Post-pandemic, attracting and retaining talent remains one of the hardest, most important tasks for the industry. The flurry of articles on ‘The Great Resignation’ were more than just empty rhetoric and the combination of churn and salary inflation are a significant challenge for the industry. An ecosystem in which diversifying the talent pool for the industry is business critical. 

Yet there remain barriers both for talent wishing to enter the industry and for those involved in the recruitment process. Agencies are forever on the hunt for new, fresh, diverse voices and so, to aid this process and to help discover emerging talent, Publicis Groupe UK has announced the launch of the new Publicis Student Workshop, to help bring young creatives into the advertising industry.

The scheme aims to help guide young creatives into their future careers and even promises potential opportunities for placements or jobs for successful candidates. 

The workshops will run for six weeks and are open to anyone, from any background. Each week will see the candidates set a different brief from a Publicis Groupe UK agency or director, giving them a week to respond. The student then presents, in person, in front of their contemporaries, to top Publicis creatives who assess and review their work, from a range of Publicis Groupe UK agencies, starting with Saatchi & Saatchi; Digitas; MSL; Leo Burnett, Langland and Publicis•Poke. This will give candidates the opportunity to discuss their ideas and gain real-life experience and feedback from their soon-to-be industry peers.

The course is inspired by the now-defunct D&AD Student Workshop, which helped many Publicis execs into the industry. “When Emma de La Fosse (chief creative officer, Digitas UK) suggested we should revive an experience which kickstarted our careers in advertising, it seemed like a no-brainer.” Ben Mooge, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe UK, explained “The Publicis Student Workshop will be a fantastic, creative induction into the world of advertising, digital, PR, health and media. There’s no better way than to learn from real-life agency and industry leaders and I can’t wait to work with the next generation of talent. It’ll be a privilege to guide young creatives whose future careers are just beginning.”

The course will benefit from the advice and insight from course leaders including:

Ben Mooge, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe UK

Emma de La Fosse, Chief Creative Officer, Digitas UK

Chaka Sobhani, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett

Mark Elwood, Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett

Dave Monk, Executive Creative Director, Publicis•Poke

Andrew Spurgeon, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Health

Michael Dowell, Executive Creative Director, MSL

Kim Allain, Lead Creative, MSL

Guillermo Vega, Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi

Franki Goodwin, Executive Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi

Dan Treichel,  Executive Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi