Diversity Disconnect: Black Talent Perspective

Since 2018, the ANA Educational Foundation (AEF) has conducted an annual study on the disconnects across academia, industry, and talent, specifically new hires and undergraduate students. Previous studies focused on talent, diversity, and analytics. Moving forward, the AEF will use the same research framework while looking at different underrepresented groups: Black, Asian, Hispanic, LGBTQ+ and Disabled.

This study focused on the Black talent perspective interviewing more than 100 industry executives from the marketing and advertising ecosystem; Deans and professors from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority Serving Institutes, and Primarily White Institutes; and students and new hires. The key finding is the significant gap that many Black students face in the level of preparedness when entering into the industry. The study maps the disconnects across this student discovery journey into the marketing and advertising space and has outlined an action plan in closing these gaps.