Find your match
You have explored work environment preferences, where you stand when salary and benefits are pitted against potential opportunities, job structures, and areas of possible compromise. You have made a personal evaluation that has focused you on a specialized area. Now you are in a much better position to evaluate different agencies and the jobs they may have to offer. The next step toward your career in advertising involves looking at different types of agencies and what they have to offer that fits in with your personal preferences.
Agencies come in every imaginable size. A small agency can be anything from a one person shop to a group of ten or fifteen people. Most small agencies handle only local accounts because to service an account outside its immediate geographic area or to service a local account that places national or regional ads can be extremely time consuming and beyond the capabilities of the smaller agency. Medium sized agencies have anywhere from 15 employees to 60 or 70. However, an agency's size is relative to the other agencies around it in a small city with only a handful of agencies, a 30 or 40 person agency might be considered large by local standards. In metropolitan areas, the larger agencies may have hundreds, or even thousands, of employees with offices throughout the country and abroad.
Some agencies have come to be referred to as boutiques because they handle only specialized areas of advertising such as fashion, industrial, high tech, corporate, or non profit. In addition, there are boutique agencies that restrict their services by soliciting and accepting only certain kinds of projects. For example, a boutique specializing in corporate image building may only take on high budget corporate communication print projects such as annual reports, logo design, or identity packages. In contrast, a full service agency is one that handles all types and aspects of advertising design and development along with marketing analysis and media buying, regardless of its size. Then there are those agencies that will only work with companies that sell their services and products to other businesses.
These are called business to business agencies. Other agencies will only handle clients who sell to the general consumer market. These are called consumer agencies.
Keep in mind that size and labels are not an indication of an agency's structure or success. The labels, however, can serve as helpful guidelines that provide some initial insights as you begin your agency job search. I do believe, as there is usually some truth to rumors, that there is also some truth to the assumptions that have developed through the years about different types of agencies. These assumptions are presented here to give you a starting place in exploring some of your own agency preferences. The final analysis, of course, will be made when you do in depth agency research.
Agency size does it matter?
An agency's size is not always an indication of its structure or success, but some fairly accurate guidelines have been established that can provide valuable insight as you begin your agency job search.
Guideline #1: Small agencies will give you an opportunity to learn all aspects of the business
Regardless of what you were hired to do or your place on the totem pole, you will be able to observe all aspects of the small agency's day to day operations. You will have direct contact with the agency principals. You will find out firsthand what their concerns are in making their agency profitable as they walk the inevitable tightrope between profits and quality work. If you are interested and keep your eyes and ears open, you will find out how clients are billed, how agency price structures work, and what kinds of problems you can encounter if you own your own agency.
When you work for a small agency, you will probably be asked to sit in on meetings with clients. It is here that you will see how campaigns are developed, budgets determined, and strategies decided upon. If your boss is skilled and competent, you may have an opportunity to watch a master in action when a client's feathers have to be smoothed about a project that costs more than the price quote or a creative approach that strayed far from the client's original idea.
Small agencies (from one to ten employees) have only a few people to do all the same things that the larger agencies do with many people. In a small agency, if you are a graphic designer or a copywriter who also happens to be flexible and willing to take on other areas, you could find yourself developing media schedules, negotiating prices with radio and television salespeople, talking to printers to get price quotes on brochures, and meeting with clients to get approvals on ad layouts. A small agency is the perfect place to get the experience you will need to open your own shop some day if that particular ambition is part of your game plan. If not, it is still a great way to get a real feel for the business of advertising.
Guideline #2: Small agencies have a less threatening environment
While the smaller agencies can be more personal and nurturing, after your beak in time the pressure can build as you are expected to take on more responsibility. Remember, when an agency has only a few people to do everything that means each employee has to do more to keep the agency running smoothly. If you were initially hired as a graphic designer, you may also be expected to take on researching new campaigns, copywriting if you can adequately string a few words together and errand running, as well as phone answering when necessary. Look back at Step One, Workshop 3: Examining job structure preferences. If you have As and Bs for statements 8, 16, and 20, then a small agency may be great for you. But if you have As and Bs for statements 2, 9, 12, and 15, you may be better suited to a larger agency.
