Hasta La Creative!

Some people simply talk and others do. Tiffany R. Warren belongs to the latter category. When she tired of seeing the same groups being honored year after year at advertising awards shows, Warren took it upon herself to create a space to celebrate diversity in the advertising, marketing, PR and entertainment industries. Now in its 10th year, ADCOLOR has grown to include myriad events and programs aimed to not only champion diverse professionals in these industries, but also to truly prepare them to soar in careers with longevity and purpose. The theme of the 2014 ADCOLOR Awards and Industry Conference, taking place Sept. 17-20 in Beverly Hills, Calif.,  is “We Are Here” to further drive home the point that these industries are rife with diverse talent. This year’s awards will honor Judy Smith, founder and president of Smith & Company (aka Scandal‘s Olivia Pope) and Charles King, partner/agent in the Motion Picture Department at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.

“I always felt compelled to do something that was of service. That’s just a family trait. My family is full of teachers and daycare providers and people that just give back. We have some sort of DNA thing going on,” Warren shares. Her altruistic gene must be strong because in addition to the transformative work she does in her roles with Omnicom and ADCOLOR, she serves on the boards for several organizations such as Ghetto Film School and GLAAD and somehow finds the time to mentor 126 people. You read that right. One hundred and twenty-six people.

Here, learn what it takes to be a true agent of change and find out Warren’s thoughts on the current state of diversity in the advertising industry.

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The Onion.com, known for its deadpan humor and mock-news network, has been expanding beyond its namesake site. Onion Inc. now boasts The A.V. Club, its entertainment-based sister site and Onion Labs, its advertising/marketing layer.

Onion Labs has created campaigns for everyone from Microsoft to Ford to Home Depot. Mike McAvoy, president of The Onion, recently talked with Mediabistro about this new branch of the company. McAvoy says: “It became our pitch really as a business [to] evolve with the whole native-advertising movement, as well as advertisers’ decision to change how they tried to reach millennials.” McAvoy talks about the most successful campaign they’d had so far:

I think we’ve had quite a few that have been good and have gotten good plays. We haven’t had the Old Spice viral campaign just yet, you know, where we’ve gotten 100 million [hits]. But we’ll let you know when we do. I think our most successful piece, our most viewed piece was [an] April Fool’s joke for YouTube [last year about the social-media site selecting the best video on YouTube], which has been seen by [over 11 million people]. We do a lot of work that is behind the scenes, white label or work for hire, where we’re creating content for a brand and the audience, or the world, doesn’t know it.

To hear more from McAvoy, including how he deals with native ads on his own site, read: So What Do You Do, Mike McAvoy, President of The Onion?

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