Not too long ago, advertising agencies employed ten people for each million dollars worth of business they did. Today, that ratio is 3.2 people for each million dollars in billing, and the situation is getting tighter all the time.
Here are a few statistics to show you just who will be out there vying with you for those precious job openings. These figures are rough estimates and may not be totally accurate, but they will give you an idea of what's going on.
There are over 11,000 students enrolled in college and university advertising courses, and each year over the last few, more than 2,500 students graduated as advertising majors. Neither of these two figures includes students enrolled or graduating in art, design, psychology, marketing, merchandising, journalism, film, photography, radio and television production, or communications, any of whom may also be aiming for an advertising job, so there's really no practical way to estimate the total number of people preparing for jobs in the business.
11,000 new positions in the field are filled each year by people who have never worked in advertising. You will be going after one of these slots. There's an old rule of thumb in the ad business that says: "For every new person who finds a job, four others have tried and failed." This means that 55,000 hopefuls competed to fill those 11,000 positions, so the odds of landing a job are 5 to 1 against you.
These figures are, at best, rough estimates, but they should give you a fair idea of what you'll be up against. The numbers are not here to scare or intimidate you, but to help you assess your situation accurately and intelligently. The point is this: with all those people trying to get into the business, both advertisers and their agencies can afford to be very choosy, and to hire only the best they can find.
It's best you should know this now, rather than be surprised by it later.
Let's Say Mr. Brown, owner of the Brown Baking Company, calls his advertising agency and speaks to the account supervisor on his account. It seems Brown Baking is coming out with a new product line and they need an advertising campaign and marketing approach.
Well, the agency isn't surprised by the call. They've known about the new line for some time. In fact, their marketing and research people have been working on the project for months with Mr. Brown's marketing and advertising people, trying to discern exactly what consumers are hungry for-what they want to pack in school lunches.
Then why is Mr. Brown, a man whose specialties are finance and food (in that order), calling the agency himself this time? He usually works through his Advertising Manager and/ or his head of marketing. They're both magnificently qualified: both have Harvard M.B.A.'s, and one spent seven years at General Foods, the other nine years at Pillsbury. The answer is that this new product line is Mr. Brown's brainstorm. It was his idea to investigate the possibilities of producing an assortment of honey-sweetened cakes and pies. And it's his money that's behind the project.
The agency's research folks have discovered that American consumers think Mr. Brown has a very tasty idea, and now Mr. Brown is calling his account supervisor just to make sure his agency understands how much this new line means to him, personally. He's also calling to give the go-ahead for the development of a complete advertising program.
When the account supervisor is finished with the call, he sets up a meeting with the creative director, the media supervisor, and the head of the traffic department. Together they discuss the entire project in detail. When the meeting breaks up, the real machinery of an advertising agency begins to roll.
The creative director picks a creative team-an art director and a copywriter-to start working on creative concepts for this campaign. In fact, chances are he'll assign two or three teams since this project is so large. They'll work on television and radio commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, outdoor boards and in-store promotional pieces. It's the job of the copywriter and art director to create the advertising that will implant the name of Mr. Brown's new line in the minds of the consumers to get them to try that product.
(Notice-it's not their job to sell the product, just to implant the name and get people to try it. One time. If the product is good, if consumers like it, Mr. Brown will sell lots of goodies. But, if consumers think Mr. Brown's product is something akin to meadow muffins, the most brilliant advertising in the world Are You Sure You Know What You're Getting Into? won't convince people to buy it. There's another old saying in this business, "Nothing will kill a bad product quicker than good advertising." No truer words have ever been spoken.)
If consumers like Mr. Brown's new line, it becomes further incumbent on the creative team to keep that product in the minds of consumers, just to be sure they don't forget how much they like it, and to help them remember to buy it again next time they're in the grocery store.
While the creative director is talking with his people, the media supervisor is talking to his planners. They're going to decide just how much of Mr. Brown's money they will spend, in which media, to make consumers aware of his new line. It's media's job to make sure the advertising being created by the art directors and copywriters gets seen by consumers, so it has at least a chance to be successful.
Before the media supervisor ends his meeting with the planners, the account supervisor has a sit-down with the account executive. It's the A.E.'s responsibility to see to it that everybody in the agency has all the information they need to do their respective jobs. As soon as he leaves the meeting with the account supervisor, the A.E. goes to the traffic department, which by now has been told of the project by the traffic department head.
