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In 2020, a group of 71 agencies made a three-year pledge to increase Black leadership levels to fall in line with the Black population in the United States—13%. After one year of discussions and work, 22 agencies remained part of the pledge, which Three’s a Crowd, the advocacy group behind the pledge, said is meant to be additive to an agency’s DEI efforts, not to replace it. The pledge requires a buy-in from more than just the head of DEI, but key stakeholders like the CEO.
With the three-year pledge now complete, TAC revealed that after a big jump in Black leadership levels from 2020 to 2021, the group of 22 agencies’ progress collectively stagnated at about 6.5% of leaders identifying as Black. A number of factors led to the stalling out of Black leadership growth, including the economy and not enough investment in building a bigger talent pool in the industry. But TAC co-founder Reonna Johnson is confident that agencies that prioritize DEI programs will see leadership levels grow in time as new, junior talent may take five to seven years to reach leadership ranks if an agency does the work to retain them. Johnson, who was recently elevated to svp of partnership at Deutsch LA, spoke with Adweek about what agencies can learn from the results of the three-year pledge and how they can better back Black talent.
“I call the representation numbers the desert. It’s what you get after you’ve completed the main course. And the main course is changing all that internal stuff that’s going to require people to stay that will eventually be moved into VP roles,” Johnson explained as to why agencies are increasing their overall representation numbers, but not at leadership levels.
The report comes on the heels of a 4A’s study that found that 90% of agency CEOs are white, and there’s a significant drop-off in retention of Black employees after the first two years.
The great stagnation
The final report on the three-year pledge surveyed almost two dozen agencies, spanning large holding company-owned shops like AKQA, Huge and 72andSunny, as well as indie agencies like RPA, Horizon Media and Preacher. In 2020, when these agencies first took the pledge, they self-reported that about 3% of their leaders identified as Black. That number has remained between 6% and 7% since 2021, with the top reason agencies haven’t increased Black leaders in the past year being a lack of preexisting open roles and new opportunities.
While the chart below says “agency downsize as a result of the pandemic/economy” as the top reason, Johnson explained there’s more nuance around that. It’s not that these agencies laid off leaders; it’s more there’s been a lack of open roles and opportunities to elevate anyone, not just Black talent. Johnson said it’s a combination of clients aren’t spending as much, and thus agencies aren’t growing their ranks, with retention rates, which have soared over the past year, meaning fewer roles opened up. With the lack of roles plaguing the whole industry, last year’s top reason agencies gave for not increasing Black leadership levels—retention—dropped from 22% to 11%.
