9934: Save The White Creatives.

Adweek reported Ogilvy & Mather alums Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin are launching a training company for young creative staffers. “With agencies no longer investing time and money to bring people along, it’s pretty much ‘sink or swim,’ and a lot of talented people sink,” declared Vonk. “Careers are stalling, work is suffering, and retention is poor.” Oh, so it’s not just the minority adfolks who require extra training?

Vonk and Kestin Launch Training Consultancy

Ex-O&M creative leaders fill a void in advertising

By Andrew McMains

Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin have turned the dearth of training in the ad industry into a business model.

Vonk and Kestin, co-chief creative officers of the Toronto office of Ogilvy & Mather, are leaving the agency to launch Swim, a company that will help train and nurture creative staffers. The business opens next month.

“With agencies no longer investing time and money to bring people along, it’s pretty much ‘sink or swim,’ and a lot of talented people sink,” Vonk said in a statement. “Careers are stalling, work is suffering, and retention is poor.”

Swim will offer in-person and online training, and incorporate the experiences of leaders from many creatively driven industries. The company will work primarily with agencies. Its first client is the duo’s former employer: Ogilvy.

In unveiling the business, Vonk cited a spring Adweek story that illustrated how a Starbucks barista gets more training than the average agency staffer. That story stemmed from a talent management survey that Arnold global CEO Andrew Benett unveiled at a 4A’s conference in March.

To fill the CCO slot that Vonk and Kestin are vacating, Ogilvy named Ian MacKellar, executive creative director at Canadian independent shop Bensimon Byrne. Earlier in his career, MacKellar was a creative leader at BBDO Toronto.

5999: Investing In The Ruling Majority.

Adweek.com published a fluff piece titled, “Investing in Talent Is as Vital as Ever,” detailing the efforts of Madison Avenue shops to recruit and retain employees via training programs. Of course, there’s zero mention of diversity in the story. Reading between the lines of the first two paragraphs reveals a lot:

In response to massive changes in the ways by which marketers reach consumers, as well as the ongoing cry from chief marketing officers for better integration, some agencies are revamping their training programs. In some cases, the new courses involve tackling actual client briefs.

Agency leaders say the changes are key to attracting and retaining prime talent. And although some shops are cutting staff and other expenses this year amid client spending shifts and declines, a look at a random sample of seven agencies from four holding companies revealed that most are increasing their investments in training. WPP Group’s Grey, for example, spent more than $3 million on global and local efforts last year.

First of all, “the ongoing cry from chief marketing officers for better integration” is a bunch of bullshit. Most CMOs continue to distribute the budgets—and the work—across multiple, unrelated agencies. The clients hold the integration levers, not the adfolks.

But more importantly, Madison Avenue shops have done about as well with professional integration as cultural integration. That is, they completely suck at it. The silos and barriers keeping the industry predominately White are remarkably similar to the silos and barriers keeping the industry professionally segregated—and both sets are fueled by arrogance and ignorance.

Also disturbing are the Madison Avenue executives who constantly whine about an alleged lack of qualified minority candidates whenever the issue of diversity arises. Does this story not clearly admit that even the majority of people currently inhabiting agencies are no longer qualified to meet the demands of a new world? Fortunately, Madison Avenue has a history of taking care of its own. The unqualified White folks will receive extra schooling to keep them ahead of the unqualified minorities.

Finally, it’s worth noting that one of the biggest proponents for training is Omnicom. Let’s hope they fare better in their tutorial programs than their diversity programs. Then again, let’s not.