Talent Trailblazer Award winner revealed

John Doe Group’s Unlocked Internship Programme has won Marketing Week and the Advertising Association’s Talent Trailblazer Award celebrating the organisations and individuals opening the industry up to new talent.

Launched in summer 2023, the programme aims to kickstart opportunities for emerging talent looking to join the UK’s creative industries, based on insight young people from low-income backgrounds are massively underrepresented.

Applications are based on passion rather than experience and prioritise applicants from low-income backgrounds and non-white ethnicities. Interest has already exceeded expectations, attracting 100 applicants in 2023 and 313 in 2024.

In year one, John Doe Group and a team of seven partners opened up eight paid internship opportunities with the likes of broadcaster STV, Leith Agency and brewer Tennent’s. In year two, the agency started working with 17 partners to deliver 20 internships across Glasgow and Edinburgh.

I want the Talent Trailblazer Award to inspire others to think differently about recruitment.

Russell Parsons, Marketing Week

The internships and workshops run from June to October, after which the interns receive final feedback from partners ahead of a celebration wrap party. Due to the level of interest, the workshop programme was launched offering upskilling programmes across Glasgow and Edinburgh, open to anyone who applied to the scheme and wasn’t awarded an internship.

So far, one intern earned full-time employment at the agency they interned for, while three went into further education and the remaining found full-time jobs.

“John Doe Group’s internship programme is a case study others can learn from,” says Russell Parsons, Marketing Week editor-in-chief.

“I want the Talent Trailblazer Award to inspire others to think differently about recruitment. And in our winner, we have a team that is innovative and successful in opening up opportunities to those who wouldn’t ordinarily consider a career in marketing services.”

The award was judged by a panel including Giffgaff CEO Ash Schofield; Sharon Lloyd Barnes, commercial director and inclusion lead at the Advertising Association; Grace Blue CEO Sarah Skinner; Ewen McPherson, group chief people officer, Havas; and Richie Booker, head of diversity and belonging at Hearst.

Celebrating success

Highly commended for the Talent Trailblazer Award is WYK Digital, for its programme designed to break down barriers to careers in media.

A digital skills social enterprise, WYK Digital prepares diverse talent for marketing careers through free skills training programmes, commissioned by The Prince’s Trust, Greater London Authority and Department for Education. The focus is on supporting young people to realise their career potential, while helping businesses de-risk hiring entry-level talent.

Trainees receive more than 120 hours of live tuition in their chosen discipline and are then supported into employment once the scheme ends.

Since January 2023, WYK has trained more than 440 young people across performance marketing, UX, SEO, analytics and CRM. More than 70% of trainees are from minority communities and over 60% have no degree education.

Three other companies were shortlisted for the prize. Vantage Partnerships was recognised for its Vantage Talent inclusion and development programme, spanning an apprenticeship scheme for young individuals from diverse backgrounds, school outreach programmes and partnership initiatives.

The Marketing Academy Foundation was shortlisted for its BeTheOne bootcamp programme, offering free employability skills workshops to help young talent from diverse socio-economic backgrounds improve their success rate in the job market.

Over the past 18 months alone, the foundation has hosted 10 bootcamps with 63 attendants and built a bank of 30 senior marketing/recruiting volunteers.

The shortlist is rounded off by The Cameron Day Charitable Trust, formed in 2022 in memory of Cam Day, an award-winning graphic design student from the University of Lincoln who died of Covid in 2021.

The charity seeks to continue his legacy by supporting graphic design students studying in the East Midlands (where Cameron was from) at De Montfort University, the University of Derby, the University of Lincoln, Loughborough University, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Northampton.

To date, 12 students have each received £500 to help them get the most out of their studies or start their careers.

Marketing Week has been calling on the industry to act on democratising marketing careers, increasing access to more people, from more diverse backgrounds in its long-running Opening Up series.

Marketing Week’s Opening Up campaign is pushing for the democratisation of marketing careers. Read all the articles from the series so far here.