached my friends and said I wanted to start this thing called The Door Group … literally, because I wanted us to open doors for other people. And then engagements happened, marriages happened, and I moved to New York. So, The Door Group didn't open for a little while … but, I still had a mission in mind. As I kept rising up, I wanted to reach back. That turned into the mission of ADCOLOR.
Moss: And what's next for ADCOLOR?
Warren: The sky's the limit. It's really scary. It's like containing a big thing of energy in a bottle that's too small for it.