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In addition, getting a job in an advertising
agency requires determination:
1.) there are few job openings, and
2.) other bright people, like yourself, want those jobs too.
Nothing guarantees a job with an agency. Here
are some basic steps to get you started.
Sections:
- What is Advertising?
- How is Advertising Developed?
- Careers in Advertising
- Getting Started
- The Essentials
- The Interview
To put it simply, advertising is salesmanship.
It can make the difference between business success and failure.
It is a cost-efficient way of telling buyers what is for sale
and what the product’s features are. At the very least, it
seeks to persuade someone who is in the market for a given
product or service to consider a particular brand.
The business of advertising involves marketing
objectives and artistic ingenuity. It applies quantitative
and qualitative research to the creative process. It is the
marriage of analysis and imagination, of marketing professional
and artist.
Advertising is art and science, show business
and just plain business, all rolled into one. And it employs
some of the brightest and most creative economists, researchers,
artists, producers, writers, and business people in the country
today.
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- All good advertising includes some basic steps before
it appears in public:
- It defines its markets.
- It assesses the competition.
- It determines who the target audience is, and how and
why it chooses the products it does.
- It sets goals and a budget: what the advertising should
achieve and how much must be spent to
- achieve those goals.
- It determines the media: what vehicle (television, newspapers,
magazines, outdoor) will best reach the target audience
to be effective.
- It creates a message: what pictures, words, and music
will best attract and appeal to the specific target audience.
An advertiser usually hires an advertising agency
to help them identify prospective customers, create the advertising,
and buy the broadcast (television, radio) time and print space
(magazine, newspaper, and outdoor) to carry the advertising
work that consumers see.
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Advertising agencies handle a broad range of
marketing tasks requiring people with experience and ability
in overall management and specialized skills. In all agencies,
the jobs usually fall into six categories:
Account Management
Account Planning
Creative
Media
Market Research
Interactive Marketing
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The responsibility of the account manager is
to be the client’s representative at the agency, and the agency’s
representative at the client’s organization. It is his or
her job to get the best possible work from the agency for
the client-but at a profitable return for the agency. This
means knowing how to handle people at the agency so that they
give the client their best effort without spending more time
than the income from the client’s business justifies.
The effective account manager develops a thorough
knowledge of the client’s business, the consumer, the marketplace
and all aspects of advertising, including creative, media,
research, and commercial production.
As team leader and strategist, the account person
must communicate the client’s needs clearly to the agency
team, plan effectively to maximize staff time and energy,
and present the agency’s recommendations candidly to the client.
In the final analysis, the account person must
be able to foster productive communication between client
and agency staffs, identify common goals, and make sure that
the final product is profitable and effective for the client
and the agency.
Successful candidates have strong general business
skills: the ability to write and speak effectively, demonstrated
leadership experience, a capacity for statistical analysis,
and developed organizational skills.
Candidates should have a bachelor’s degree and,
in some cases, a master of business administration. A degree
in advertising or marketing is not a prerequisite.
An entry-level position in account management
usually leads to account executive and then to more senior
positions, with responsibility for more than one account and
for the work of several account executives.
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Account Planning is still
relatively new among agencies, and is not used at all agencies
yet. Essentially, account planners make sure the consumer’s
perspective is fully considered when advertising is developed.
The account planner works to continually focus
and re-focus the agency’s strategic and creative thinking
on the consumer, helping the team—particularly the creatives—understand
what "turns the consumer on". They study how consumers
actually make use of marketing communications. Using that
knowledge, they help the agency "break out" into
new ways of communicating about products and services. They
offer not only consumer insight, but a plan of action for
approaching marketing communications challenges.
The account planner’s primary tool is research:
consumer psychology and behavior, brand-sales history, competitive
sales and customer information, consumer demographics, and
much more. They use this information to determine how the
agency can leverage a brand’s strengths in a strategic and
creative approach.
There is no entry-level account planning position,
nor is there a clear-cut path to a career in account planning--yet.
