Marketing

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Attention Seekers

Ever wondered how those TV ads get made? Or how a viral ad finds its way into your inbox? Or why direct marketing falls through your letterbox? If you think a career in the marketing communication industry might interest you, read on!

There are lots of misconceptions about the marketing and PR industry. One of the most common is that it’s just about being a creative – someone who can draw eye-catching pictures or think up memorable words. While these roles are important – after all, they produce the end product of the industry – they actually account for only 13% of all the roles on offer – that’s just one in eight jobs.

THE WAY IN
The most common entry route into an advertising agency is account management. Don’t worry, this is nothing to do with accounting; it’s about managing your client’s business (their account) within an agency. Starting as an account executive, you are the link between the client (the company buying advertising services) and the team back at the agency. You’ll report to an account manager or director and be expected to gain an understanding of the client’s business so that you can offer the best advice when it comes to creating ads that will build or re-establish a company or product’s reputation.

If you rise to become an account manager you will be ultimately responsible for taking the client’s original brief (the outline of what the client wants to achieve), deciding the form and content of the ad campaign (and what outlets they’ll be using – such as newspapers and magazines, billboards, public transport, television, radio, cinema or online platforms), agreeing the standards against which the campaign will be judged a success (such as more people buying a product), and then managing the agency’s team to ensure the ads are created as intended and to schedule.

CONTEXT IS ALL
Nor is it just about making ads. The media world has exploded in the last decade. The context (where an ad appears) is just as important as what it contains. So the industry is now made up of both ad agencies that make the creative content and media companies that plan how to reach the intended consumers at the best possible time and at the most cost-effective price. Media companies are growing rapidly and now take on more graduates every year than advertising agencies.

A PEOPLE BUSINESS
Marketing and PR are really all about teamwork. A survey of recent graduates found that what they liked the most about the industry were the people they worked alongside. Inspiring, intelligent, fun and bright were all adjectives used to describe their colleagues. So if you like working with other people, the marketing and PR industry can be very rewarding.

And no two days are the same. If you’re someone who likes variety in your life, then marketing and PR deliver. Agencies work for many different clients and so you’ll find yourself working on several different accounts at the same time. Each project will be at a different stage and may require working with different teams. For example, the production of a cinema commercial will involve the agency’s creative team, the production department and the account planner (to test the idea with consumers before it’s made); you will need to liaise with the media agency to agree where and when it’ll be shown; and then, to actually make the ad, the agency team will work with a production company, casting agent and possibly also set designers and model makers. One project may bring you into contact with literally dozens of specialists. So an ability to communicate effectively with all sorts of different people is key.

If you’re interested in finding out more about marketing and PR you can sign up to a student newsletter published by the industry’s trade body, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). This comes out three times a year and gives you updates of IPA recruitment events and articles on current issues in the sector. The IPA also runs competitions to join one of its summer school programmes and provides details about agency recruitment programmes. For more information, visit www.ipa.co.uk/careers.

ARE YOU A DIAGONAL THINKER?
The IPA is trying to identify which skills and traits the most successful creative people in marketing and PR have in common – they’re calling it Diagonal Thinking. If their theory is right – and results so far suggest that it could be – then the IPA are hoping to use these new insights to attract a wider range of people into the profession and to better cultivate people’s talents once they’re in the industry.

OK, here’s the science bit. It’s said that there are two kinds of thinkers in the world. There are good linear thinkers – people who can read or hear some factual information and then follow a straightforward line of deduction to reach a logical conclusion. If you do well in maths, physics or engineering, or find you can finish other people’s sentences before they do, then you’ll score highly as a linear thinker.
There are also lateral thinkers – people who can make links between previously unconnected ideas, who are able to “think outside the box”. If you can see more varied solutions to problems than most people, if you work in a much more haphazard way than others, then you’ll likely score highly as a lateral thinker.

As you’ve probably guessed, the IPA believes that the most successful people in marketing and PR score well on both counts – hence the term diagonal thinkers. Yes, they can think logically, but they’re also good at making unexpected connections and so come up with unique ideas. In addition, they’re people strong enough to defend their new ideas, even when it’s hard to do so. If you enjoy change, if you find it hard to follow rules set by others, and make decisions based as much on feelings as logic, then marking and PR could be exactly the kind of interesting career you’re looking for.

SHOW ME THE MONEY!
Salaries at all levels will vary on agency size, specialisation and location, as well as individual performance and experience. Some agencies offer bonuses and perks such as car allowances and medical insurance.

Advertising account executives:
£12,000 to £24,000
Experienced advertising account executives: up to £45,000
Advertising account managers:
£45,000 – £90,000

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