It is not always true that either the London agencies or the 'big boys' of the business are the places where you'll learn a more professional approach. However, the most important spenders are clients who most frequently use London-based agencies. Valuable experience can be gained in small agencies anywhere because you may have to turn your hand to any job that needs doing at a given moment. Multi-national companies tend to prefer big agencies who can handle overseas advertising from a network of international offices.
Strategy, the foundation of successful advertising is to ask a client what he wants his advertising to achieve and what does research in advertising involve?
Few agencies now have the time or the staff to train new entrants in specialist skills, and research is such a skill. If you are interested in research, you should join an independent research company and gain some experience before moving to an agency. The majority of well-known research companies are based in London. They can generally undertake big surveys involving large numbers of people and they provide statistics and interpretations of them. They also set up and run small group discussions, which is done by independent free-lance researchers as well. Once in an agency, researchers must realize that the end product of their job is not research in itself, but advertising, and they must be genuinely interested in that. The researcher is there to help the agency formulate the right strategy and the right advertising solution. It is a continuous process.
In the initial stages, the researcher needs to understand the market, and the client's position and objectives within it. That is, what does the client want the advertising to achieve and to whom should the advertising be addressed? From these basics a strategy is defined, refined and agreed with the client. The researcher can then produce a brief for the creative team which should include what the status of the product is seen to be, who their consumers are, what the advertising is supposed to be doing and a whole host of other basic data. Perhaps research shows that the advertising should give new information, stimulate trial, change, ideas and perception or simply build awareness or greater familiarity with a name. The key benefit of the campaign should be highlighted, and guidance given on style and tone of voice. Finally the creative team should be told where the advertising should appear and how much money there is to spend.
It should be remembered that research findings and conclusions are guidelines, not holy writ. Creative people can be hostile to research, and your findings should be tactfully presented and not issued as orders. Furthermore, research findings can sometimes seem like a glimpse of the obvious, no more than what an intelligent person would have arrived at anyway. It is then that the effect of research on the client should be considered. It can be very useful indeed to have research results which back up your own convictions.
When the creative team has produced an idea or ideas, these produced show. These are often big production numbers printed in full colour, but even this may not single you out from the crowd. A managing director once described being bombarded by a certain young man determined at least to be seen. Eventually a big parcel arrived, filled with shavings and tissue paper and containing one very superior chocolate. He got his interview. At the last ditch, personality is everything. If you can't sell yourself you are unlikely to be able to sell the agency's work.
What are the advantages of an account person's job? A lively and varied existence with panics, certainly, but good times as well, an almost unrivalled insight into British and American business which could alter the course of your career. An account executive working on the business of a merchant bank might become so interested in financial matters that he moves over to his client's advertising department, but as a general rule, the chances of rising to the top are greater in an agency. Thanks to their all-round experience and in particular to planning the marketing skills, the board of an advertising agency is generally largely drawn from the account side, although a medium-to-large agency would almost certainly also have creative, media, research and financial representatives.
What are the disadvantages? Perhaps the feeling that you must of necessity always be at the client's beck and call, and some clients have been known to take advantage of this situation. Your own bosses also sometimes keep in uncomfortably close touch with you-telephone calls at night, sudden desires to 'sit in' on your client meetings, unscheduled weekend meetings. This is only to be expected, for the management of a client's account is the management of an advertising agency in miniature.
