What's So Appealing About an Advertising Career?

Advertising agencies usually perform three functions for their clients. First, they act as professional advisers to their clients' marketing teams and help to integrate their advertising strategies with their clients' marketing strategies. They do this by producing acceptable advertising plans and campaigns. Second, they conceptualize and create the actual advertisements that will implement those plans. Third, they establish links between advertisers and the media by selecting and managing the channels through which advertising messages effectively reach the market segments targeted by their clients.

Correlated with the roles that an advertising agency plays in the market for its client are the career options open within an advertising agency. In a typical advertising firm, you will find:

the account executive, who may handle tasks such as coordinating and streamlining the efforts of separate departments within the agency to meet budgets and deadlines, act as a liaison between the agency and the client, and market the creative work to the client.
the creative, who may be a copywriter or an art director and works to conceptualize and create the words and graphics used in advertisements.
the production executive, who works to finish the products delivered by the creative department. The production executive may be an artist or graphic designer who works in-house to finalize versions of advertisements for distribution through print, Internet, radio, television, and other channels.
the media executive, who handles channel management and whose functions may include conducting market research to select the channels that will be most effective for reaching targeted markets or market segments, negotiating with media channels to implement campaigns within budget limits, and acting as a liaison with the media for sustained implementation of ad campaigns.

In spite of the various career options available within an ad agency, some of which may involve work that is quite tedious, it is the creative aspects of advertising that tend to appeal to those entering the industry.

In fact, in a major survey conducted by Euro RSCG Worldwide in conjunction with Adweek in 2004, students and professionals ranked advertising as the top industry in which they would want to work, despite agreeing that advertising cannot compete with certain industries in terms of pay and prestige.

The survey sought the opinions of 1,238 advertising and marketing professionals and 1,269 U.S. students selected randomly. The reasons given for preferring the advertising career track mostly centered on the perception that the advertising industry is a haven for creatives.

Out of the survey's respondents, 76% of advertising and marketing professionals and 66% of students agreed that "advertising is still an industry for innovators." The responses of the students featured the following positive perceptions of the advertising field:

"It's a fun business to be in." (97% students agreed with this.)
"It provides opportunities to do creative work." (88% of students agreed with this.)
"There is high earning potential." (87% of students agreed with this.)
"There is a collaborative environment." (83% of students agreed with this.)
"It's a prestigious industry." (52% of professionals and 46% of students associated pride with a career in advertising.)

However, the appeal of creativity overwhelmed all other perceived features of the advertising industry, and when the students were asked what they would choose to do within an ad agency, the majority opted for "creative" positions followed, in order, by "media" positions and positions in "creative services." In contrast, "human resources" jobs in ad agencies received the least approval from respondents.

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What's So Appealing About an Advertising Career?