Getting into the advertising traffic department.

The advertising traffic department is in charge of regulating the amount and flow of work within the agency. The traffic department keeps tabs on the various stages of all work within the advertising agency. The traffic department is able to give the status of any given advertising campaign at any given time. The must be able to track all projects to ensure they are on the correct timeline and will be completed prior to deadline. They are responsible for making sure all production deadlines are met and work is delivered on time and received by the media placing the advertising. The traffic department increases the advertising agencies efficiency and therefore the profitability of the company. The traffic department increases the efficiency of the advertising agency by reducing the amount of incomplete information shared between departments, the over and under estimates of advertising campaigns handled by the company, by the traffic department handling these areas the workflow is increased and the effientcy of the company is increased.

This department is headed by a traffic manager. The traffic manager oversees the department and is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the project deadlines. Typically there is a traffic coordinator who creates production schedules, and regulates whether or not new business comes to the agency by dictating to the account executives if there is time with deadlines to create new campaigns. There are also assistants within the department who work on anything that the managers and coordinators need to be done; the assistant position is typically how you start within the traffic department. In order to obtain a position in an advertising traffic department a candidate must possess incredible communication skills, computer skills, and superb organizational skills and must be a team player. Many times to be employed within the traffic department you must have a background education within the advertising industry or have been previously employed within an advertising traffic department.