We Will Do More Update Below
At Tierney, we stand in solidarity with our Black community – our people, our clients, our partners, and our neighbors.
Our intentional commitment to recognize and reject the persistence of racism in our world has given us the foundation to have an open and meaningful dialogue during what has been an incredibly difficult time for our employees, for the markets we do business in, and for our country. But language alone cannot resolve the failures we have made as a society against fighting systemic racism. We must do better.
Last year, our employees created and signed a Diversity + Inclusion Pledge to hold ourselves accountable to pursuing diversity in our people and inclusion in our culture. In moments like this one, that Pledge also reminds us of our ability and responsibility to stand up to racism and bias, whether blatant or implicit, with additional action.
- Commit to financial contributions via our parent company, Interpublic Group (IPG) to national organizations including the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, Amnesty International and Campaign Zero. At Tierney, we will make financial donations in the communities we serve to local youth-based organizations.
- Support local Black-owned and diverse businesses by offering up to 500 Tierney hours this year in advertising and marketing consultation to help rebuild the fabric and culture of our community.
- Better reflect the Black community in the work we do via diverse casting requirements and expanded vendor partners; we will offer Tierney’s platform to elevate their work and grow their own networks as well.
- Build a scholarship fund and year-long shadow program to grant Black undergraduate students who are pursuing a communications or creative career the means and access to thrive as young professionals in this industry. The application process will be launched on our website in Winter 2020 for the Spring 2021 Semester.
- Increase our Black talent hire goal to 15% in 2021 in concert with efforts being made within our parent company, IPG, as well as within the marketing and advertising industry.
This is only the beginning. We are talking, listening, teaching, training, and acting. We are investing, working, sharing, and changing. And we acknowledge that we may falter along the way, but we will hold each other accountable to drive progress.
Now, let’s get to work.
Mary Austen, Debra Griffin and Tracey Santilli
Update on Tierney’s Actions for Change, Fall 2020
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable.” We owe our community an update. Over the past few months, we set out to bring our action plan to life. With the commitment and dedication of our leadership team and over 100 employees, work groups were created to advance each commitment we made and elevate the agencywide conversation. Below is a snapshot of our progress to date. We continue to challenge ourselves to do the work and hold ourselves accountable to help bring forth change. So, please continue to check back for more updates in the coming months.
Actions for Change Progress Updates- Hosting agency programming to heighten dialogue around systemic racism and create a safe space for tough discussions including monthly “Community Corner” forums hosted by Shavon Norris, Adjunct Professor at Temple University
- Participated in bias trainings and topical workshops hosted by our parent company, Interpublic Group (IPG)
- Established independent and community learning opportunities with Begin Again author Professor Eddie Glaude and hosted a Book Club to facilitate dialogue
- Ideated and landed on 2-pronged approach comprised of both financial and experiential awards to provide the most holistic value for recipients
- Identified and in conversation with target schools to share criteria, nomination process and recruitment efforts from which to draw candidates for impactful partnership
- Developing the nomination submission paperwork to distribute to target schools for recruitment of qualified candidates
- Launching nominations Winter 2020 for award in the Spring 2021 semester
- Committed to supporting Mighty Writers and Coded by Kids with financial donations
- Working directly with selected organizations to solidify donations and exploring partnership opportunities
- Developed a series of free workshops with topics related to the advertising industry, like paid and social media, strategy, and brand guidelines to commence late 2020 and continue throughout 2021
- Exploring partnerships with organizations that serve Black-owned and diverse businesses to expand our reach to potential attendees
- Continuing to strengthen our relationship with various HBCU’s through participation and sponsorship of career fairs and virtual classroom presentations, including working directly with Campus Philly
- Made several new hires and still actively recruiting to increase Black talent
- Utilizing new diversity resources and talent databases to attract Black talent (e.g., blkcreatives and hbcuconnect.com, etc.)
- Creating a diverse vendor database to engage with and share with client partners more intentionally
- Planning agency-all virtual showcase series for diverse partners to present their capabilities across departments and client teams for increased partnership opportunities
- Exploring new innovative and meaningful ways to spend with diverse paid media partners in support of various client initiatives