Advertising
Most jobs in advertising are found in agencies, although vacancies do exist in some of the marketing departments of large companies such as banks and retailers and also in media companies, involved with the selling of advertising space or time.Advertising agencies are comprised of specialist teams who provide the professional advice and expertise needed to produce an effective advertising campaign. In other words, they provide the link between the client, with something to advertise, and the media with the space in which to do it. Full Service Advertising Agencies provide a total service for clients, planning, creating and finally placing advertisements, whereas much smaller, specialist companies will focus on a particular aspect of the process. The core of the business is through mainstream media, such as TV & radio, the press and online.
Advertising creatives work in pairs - as art director and copywriter teams. The words in advertising are called copy, so the people who write them are called copywriters. As well as articulacy, imagination and style, copywriters need an intuitive knowledge of the target market in order to produce relevant creative solutions. Artists can be divided into two groups: visualisers, who come up with creative ideas and designs to go with the copy, and finished artists, who make the visualiser’s ideas become reality.
Account Executives/Managers are responsible for selling an agency’s services to win new business, as well as developing existing client accounts and managing the relationship between clients and the agency. Account Planners align client’s aims with what the customer wants so that an advertising campaign has both a relevant focus and strategic direction. Media Planners identify the right mix of media options to reach the target audience. Given the enormous variety of media, it is essential that targeting is as precise as possible in order that the campaign gains maximum exposure as efficiently as possible. An understanding of media usage is vital, and there is scope for innovation with the new media options. It is the job of the Media Buyer to find the best media opportunities available and then negotiate the best price for the chosen airtime or space. Media Sales, as you might expect, entails selling advertising space and sponsorship in a variety of media, including the press, TV & radio and exhibitions.
Marketing
Usually graduates start out in marketing as a trainee, helping to plan and execute marketing campaigns. There’s a great variety of tasks and roles which might be involved in this. The examples below are divided into two main areas, strategy and implementation.
Strategy: The strategic aims of the marketing campaign will be decided at the outset, with everything else dependent on them. The strategy will align the marketing activity with the overall strategic objectives of the firm, ensuring that the marketing campaign helps to achieve them. The Chartered Institute of Marketing's official definition of Marketing Strategy is 'The set of objectives which an organisation allocates to its marketing function in order to support the overall corporate strategy, together with the broad methods chosen to achieve these objectives.The strategy takes into account any research, product or service development, how the product or service will reach the market (channels) and how the customers will find out (communication). It will also attempt to define a unique positioning for the product or business to differentiate from competitors.
Implementation: This is the actual carrying out of the campaigns. The tasks involved will depend very much on the channels chosen – but they will usually include preparation of the marketing materials, carrying out the campaign and measuring its success. Success is set against the objectives, both during and afterwards, and is a crucial part of the process. The lessons learned will be used to repeat the aspects and ideas which worked, or to come up with different ways of doing things, for those which didn’t.
PR
Most people start their careers in PR as an assistant or junior account executive. In this role, you will be supporting a PR manager who has overall responsibility for campaigns for a variety of clients. As such you'll be involved in all areas of PR work – making this an excellent way to learn the ropes and begin your ascent up the ladder. As with most industries, at first you will mostly be involved in the administrative leg-work – maintaining and updating contact lists, researching media output (for example looking for mentions of your client in the day’s newspapers), maintaining files and so on; but you will also be involved, at a gradually increasing level, in liaising with clients and the media, planning events such as launches and parties, writing copy, and other tasks as below. Jobs in PR are generally either in-house or part of a consultancy. An in-house department works exclusively for a single organization, following an agreed PR plan outlined by management.
An in-house team is expected to be experts about the company it works for, its rivals and the relevant market. Consultancies provide independent PR solutions to clients who do not normally have their own team. Working at a consultancy is more varied, but also requires a more diverse range of knowledge and the ability to adjust the different needs of clients. While PR is a particular industry in itself, it is present in numerous sectors from music and entertainment to financial and consumer. Day-to-day activities can include planning PR programmes, targeting potential activities, ensuring a corporate identity is maintained, attending events such as open days and gathering research. It is unlikely that any two days will ever be the same, and for that reason it can often be fun and rewarding work despite all the long or unsociable hours you may have to put in.