In the advertising industry you must understand the different pieces that form the entire puzzle of the industry. You cannot walk into a career without knowing about the industry and how it is all interconnected. The purpose of advertising is to create an image for a product or service and communicate this message to targeted consumers to provoke them into purchasing the product. In order for this to be done there must be people in the field to create and place the advertising for the end consumers to see.
The largest piece of the advertising puzzle is the advertising agency which is a service company that plans, creates, produces and places advertisements for its clients. The agency places the advertising in the different advertising mediums which include traditional broadcast (television and radio), print (magazines and newspapers) and electronic media such as the internet. As the industry progresses and finds newer ways to get the word out more advertising mediums will arise. While advertising agencies are often thought of to have only creative staff, advertising agencies also require business professionals, in the account management and media departments. Most agencies recruit for is the account executive position, this position is also called account coordinators in some agencies, account executives typically come out of training in business schools. The Account Executive is the primary client contact they are responsible for developing and executing a client's advertising strategy. The Account Executive often works with the marketing research, creative and media departments to create and develop advertising campaigns. In advertising agency media department there are many coveted positions to be filled. These positions might involve creating a media plan (deciding on what advertising mediums would best suite the advertising campaigns for the client), negotiating with media representatives, and measuring the costs and benefits of various media alternatives.
Other ways to work within advertising without working for an agency include working within the selected advertising medium such as the advertising department within the newspaper industry for example. The newspaper industry needs advertising sales representatives, a creative department, inside sales, accounting department. Each advertising medium needs these core employees for the advertising to support the medium. To locate employment for these mediums contact the medium directly.
