The Marcus Graham Project hopes to kill two birds with one stone. First, it hopes to connect promising young African-Americans with opportunities in the fields of advertising and marketing that would otherwise be out of reach. Second, the organization, through its partnerships with major corporations such as AT&T, tries to function as a bridge between corporate America and underserved communities.
Named for the ultra-suave advertising exec portrayed by Eddie Murphy in the 1992 film Boomerang, Marcus Graham is the brainchild of Lincoln Stephens, a former employee of TracyLocke, a Dallas ad agency. Stephens credits a former professor with implanting the idea for an organization that works to foster networks of diverse professionals.
“I noticed that there was an underrepresentation of African-Americans at [my] agency, and specifically African-American males, working in roles outside of the mailroom and accounting and that type of thing,” Stephens said. “As I progressed further in my career, and started reading more about the inner-workings of the industry and so forth, I recognized that diversity was a problem.”
“When I got here, I didn’t really know what to expect,” said intern Chike Onourah of his summer with the Marcus Graham Project. “I think the main difference here is that it’s a very sink-or-swim environment—you basically have to learn a lot of things through trial and error, and honestly that’s a good way to learn for me because it teaches you to think on your feet.”
As interns like Onourah soon discover, Stephens’ unique solution to the diversity problem necessarily involves tossing the not-yet-initiated into the deep end, while the organization advocates for its young charges to the likes of AT&T and other companies who seek an entrée into economically stressed urban areas.
“A lot of times we get involved and consumed within ourselves that we forget to look at some underlying things, a lot of issues,” says intern Denzell Holland about Marcus Graham’s hands-on approach. “[The] organization allowed me to see that some people aren’t skipping over those, but are actually taking the time to go into communities and do some positive things.”
In 2010 Marcus Graham interns have been given the opportunity to cut their teeth on two real marketing initiatives. One is assisting Globe Aware, a nonprofit organization that provides short-term volunteer opportunities in international environments, with marketing and outreach. The other is running a full-service marketing agency called MetaTHINQ, whose operations have included fact-finding trips to Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. to research the technology usage habits (and obstacles to such usage) of ethnically diverse communities.
“They really function from an entrepreneurial perspective, learning how to manage clients, [and] work on projects,” said Stephens. “[For] most of the guys, this is their first time being exposed to working in the industry and working with different professionals at the level we’re exposing them to.”
Both the Globe Aware campaign and MetaTHINQ were hatched as part of the Marcus Graham Project’s iCR8 Boot Camp, the organization’s core program. Geared towards young men between the ages of 18 and 34, the camp offers a 10-week crash course in the advertising and marketing business, both theory and practice. This year’s camp had 18 enthusiastic participants who were eager to take advantage of the opportunity to gain the exposure and experience necessary to solidify their futures within the industry.
“They come to the city of Dallas from around the country and participate in the 10 week-long curriculum of reading different books, industry articles and so forth; going on lunch-and-learn sessions and training sessions with various ad agencies from around the country and specifically near Dallas; and then working on real projects,” Stephens said.
In addition to the handful who have gone through the program, the organization has received wider exposure through its social networking efforts as well as mainstream media coverage in Advertising Age, Ebony, Black Enterprise, Rolling Out, NBC and other outlets. In fact, it was a profile in Advertising Age that caught the attention of Scott Perkins, AT&T’s Senior Vice President of Policy Advertising, which led to the telecom giant coming on board as a partner and sponsor.
“[Scott] sent me an email right before Thanksgiving of last year saying ‘Hey, we saw you on Ad Age, we want to hear more about it, education and diversity are important to AT&T, and we’d like to help figure out a way we can support you guys,’” Stephens recounts.
AT&T’s support has included access to its own P.R. and ad agencies, promotional support, the design of the MetaTHINQ website, strategic planning, and a small stipend for Marcus Graham interns working on AT&T-related projects.
“This project (MetaTHINQ) that we are underwriting with The Marcus Graham Project is really based on us getting a better understanding of the underserved communities,” said Tracy McDade, AT&T’s associate director of Diversity Marketing and a liaison with Marcus Graham. “There’s a lot more for us to learn and gain from partnering with Marcus Graham, which is why we’re undertaking this particular initiative.”
At the heart of MetaTHINQ’s approach is the field research undertaken by its intern-founders. The end result, all parties hope, will be a trove of fresh insight into how ethnically diverse communities might be better served by communications technology. The result of the research will be shared by the Marcus Graham Project and AT&T with other industry professionals and communities to create an enduring resource designed to foster better understanding of technology usage in different parts of the country.
Naturally, a for-profit company such as AT&T must weigh the risks to its bottom line of expanding its reach into less-profitable neighborhoods. The knowledge gleaned through the MetaTHINQ initiative would help AT&T manage that risk more effectively, and make the overall case stronger.
For McDade and her colleagues at AT&T, erasing all doubt about the worthiness of network build-out to the less advantaged requires “getting a better understanding of broadband adoption and technology usage on the whole, and working with the Marcus Graham Project. Those are the things that we’ll get from underwriting this initiative, the cross-country research we’re conducting, and in the end will help us better serve the communities so they can get the benefits of being connected.”
© Dallas Examiner. All rights reserved.
© Dallas Examiner. All rights reserved.
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