However, most account planners have academic backgrounds in
Liberal Arts, and certainly exposure to such subjects as psychology,
sociology, and cultural anthropology is beneficial. What planners
tend to have in common is the ability to interpret and synthesize
information, generating useful insights that can be readily
understood and acted upon by others.
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The creative department of an advertising agency
is responsible for developing the ideas, images, and words
that make up commercials and ads. While many people in the
agency contribute to the process, the invention and production
of advertising is mainly the responsibility of copywriters
and art directors.
Junior or Assistant Copywriter
The junior copywriter assists one or more copywriters
in editing and proofreading ad copy, writing body copy for
established print campaigns, and developing merchandising
and sales promotion materials. With proven ability and experience,
assignments might include generating ideas for product or
company names and writing dialogue for TV commercials and
scripts for radio ads.
Although a bachelor’s degree is not required,
most agencies look for candidates with proven intellectual
ability and emotional maturity. Degrees in English, journalism,
or advertising and marketing can be helpful.
The junior art director assists one or more
art directors in preparing paste-ups, rough lettering, and
layouts for print ads and television storyboards, developing
visual concepts and designs, and overseeing photo sessions
and the filming of television commercials.
A successful candidate will have strong visual
concept skills and good basic drawing and design ability.
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careers in advertising | top ]
The media department of an advertising agency
is responsible for placing advertising where it will reach
the right people at the right time and in the right place…and
do so in a cost-effective way.
Planning and buying media at an advertising
agency is exciting and challenging because ways of communicating
are constantly changing and becoming more complex. Such technological
advances as cable television and the internet, or videotext
make an impact on what media are available for advertising
and how viewership is calculated. A recent increase in the
number of specialty publications enables more precise targeting
of consumers.
It is the responsibility of the media department
to develop a plan that answers the question: how can the greatest
number of people in the target group be reached often enough
to have the advertising message seen and remembered—and, at
the lowest possible cost?
Assistant Media Planner
The typical assistant media planner reports
to a media planner and gathers and studies information about
people’s viewing and reading habits, evaluates editorial content
and programming of various media vehicles, and about media
vehicles, and becomes thoroughly familiar with media data
banks and information sources.
To accomplish these tasks requires the ability
to find and analyze data, apply computer skills, ask innovative
questions, and interpret or explain findings with attention
to quantitative and qualitative considerations.
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The basic role of the market research department
in an advertising agency is to understand the wants, desires,
thoughts, concerns, motivating forces, and ideals of the consumer.
By researching secondary information, conducting focus groups
or one-on-one interviews, testing people’s reactions to new
advertising copy, tracking sales volume or studying buying
trends, the advertising agency researcher becomes an expert
on consumer behavior.
Assistant Research Executive
The typical assistant reports directly to a
research executive. Duties usually include compiling data
from secondary resources, following the progress of research
projects (internal and external), assisting in the development
of primary research tools, and learning to analyze facts and
numbers, interpreting and explaining what these really mean.
Successful candidates have strong quantitative
skills and the aptitude for analyzing and interpreting qualitative
as well as quantitative data. Computer literacy is also advantageous.
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to careers in advertising | ^ top ]
This is a brand new area in the field of advertising
and marketing which is quickly evolving. If you have ever
visited a company’s web site, you have been part of how interactive
marketing is changing the relationship between advertiser
and the audience.
An important point to understand is to realize
that with traditional marketing vehicles, companies had to
find you to get your attention. In the world of interactive
marketing, the consumer seeks out the company’s web site and
decides how long they will stay. They can tailor the experience
to their own needs. This is why interactive marketing is the
fastest growing phenomena in the media and marketing world.
Opportunities in the interactive marketing field
are exploding and are most plentiful in the areas of design,
marketing, and computer programming. Agencies need computer-based
designers and programmers, as well as strategists who understand
how marketers can use interactive media creatively and effectively.
The advantage in job-hunting in this area is to those who
have a strong knowledge of computers and the digital realm,
and are on top of the daily changes in digital technology
and its capabilities.
