Blake Winfree & Erin Swenson Gorrall

MullenLowe

Creative Director Blake Winfree and Director of Communications Planning Erin Swenson were having a lot of great conversations about diversity in the ad industry but were frustrated that they were just that—conversations. After taking their discussions to SXSW with a panel called “Can Creativity Trump Racism?”, they were invited to present at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2016. Rather than just reiterating the panel’s content to a bigger audience, they seized the opportunity of a global stage to introduce an actionable diversity program and invite the entire industry to join.

They assembled a team in MullenLowe’s Boston office and launched the 25forty Project (25fortyproject.com) with the goal of exposing 1,000 students to advertising as a career (25 agencies working with 40 students each). The initiative is based on the realization that, whether due to a lack of awareness or of opportunity, young people from diverse backgrounds are not aspiring to careers in advertising.

Blake, Erin, and Account Executive Bayla Werman drove 25Forty to a successful inaugural year with seven agencies raising their hands to participate, each executing a creative campaign and/or a speaker series in collaboration with a local school.

MullenLowe Boston partnered with Boston Arts Academy and the Record Co., a nonprofit music incubator, which resulted in the campaign “Boston Music Is” and the original song and music video “Feels Like Home,” which won Video of the Year (Unsigned Artist) at the Boston Music Awards 2017.

Campaigns were judged by industry professionals and the winning schools, partnered with Crispin Porter Bogusky, Pereira & O’Dell and MullenLowe, were awarded a $10,000 donation.

The relationships forged, awareness generated, and effects on the schools’ communities were extraordinary and set up the team for an even stronger second year, which is already in progress.