David Tann, founder and CEO of Tantrum Agency in Atlanta, never pursued a career in education—but he keeps coming back to it anyway.
Tann, who has years of experience in marketing for brands ranging from Abercrombie & Fitch to the Atlanta Hawks, is an adjunct professor and lecturer at the Miami Ad School’s Atlanta campus. He also used to substitute teach while in college at Wake Forest University, where he met Dr. Nakesha Dawson, marketing coordinator for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina.
Together, they’re working to bridge the racial and economic divides in marketing by training students–one high school class at a time.
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A few years ago, Dawson said she was on Instagram when she saw some of the talks Tann was giving to high school and college students: “I was like, ‘Okay, David’s doing all these amazing things. I wonder what that would look like if he could bring some of these things into our classroom and give our students those experiences?’”
After sitting in on one of Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s marketing classes, Tann said he noticed much of what was being taught was out-of-date or strictly conceptual. “[Teachers] would talk about these key words or definitions or terms. And I would sit there, and I’m like, ‘I’ve been doing this for 15 years. I have no idea what that is.’”
To bridge the gap, Tantrum developed workbooks and exercises under the name “Lacuna” (which literally means “gap”) for the 2020-2021 school year as an addendum to the district's level-three marketing course. The goal, Tann said, was to “still be able to address the things that are theoretical, but also bring them to life so that the students can actually see how they actually really work in the real-world environment.”
For instance, students could look at case studies (like Adidas’ work with Beyoncé), as well as learn about newer marketing concepts, like micro-influencers and cookies.
Teachers deemed the program a success, so much so that they asked Tann to create a full-fledged class specifically focused on digital marketing. The state of North Carolina approved a semester-long course, and it is now offered as an elective to juniors and seniors at seven high schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district. The goal, Dawson said, is to prepare students for life after high school, whether that’s straight to a marketing career or college major.
“That was the whole purpose of creating this class is because it’s something that no one else in the state offers, and that it was going to get our students exposure and allow them to set themselves apart because it makes them different,” she said. Part of achieving that includes requiring real-life certifications offered by Adobe and Google in the curriculum, as well as giving students projects they can use to build a portfolio.
Clearing the path
Tann said increasing diversity in advertising is the “whole focus” behind the program. “It’s undeniable that these communities of color are setting the trends and the culture that everyone has been benefiting off of and using in their marketing, etc. And so when you look at that, there’s actually very few of those individuals that actually get to reap the rewards of the culture that they’re influencing.”
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The Association of National Advertisers’ 2021 Diversity Report found that “the client-side marketing community is 69.2 percent white,” with both Black and Hispanic representation below their make-up in the total US population.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools are predominantly Black and majority-minority, with about a quarter of students identifying as white, according to the district’s latest diversity report.
The first step in helping these students break into the marketing industry, Tann said, is removing knowledge barriers that prevent them from pursuing creative careers. One way Tantrum addressed this is by adding advertising job titles, descriptions, and average salaries to course materials. Tann said it’s as much for the kids as for their parents, who may not know that these jobs exist or pay as much as they do.
“You can’t want to be what you don’t see,” he said, adding that it can be hard for BIPOC children, specifically, to envision themself in a role until someone in their community breaks through. That’s why he said he feels compelled to help teach them about these opportunities.
Dawson said she wants marketers to be “shocked, amazed, and surprised” by what they see when they look at a Charlotte-Mecklenburg student’s resume or portfolio–and, hopefully, hire them full-time or as an intern.
For incoming students, Dawson said she’s hoping to partner with businesses that could help students develop portfolio samples. She also wants to expand offerings to include sports-marketing and event-planning classes.
Tann said he envisions making a more interactive, digital version of the current course where the curriculum could be updated to reflect the latest collab or campaign in real-time. He also said he’s open to creating partnerships with more schools down the line. For now, he said, he’s just focused on getting this one right.