Working in advertising
There are five main areas of advertising: strategy planning, account management, media planning an buying, creative and production. Each will be examined in turn.
Strategy planning
A strategy planner researches consumers' attitudes, philosophies, buying patterns and the competitors to put together a strategic plan, all of which is reinforced with facts and figures from masses of research. A strategic plan maps out the proposed route for communicating a message to a consumer, the essence of the message and an entire description of the audience.
A strategy planner needs to be an excellent people person and intuitive as to how consumers behave and think. A planner must also have strong writing skills and be ruthless in planning a competitive attack on other brands. A degree in humanities such as history, philosophy or sociology is useful. Directly related degrees in business, communication and marketing are also beneficial.
Account management
An account manager is the co-ordinator of the communication activities between a client and an agency. They are good networkers and ensure that the process runs smoothly and that the client is happy with the agency's work. They attend all facets of the project from start to finish and must be great listeners and problem solvers.
They provide the initial brief for the agency and each new project that arises from the event of a campaign. An account manager can be devised into needing two different sets of skills, selling the agency to prospect clients and those who look after the new business once it has been won.
'Finders' seek new clients and are involved in client pitches where they the present the proposed idea to potential campaigns. 'Minders' mind the business throughout their dealings with the agency and act as babysitters for the client. As a minder has the most contact with the client, they are often the make or break if the client stays with the agency for an extended length of time Media planning & buying.
A planner works with the media available and plans the media strategy for the campaign or project. He or she decides the best media mix for the proposed audience and how much of each to use. A media planner does not have the above-the-line mediums such as television, print and radio to choose from anymore.
Buyers must then work within the communications budget to make the plan work and then are involved in purchasing the selected media. Strategical awareness and knowledge of all the media available are requisite skills needed. An affinity with numbers and statistics is also useful.
Creatives
Creatives usually work in teams of an art director and copywriter who together write the message and decide the look of the ads. They come up with many ideas and then draw up rough storyboards, posters or sketches to be presented for discussion with the client. The team can either be employed together or separately and must be able to work off each other.
Art directors are usually good designers, drawers or have a general eye for how an ad should look. A writer can tell a great story, write scripts and compose dialogue. They can write reams of copy or just come up with an eye-catching headline. Together, they are charged with creating something out of the ordinary and unique to make the message stand out above others in the market.
Creatives have to develop an outstanding portfolio to be recognised in the top agencies. A portfolio usually includes creative briefs plus a wide range of conceptual and non-conceptual advertisements across the board that reflect the uniqueness of the team.
Production
Production teams include specialists in broadcast, print and new media. Their work is to the specification of the creative team and the production manager. The broadcast team is made up of a broadcast producer who then usually out-sources a director, cast and a production company. The latter then organises the set, catering, budgets, production schedule and a post-production company to deal with the editing, the audio track lay-down and any special graphics that they might use.
The team may also comprise an assistant and person who manages the video library and any short edits that the account handlers may need. The work is thoroughly checked by the production manager for mistakes or printing glitches both before and after it is sent to the printers.
The new media teams work similarly to the print production, working from a brief. The end result is checked and signed off before going online.
All production team members would find it useful to have training in their areas of discipline and have developed a portfolio or reel to show their work to producers at agencies they wish to work for.
