These Women Are On A Mission To Elevate More Asian Leaders Within The Advertising Industry

Asians in Advertising (AIA) is the brainchild of ad agency executives Bernice Chao and Jessalin Lim. The organization, created in March 2021, is a resource that creates opportunities to elevate Asians to higher leadership positions across the industry. Both Chao and Lim had noticed the absence of employee resource groups, spaces or platforms that focused specifically on the underrepresentation of Asians in the field of advertising, and wanted to create that space. Now, through events, conferences and a mentorship platform, they have created a place for bold questions, advice and open discussions about the issues that the Asian community faces across the industry.

Chao is now the Creative Director at R/GA, and Lam is the VP of Member Development and Diversity at the trade organization Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).  

Amy Shoenthal: How did you two come together to create this organization?

Jessalin Lim: We met in a Zoom sidebar chat of an Ascend webinar on leadership in January 2021 and I put my LinkedIn profile in the chat. Bernice reached out, and since we live on opposite coasts, we decided to get a virtual coffee. 

Bernice Chao: Jessalin is very bold, a lot bolder than me. I’m an introverted creative person, but I bought this URL three years ago and I reached out to Jessalin to see if she wanted to help co-found Asians in Advertising. She’s involved in so many groups I didn’t even know were out there like Advertising Women of NY (now called She Runs It,) Ad Color, and more. I worked with only one woman leader in my entire career. And she was a woman who played in the boys club, she wasn’t into helping advance other women. So I had never really found my group. When I met Jessalin I was like, you’re doing so much stuff, you’re so active, I want you to be my friend. After we talked, I built out the website in two days, posted something on LinkedIn and it instantly got 25,000 views. People really cared. It also happened the week of the Atlanta shooting, so it had that extra groundswell of people looking for ways to support our community. 

Shoenthal: Tell me about the path from idea to actually starting the organization.

Lim: The idea of the organization was brought on by our shared experience as AAPI in the workforce and fueled by the uprising of Asian hate during the pandemic. It was time to do something that addressed that head on. We have a real opportunity to change the industry right now.

Chao: We’re trying to help more Asians find visibility in the workplace. We’re tired of hearing from people that they’re the “token Asian.” We’re also focused on advancement. So many minorities get hired to organizations at the bottom because they’re inexpensive. It’s a lot easier to get in at that level but we’re seeing a lot of problems with advancement. Last, we’re focused on spotlighting talent, because I believe that if you see people who look like you, you believe you can do it too.

Shoenthal: You now have over 1,000 members worldwide after only a few months of being in existence. What do you think led to such rapid growth?

Chao: It’s been incredible to see the organic growth in our community and even more surprisingly how it resonates with people across the world. There’s a real need for Asians to come together for support, resources, and opportunities. We have started to see other organizations include us in their resources, as well as some advertising leaders re-share our posts. We have a very active community that has been giving us feedback such as “I finally feel seen and heard” and most commonly “I wish I had this when I was coming up in my career.” 

Shoenthal: Were there any setbacks on your journey to forming this organization?

Chao: Our organization is a product of hustle. We both have full time jobs and are part of multiple initiatives, so we have to maximize our available hours. That’s why when we get an idea we are immediately iterating in shared documents. We are excited to have recently formed a board with nine members and are currently filing for non profit status.  

Lim: Culturally, we don’t like to share our deficit. We want to save face, we don’t want to ask for help. You kind of think you’re going through it alone. As women we take on that burden and can’t let those cracks show. Hosting our leadership series and hearing C-Suite level women talk vulnerably about feeling imposter syndrome, feeling like they had to change faces to fit in was so helpful. By doing this, they’re opening the door for the next wave of people coming in, making them feel like they belong in the room.  

Shoenthal: Do you have any anecdotes or case studies to share that demonstrate the impact you’ve had on Asians in the advertising industry?

Lim: Michelle Tang, the CMO of Digitas North America wrote an article called, “We Belong in the C-Suite” where she featured AIA as a community to join to help elevate Asians to higher leadership positions.    

Chao: The career advancement piece is huge. We want to make sure we’re supporting our community. Shine Bootcamp is an accelerator for women, and this year they were giving out a scholarship for women of color. I shared it with our community and someone actually got it and was accepted to the program. People are not usually picking Asians for these things. The word BIPOC doesn’t apply to Asians. We still hear “we tried but we couldn’t find any” as an excuse for why more Asians aren’t being hired and we’re trying to change that.

We create an exclusive networking deck for all our events, where we have each person fill out a profile page on one slide if they want to be contacted. We’ve seen people reach out across levels. We also have a private LinkedIn group with 300 people. We share job openings and information about talented people who are looking for jobs.  

Lim: We also have incredibly high turnouts at all our events. We had 600+ people registered for our first Matchmaking Session in May 2021 and our most recent “Elevating into the C-suite” panel had 350+ signups. When we planned it, we thought, maybe we’ll get 50 people. So the response has been amazing.

Shoenthal: What’s next for you two? For AIA?

Chao: Asians in Advertising is launching its inaugural virtual conference during AAPI Heritage Month on May 5 & 6, 2022. This year’s theme is “Breaking Barriers” and will focus on ways to break the stereotypes and biases of Asians in the workplace, as well as actionable ways to succeed. We are also recording episodes for our podcast, launching in October. The show spotlights industry talent.  

Shoenthal: Are you working with ERGs (Employee Resource Groups)? Will this become an ERG?

Lim: I was the first one to create an Asian ERG at Omnicom last year. I think no one stepped up to take that initiative. A lot of people want to do something but they aren’t sure how. But now we’re inspiring people and we hear a lot from people in our community who now want to now create ERGs at their company. A lot of members have invited us to speak at their agencies. There are some organizations that are further along than others. We’re happy to meet them where they are. Companies really want to do things but don’t know where to start. We’re happy to partner with them, not just for the Asian community but for allies as well. 

Chao: We want this to be a destination for learning and development. We want to make sure we’re hearing from a range of voices and topics. I’ve had people I’ve worked with who were so senior but didn’t want to speak up. There are so few of us who make it to that senior level, and it’s so important to have a voice so you open doors for others coming up behind you.