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Find out as much as possible about the advertising
business, what an agency does, and the career area or department
in which you would like to work. Read every bit of relevant
material you can find - articles, books (see In Class for
suggestions), and industry trade press such as Advertising
Age, and ADWEEK.
Talk to people. Track down any contacts or
friends you have in the business. Sit down with your college
instructors and career counselors. Check professional organizations
like the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Advertising
Women of New York, the American Advertising Federation, or
your local advertising club.
Remember, one source of information can lead
to ten others. The more you know about your chosen area, the
better you can present yourself as a first-rate candidate.
Decide what factors are important to you about
a company and evaluate prospective employers on that basis.
Make use of the Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies,
popularly known as the "Agency Red Book". It's available
at most libraries and lists all the agencies worldwide. It
gives names and titles of key people, size of agency (dollar
billings, number of offices, and total personnel), the agency's
accounts, and a breakdown of the media in which the agency
invests its clients' money.
Read the trade press to learn more about specific agencies
you want to target.
With all the competition for jobs in
advertising, you must develop your own "unique selling
proposition" to communicate your own unique qualities.
It's not enough that you are interested in advertising or
that you made the dean's list eight times or that you wrote
for the school newspaper. So did most of your competition.
You have to connect what you've done in the past, in a unique
way, to what you will do for the agency in the future. Developing
a strategy gets your commitment, imagination, and analytical
thinking out in the limelight. It is key to making you stand
out from other candidates.
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The primary purpose of a resume is to
get you an interview. Used correctly, it can open doors. Used
incorrectly, it slams them shut. A good resume connects your
experience to your job goal. Support your candidacy by highlighting
relevant skills -e.g., writing, speaking, managing, marketing,
etc. Include any activities, jobs, or internships directly
related to advertising. Did you sell space for the school
newspaper? Were you yearbook editor? Stage manager for the
college theater group? Add less-related activities only if
they are outstanding. Be selective. Your resume is a selling
tool, not a life history. Keep it neat, clear, and precise.
Try to make it unique and interesting but not gimmicky.
A cover letter works hand in hand with
your resume. Together they create a first impression of you.
Your cover letter should work as a connecting tool between
you and the agency you're writing to. Don't let it read like
a form letter. Instead, include real knowledge of the agency,
its clients, its work, its position in the industry. Tell
the agency why you are interested in them and why you think
you'd be right for them. And then make sure that you are prepared
to discuss in your interview whatever you say in the cover
letter.
And remember, you're being judged on
communicative skill. Watch spelling, grammar, and typing.
Most important of all, be clear, crisp, and brief.
To help you land a job in an agency creative
department, you must prepare a portfolio that shows your thinking
and imagination. If you're an aspiring art director, this
clearly has to include ample demonstration of your design
ability and graphic sense. If you want to be a copywriter,
visuals are less critical than demonstration of your writing
ability and marketing sense.
In either case, show your very best work.
If you have not had any experience, pick some currently running
campaigns, determine their objectives, and interpret them
in your own way. It doesn't matter if your "ads"
are not professional. Your prospective employer wants to see
fresh concepts and new ideas that prove you have potential.
Ask for criticism, and learn from this free counsel. Then
keep making changes to improve your portfolio.
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At most agencies, an invitation to be interviewed
reflects more than casual interest in a candidate. If you've
made it this far, you're at least in the quarterfinals. And
if you've done your homework, you should have nothing to worry
about.
Review your resume and the cover letter
you sent to the agency. Decide what key selling points you
should communicate about yourself. Think how you can best
do this.
Review the information you have about the agency. Be aware
of its current campaigns and any fast-breaking developments.
Commenting on these can help you to make an immediate connection
with the interviewer.
Be ready to discuss your point of view on advertising in general
and your area of interest in particular.
But relax and do it naturally. Don't try to
recite everything you know. Selectivity shows you are thinking.
Remember, someone is interested enough in your background
to invest 30 minutes or more in you.
That person wants you to succeed.
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