Advertising as a career

Advertising provides consumers the right to choose. The reality today is that in the  plethora of high-decibel advertising, featured in various media, it is increasingly difficult to stand out from the clutter, be distinctive and also sell a product. The estimated advertising spend is predicted to increase to 25 billion in the year 2013. The ad spend in internet advertising was around 7 billion in the year 2010 and presently it has increased to over 15 billion.

Advertising may create awareness/interest about a product for a specific market or it may hard sell a product when discounts and offers are mentioned in the advertisement. Hence it helps a product when the advertisement is distinctive. “What an idea, Sirjee” is a great Idea even though it does not talk directly about idea services, yet it comes out beautifully as a corporate ad. Similarly, Tata Tea’s – “Jaago Re” campaign also brought out a strong social message assuring consumers about the greater goodness of the corporate  brand Tata and its Tata Tea piggy backs comfortably on it. ICICI Prudential, which simply associates itself with the security in a marital relationship, actually uses the “maang tikaa” to showcase the sensitivity and assurance that the product offers to the target market.

Advertising can make or break a brand. Advertising is produced when a client servicing executive prepares a brief for the creative and media team. The agency structure depicted below shows various departments of an ad agency and career options arising from it:

Traditional Ad Agency Structure

The client servicing person is the brand custodian and as such his/ her brief to the creative and media team actually facilitates in the final ad message and its delivery in select media – within the specified budget. The account planning departments help in research and analyzing the present state of the brand and provides insight to the servicing person for the ‘brief’ statement, for the future campaign planning of the brand. The account planner is the think-tank of the agency, building the life of the brand. A sound knowledge of basic marketing and brand management are facilitators in the understanding of campaign planning.

The creative team studies the brief and thinks of the most important ‘idea’ which will form the base of the ad. This idea is forwarded to the production unit for final ad production. In a large agency the production department may have three divisions – film (TVC) dept., print dept and digital dept. The ad messages are produced for the various media for ad placement. Today there are also small design units – creative boutiques,  that produce ad campaigns and promotional material and offer their services to larger agencies. There are a host entrepreneurial options for creative people.  The Media function is an independent profession and there are several media planning/buying agencies.

The media are also selected within a budget given by the client. Media planning also requires in depth research and analysis for selection of appropriate media for ad placement. Today media also uses very creative options such as elevators / lifts, washroom, in-film advertising, outdoor hoardings. Outdoor hoardings themselves have multiple options. Here itself one can have enormous career options if one is entrepreneurial enough to begin ones own outdoor agency.

Internship/entry in Ad agencies

To apply for internships in any Ad agency, resumes or personal profiles have to be sent to the HR department of the agency. HR will allocate interns as required by each department. All departments of an ad agency take interns for a given period of time – a nominal stipend may or may not be paid depending on agency policies.

Most fresh recruits start as Management Trainees (MT) generally for a period of 6 – 9 months and then get confirmed as Client Servicing (CS) executives / Media Executives/ Creative Executives. The general practice is to recruit Account Planners after a person has done client servicing for two – three years. A basic understanding of CS is always desirable to gain entry into the AP department. Subsequently the growth patterns follows as Senior Client Servicing executive, then Account Manager, Group Manager and Client Servicing Director. Similarly, for the other positions. For entry into creative team some organizations require copy or art test, others desire to see the portfolio of Ads/ artworks done by the person under consideration. Knowledge of Photoshop, CoralDraw and Illustrator are useful in creating an ad.

For entry into the media department knowledge of Excel in computers is the basic requirement. If the candidate has trained and learnt media software packages then it helps even at entry stage. A research base also helps in media planning along with being at ease and comfortable  in dealing with numbers.

Overall, good communication skills, a positive and learning attitude helps in gaining entry and in personal growth over time. Advertising, as a career is very exciting, challenging and dynamic and at the same time, also requires a lot of patience and passion. There is, at the end of it, a method to the madness!  The art of differentiating one brand of soap from another is not merely knowing the key differential in the product, it is also “how you say it” (creative) and ‘where you say it ‘(which is media). This makes it different, bold and discriminatory.

About the Author

Presently, Prof. Ramola Kumar is the Dean, The Delhi School of Communication wherein she was instrumental in helping conceive and launch the programme in the year 1995. DSC is one of the premier institutes in the country in mass media studies and integrated communications. Her areas of specialization include Marketing, Brand Management and communications. Prof. Kumar has been educated in the US, Canada and India. She pursued her MBA from the University of Ottawa, Canada and was ranked 4th in the management programme.