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Our industry has long predominantly comprised straight, white, able-bodied, middle-class, cis-white men based in London. Advertising exists in a bubble that you are either inside or not. And if you are inside "adland", you instinctively understand how it works, the industry-famous names and reputations of agencies around you. But what if you have no experience at all, how do you get your foot in the door?
For a lot of people, they knew someone who knew someone in the industry, or they had a connection who could help them get an internship.
Before working in advertising, I knew nothing about the industry and even less about how to enter it. It became quickly evident that I had never seen myself represented on screen, only ever seeing white faces and even whiter stories being told. I think the only person I ever saw that looked like me on British television was Gok Wan.
Growing up Asian in a white environment meant I was too Chinese for white spaces but felt almost too white in a Cantonese-speaking household, which is something common to ethnically diverse people . I realised that I was unearthing an industry that previously felt invisible to me. I had no idea how advertising worked, how ads got made or who made them – but I knew I wanted to be a part of it.
For entry-level candidates, not knowing how to get in becomes a barrier to entry. This hugely disadvantages candidates from diverse backgrounds, where these careers don’t seem to exist. This means we end up hiring similar people, with similar backgrounds, and similar upbringings. In the IPA’s Future of Fairness report, statistics show that 92% of jobs in creative agencies are held by advantaged groups and while just 7% of the UK population is privately educated, 20% of those in advertising are, .
Every month we hear more and more about the “talent crunch” in the industry and the Global DEI Census found that 17% of respondents said they were likely to leave their current company because of the lack of inclusion and/or discrimination they had experienced. It’s no surprise that . We’re looking within our own bubble.
We are in a unique position at Wonderhood Studios, working across both TV production and advertising. We recognise that the faces that we see on our screens . Not only this but the people making it should be just as diverse. We also recognise that as an agency and an industry, we need to do more.
So, on top of the creative placement scheme we currently run, we’ll be launching an internship scheme across planning and account management, as well as our new "Foot in the Door" initiative.
Wonderhood employees will be offering up time to speak to entry-level candidates wanting to get into the industry and share how we got our foot in the door. Or even if you’re just curious about the people, the work and the different departments, let us know. If I had someone explain to me what account management was and that a six-sheet was basically a poster at a bus stop, it would have made my journey into the industry a lot clearer.
Eddy Yan is account manager at Wonderhood Studios