One can perceive advertising as the communication link between the seller and the buyer. An advertising agency is the organisation that designs and provides this communication through various media – television, radio, newspapers, magazines, internet, billboards, posters, mailers, point of purchase-material, sales promotion events, etc.
There is perhaps, no other business that so greatly influences our daily lives. Out choices regarding the type of cars we drive, the accessories we use, or the clothes we wear, are largely influenced by advertising. As a career, Advertising offers a unique blend of opportunities. In this industry, rewards directly commensurate with the initiative you take, the effort you put in, and the results you achieve. If you are ambitious and hard working, you can quickly move up the ladder.
Of all the forms of communication, Advertising is one of the most exciting ones. If you want your product to be noticed and sold briskly, or you want to project a particular image for your organisation and product or if you want to pass on a particular message, like national unity, brotherhood, or donate blood, etc., you should take help of a good advertising agency for gaining great results.
Advertising helps to boost up economic growth. It helps to create demand and promote the marketing system. Advertising, therefore, plays a significant role in today’s highly competitive world. Whether it is a product, brand, personality or any organisation, each of them requires some form of advertising to communicate and reach to the target audience.
Mostly, advertising agencies work on behalf of those who want to advertise their products. An advertising agency understands its client’s motives as what it wants to communicate, which develops campaigns and brings it to the target audience. In some cases, large organisations have in-house advertising departments to handle such works.
Today, new areas are like event management, image management, Internet marketing, etc., emerging within Advertising. Events are marketed in event management. A particular profile of an individual or an organisation is projected in image management, whereas, in Internet marketing, one is catering to a select group of audience rather than a mass audience. So, one needs to be more careful in this aspect of marketing one’s product.
Aptitude
The main areas of operation are client servicing, media planning, creative and research in advertising. The front face of the agency, client servicing, represents the agency to the client and the client within the agency. Only after the account executive and account planner receive a detailed brief from the client, they chalk out a strategy based on the brand’s positioning, its UPS (Unique Selling Proposition) and its communication objective.
Accounts Planning : This is a senior-level position in the Servicing Department. It involves the overall strategic plan including the budget, selection of the right media and zeroing in on the communication message after interacting with the client and internally with the creative team, the media planning department and the market research agency. The various elements of the communication package are put together into a logical whole in the context of the brand and its desired positioning in the market.
Media Planning : The people who do Media Planning are known as Media Planners. They help ad agencies choose the best medium to reach the customer they want. They plan, schedule, book and purchase space in the print media (newspapers, magazines), or outdoors (billboards, kiosks and bus panels) and time (TV & radio, Internet).
The Creative Department : The Creative Department’s work is to harness the right words, the most appropriate and arresting visuals that will grab the attention and prompt a sale.
The creative team in an agency can be further divided into two sections: Copy and Creative.
There is perhaps, no other business that so greatly influences our daily lives. Out choices regarding the type of cars we drive, the accessories we use, or the clothes we wear, are largely influenced by advertising. As a career, Advertising offers a unique blend of opportunities. In this industry, rewards directly commensurate with the initiative you take, the effort you put in, and the results you achieve. If you are ambitious and hard working, you can quickly move up the ladder.
Of all the forms of communication, Advertising is one of the most exciting ones. If you want your product to be noticed and sold briskly, or you want to project a particular image for your organisation and product or if you want to pass on a particular message, like national unity, brotherhood, or donate blood, etc., you should take help of a good advertising agency for gaining great results.
Advertising helps to boost up economic growth. It helps to create demand and promote the marketing system. Advertising, therefore, plays a significant role in today’s highly competitive world. Whether it is a product, brand, personality or any organisation, each of them requires some form of advertising to communicate and reach to the target audience.
Mostly, advertising agencies work on behalf of those who want to advertise their products. An advertising agency understands its client’s motives as what it wants to communicate, which develops campaigns and brings it to the target audience. In some cases, large organisations have in-house advertising departments to handle such works.
Today, new areas are like event management, image management, Internet marketing, etc., emerging within Advertising. Events are marketed in event management. A particular profile of an individual or an organisation is projected in image management, whereas, in Internet marketing, one is catering to a select group of audience rather than a mass audience. So, one needs to be more careful in this aspect of marketing one’s product.
Aptitude
The main areas of operation are client servicing, media planning, creative and research in advertising. The front face of the agency, client servicing, represents the agency to the client and the client within the agency. Only after the account executive and account planner receive a detailed brief from the client, they chalk out a strategy based on the brand’s positioning, its UPS (Unique Selling Proposition) and its communication objective.
Accounts Planning : This is a senior-level position in the Servicing Department. It involves the overall strategic plan including the budget, selection of the right media and zeroing in on the communication message after interacting with the client and internally with the creative team, the media planning department and the market research agency. The various elements of the communication package are put together into a logical whole in the context of the brand and its desired positioning in the market.
Media Planning : The people who do Media Planning are known as Media Planners. They help ad agencies choose the best medium to reach the customer they want. They plan, schedule, book and purchase space in the print media (newspapers, magazines), or outdoors (billboards, kiosks and bus panels) and time (TV & radio, Internet).
The Creative Department : The Creative Department’s work is to harness the right words, the most appropriate and arresting visuals that will grab the attention and prompt a sale.
The creative team in an agency can be further divided into two sections: Copy and Creative.
