Curator of the Week: Bernice Chao
1. How did you get started in Advertising? What's been your career road map?
I grew up in Cupertino, the heart of Silicon Valley, and have always loved technology and art. I began taking drawing classes at a young age, and when my parents brought home the first Apple color computer, I started creating drawings in Paint. I received a summer scholarship to attend classes at Stanford and the Academy of Art in high school. I fell in love with the art path between the two, realizing the people I met at the art school felt the need to create and look at the world the same way I did. Art school gradually led me into advertising through internships at The Ant Farm and TBWA\Chiat\Day.
I'm the Head of Integrated Creative at Zambezi, the largest female-owned full-service agency in America. Beyond working on the traditional work in-house, I'm also spearheading a new department within the agency called School, a culture-first social department.
2. What has been an important, perhaps the most important, lesson you’ve learned in your career so far?
There are so many lessons that I’ve learned, but the lesson I’ve been sharing the most is the importance of creating visibility for oneself. Culturally my Asian immigrant parents told me to put my head down and work hard to be promoted, don’t ruffle feathers, follow others, and not speak up unless I had something important to say rarely. I make a comparison between two idioms. The first is common in American culture, where we say “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” however, in Chinese, the saying is “the loudest duck gets shot.” This shows how fundamentally two people raised with common but extremely contrasting idioms and ideas about the workplace feel about how they should navigate the workplace.
It took me a significant portion of my career to learn that to be visible, I had to speak up in meetings and that I needed to make sure I was consistently top of mind for new opportunities.
Visibility is such a huge aspect of climbing the corporate ladder that my Asians in Advertising co-founder Jessalin Lam and I have written the book called “The Visibility Mindset, How Asian Leaders Create Opportunities and Push Boundaries” to show others how to be seen at work.
3. What inspires your creativity? What is your creative process like?
My creative process is always to learn as much as I can about the brand I’m working for and hope to figure out what they’re trying to solve. I also always follow up by asking many questions like what is the client solving for? What does the current landscape look like? What’s happening in the world? What’s trending? I enjoy working closely with the strategy to find creative pathways in. Then I take everything I‘ve learned and make sure to find an emotional and compelling way at the brief.
4. Out of all the projects you have worked on, which one has been your favorite? And why?
My favorite project was a campaign for HBO called “ Because of She.” To say I was excited for a brief to help HBO celebrate Women’s History Month would be an understatement. At a time when the film industry was getting flagged for the #MeToo movement, and the reported diversity numbers were staggering, this was an opportunity to show representation.
When it comes to HBO, many people are aware of the women who star in roles in front of the camera. But what they may not know is that there are amazing women in crucial roles behind the camera, too. From directors to writers to cinematographers and producers, women are fundamental for making HBO's quality programming that we all know and love. Because of her, HBO is HBO. The campaign has already scored 2.5 million views across HBO’s social media and digital platforms.
5. If you could go back in time, what would you have told your younger self?
Do not wait for others to start something - In 2021, xenophobia toward Asian Americans was at an all-time high. It gave me a racial reckoning that made me re-examine who I was as an Asian American woman, my place in this country, and the career path of low representation people like me. There wasn't an organization that focused on giving Asians working within advertising a community for career growth. So, I decided to create one and was lucky enough to meet Jessalin Lam, a talented Asian woman with DEI knowledge, who became my co-founder. I made the Asians in Advertising website on a Saturday, she reviewed it on a Sunday, and we launched it on a Monday with just one virtual networking event. We were hoping that a few people would care about this idea, but to our amazement, we had 600+ people sign up and over 35k views on my Linkedin post.
A year later, our organization has created a podcast, hosted 16 events, gained non-profit status, and has 3,000 members across 20 countries. We launched a two-day summit with 708 attendees, Cindy Gallop and the co-founders of Stop AAPI Hate as keynote speakers. We created a 31-day Asian Talent Showcase with Adweek, a partnership with pocstock to feature Asian Creators, a mentorship program with 3AF, and in July, we're announcing a huge scholarship. The organization has been featured in Forbes, SXSW, 3%, AdAge, etc.
6. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read or seen this week?
I have been following Adweek's AAPI Creative Talent Across Marketing every day this month. I am humbled and honored for the opportunity with Adweek and Asians In Advertising for working together to identify exceptional creative talent in the industry to showcase. Reading through everyone's stories and work has been such an inspiration to me and many others.
7. Any closing thoughts you want to share with the ThinkLA Members?
Feel free to connect with me on Linkedin, and I’m always happy to meet for a virtual coffee.
I’m also the co-founder of a non-profit organization called Asians in Advertising, aimed at helping Asians navigate their career through networking, spotlighting talent and closing the skill set gap. We organize events virtually and in-person, and are releasing a book in November called “The Visibilitiy Mindset.”
Want to know where you can follow Bernice on social media?
Instagram: @hellobernice
LinkedIn: Bernice Chao