"Talent comes from everywhere": Karen Blackett on diversity and how to make it in advertising

Like any kid growing up in the 1970s in a quiet town (Reading, in her case), Karen Blackett watched television. But unlike other kids, she looked forward to the ad break. “I would sit there and I would try to come up with something which I thought was more creative,” she recalls. “But I had no idea that that was an industry, or how to get into it.” The daughter of working-class Barbadian immigrants, worlds away from Madison Avenue, she realised only after graduating university that she could turn her fascination into a career. 

Twenty-five years later, she is arguably the most influential agency leader in the UK. In 2018, she was promoted as WPP’s first country manager here, becoming “cheerleader and guardian”, as she puts it, to 17,000 employees and a more than £2-billion operation. As a black woman at the pinnacle of her industry, she is also a prominent advocate for equal opportunity and was named race equality business champion by former Prime Minister Theresa May. We talked about her career path, how the industry is changing and her advice for young starters. This conversation was edited and condensed. 

Advertising was more of a boys’ club when you started and you stood out. Has that changed?

I remember joining a top-three agency. There were amazing, talented women, but they weren't running the agency. They weren't at the board level. It was predominantly white, middle-class men. Our industry is 50% male-female, but when it comes to the senior leadership roles, it's 36% female. When I started in the industry, it wasn't even 36%. Genuinely, there was one woman running an agency, which was Christine Walker. So, it has changed from the early 1990s. 

Is it changing quickly enough?

I think there are more conversations happening. Having to publish their gender pay gap report (per a 2017 law in the UK) has made people focus. We are a long way behind when it comes to ethnicity. Less than 8% of the industry in the UK is anybody from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background. The bulk of our agencies are in London, and the BAME population in London is over 40%! That's just not right. And I haven't even got on to disability, cognitive diversity, age diversity… 

You mentioned the gender pay gap reporting rules. Would you want an ethnic pay gap report as well?

I do think progressive government legislation tends to focus the mind. When you measure something, people then start taking it seriously. Modern Britain is a brilliant fruit salad of people. If you can get everybody working, and if you can get everybody progressing, that's a good thing for UK productivity. The McGregor-Smith review quoted that if you could get the same attainment level in terms of employment for ethnic minorities in the UK as the dominant white population, you could add another £24bn to the UK GDP. What's not to want about that?

So you're arguing for diversity as a business imperative?

Absolutely. It is good for the soul, it's the right thing to do, but actually it is about future-proofing your business. To build that empathy, understand what would motivate somebody to choose one brand or one product over another, you have to have walked in their shoes. It is a business imperative if you want to grow and succeed. 

In order to do that, you were an early advocate for apprenticeships. Why choose that route?

Talent comes from everywhere. It doesn't just come from a certain section of society. I was really concerned that, as an industry, we only tended to recruit graduates, and graduates from maybe five or six universities at best. I was really worried that with tuition fees, not everybody was going to be able to afford to go to university. The thought of going into debt in order to study, it is alien to so many first-generation ethnic minorities. I was really worried that we were going to have a talent drought in our industry, and not reflect the society in which we serve. It's an approach that we have for all of our pipeline recruitment now — making sure that we advertise advertising. 

What advice would you give to a young person trying to make their way in? 

You need to really want it, first of all. I specifically look for people that are interesting and interested. Read up on the industry. I want to know about your favourite campaign. I want people to have a viewpoint and an opinion. And apply for everything. I got thousands of rejections before I got in. Apply to everything. Something will stick.

A version of this interview is published in the November 2019 issue of Delta Sky magazine. The interview was held in June 2019 (print deadlines...) #5MinutesWith