Copy Department : The copywriter does the task of putting across the message in words – headline, followed by the body copy in the case of a press ad, a dialogue or jingle for a radio spot, or a detailed story board in the case of a TV commercial.
A good copywriter must be able to think logically and originally each time, to co-relate masses of data and research in language that is clear and convincing. Besides, writing the right words, you need infinite patience to craft them into a subtly compelling sales pitch, until you get it just right. And above all, you need to be highly creative and versatile in your thought. Copywriting is not creativity just for creativity's sake.
Most copywriters start their career as copy trainees after taking a copy test administered by the agency and proceed to write their way to the advertising hall of fame.
Art Department: The Art Department takes care of the overall "look and feel" of the campaign starting with a rough sketch, which accommodates the various components i.e., headline, visual, picture, text, logo, etc., in a balanced format within the given space. The selection of the size and type of the font (lettering), the photographic treatment and the overall treatment of the TV commercial is the purview of the visualisers and art directors who head the Art Department.
A bachelor of fine arts or Degree in Applied Art or Graphic Design with knowledge of computer graphics/multimedia is mandatory to be a part of the Art Department.
Market Research : The Research Department tries to measure the effectiveness of the advertisement i.e., to what extent the ad is going to leave a mark on the people's mind. It is the research only that provides the media planner and creates a scientific and measurable basis to sharp-focus their strategy. The professionals here are from a variety of disciplines, but they share a common comfort level with mathematical or statistical modelling, sampling techniques and psychographics.
Visualisers: The visualisers work on the visual concept of the advertisement and decide how the ad shall eventually look at the end. They do the overall layout of message including graphics, sketching, etc. The visualisers must be artistic. A degree/diploma in commercial arts or fine arts as well as the knowledge of designing software like Photoshop, Pagemaker, Corel DRAW, etc., are the required qualifications for being a visualiser.
Photographers: Photographers working in ad agencies should have an idea about angles and lighting effects. Good technical ability and knowledge of cameras and lenses is essential.
PROSPECTS
The scope of career opportunities in Advertising are vast as it includes openings in private advertising agencies; advertising department in private or public sector companies; advertising sections of newspapers, journals, magazines; commercial section of radio or television; market research organisations, etc. One can also do freelancing.
This field offers a range of lucrative, interesting careers. The job in this field is categorised into two - executive and creative. The executive side includes client servicing, market research and media research where as, creative side consists, of copywriters, sceiptwriters, visualisers, photographers and typographers.
The executive department understands the client's needs, finds new business and retains existing business, selects the appropriate media, analyses timing and placement of advertisements and negotiates the financial aspects of the deal. Creative department creates the advertisement copy. It verbalises and visualises the specific need of the client.
As ad films are also a part of film making career, options of film are related to this field. So, bright career avenues are available in the field of Advertising. With the help of media, advertising in the modern days has become very prominent and also embarks its necessity in one's daily life.
Eligibility
To get into the field of advertising and media planning you will have to do a course in Advertising and then specialise in media planning. It's very important to choose the institute judiciously, by enquiring about its infrastructural facilities, faculty, placement record and salaries offered to freshers from the institute. A course in economics, mathematics or statics is often helpful. This helps the professional to delve into demographic and psychographic reports and in analysing data. The contemporary media planner has to work with electronic media models. So, the relevant knowledge is an absolute must. Now-a-days candidates with a strong background in mathematics and statistics are in a favourable position simply because there are more numbers to deal with in the job. The best way to get into the field after a course is to get some on the job training. All the good institutions offer internship as part of the curriculum. Internship programmes are the two months duration. Studying at institutes like MIC (Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad) could cost upto Rs. 1 lakh per year. But at government and some other private institutions, the fees are much lower.
Remuneration
Salary is generally not a constraint for the suitable candidate in this industry. In big companies, salaries could be above Rs. 10,000 per month for a beginner. This will, of course, depend on the individuals' merit, qualifications, experience as well as the company's performance. Some of the gaints in advertising and media planning that most students dream of working with are McCann, Perfect 10, Rubecon, Montage, TBWA India and Contract among others.
WHERE TO STUDY
- Indian Institute of Mass Communication
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, JNU, New Campus, New Delhi-110067. Website: http://www.iimc.nic.in/
- Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA)
Shela, Ahmedabad-380007, Gujarat. Website: http://www.mica-india.net/
- Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies
V.L. Mehta Road, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai-400056, Maharashtra,
Website: http://www.nmims.edu/
- National Institute of Advertising
Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi-110021, Website: http://www.nia.org/
- National Institute of Design (NID)
Paldi, Ahmedabad-380007, Gujarat. Website: http://www.nid.edu/
- Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art
Dr. D.N.Road, Mumbai-400001, Maharashtra
- Xavier's Institute of Communications
St. Xavier's College 5, Mahapalike Marg, Mumbai-400001, Maharashtra.
Website : www.xaviercomm.org
- Symbiosis Institute of Business Management
Senapati Bapat Road, Pune-411 004, Maharashtra
- Mumbai University
Siddharth College of ARts and Science, Anand Bhavan, Dadabhai Naoroji Road,
Mumbai-400001, Maharashtra
- Jamia Milia Islamia
Jamia Nagar, New Delhi-110025
- The New Delhi YMCA Centre of Mass Media
Education Centre Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi-110001
- National Institute of Advertising (NIA) 1
Mohammad Pur, Bhikaji Cama Place, New Delhi-110066
