Closing the opportunity gap for Black talent in America

After George Floyd’s murder, Americans demanded action from politicians, celebrities and companies alike. But two and a half years later, critics question whether commitments to equity were genuine or just lip service.

Some of the biggest names in business are keeping their promise, with OneTen – a coalition of CEOs and their companies, including Fortune 100 companies like Walmart, General Motors and Cisco. Steered by CEO Maurice Jones, with Co-Chairs Ken Frazier and Ginni Rometty, OneTen has united top executives and leaders from across the business world through a shared goal of closing the racial wealth gap for Black individuals.

As a new organization, founded in 2020, OneTen sought to build brand awareness among Black talent without four-year degrees in the United States and successfully connect them to family-sustaining jobs at scale. The biggest challenge: overcoming the audience’s potential skepticism of the corporate world.

Leveraging BPI’s brand-building expertise, OneTen launched its first multichannel digital campaign to support the rollout for OneTen’s first-of-its-kind career marketplace platform designed specifically for Black talent.

The anchor theme, Where I’m Meant To Be, leans into the aspiration that so many under-employed people share: a rewarding career based on skills –not a degree–that pays well and offers opportunity for advancement. To capture this, creative portrayed a fulfilling, modern workplace that supports them and their career.

OneTen has proven it’s more than corporate grandstanding. Its online platform features close to  7,000 job postings, and the campaign has driven more than 15,000 new qualifying leads– a promising start to its goal of connecting one million Black job-seekers without four-year degrees with family-sustaining careers by 2030.