Adertising Agencies

Table of Content Advertising3 Industry Snapshot4 Nature of the Industry5 Media7 In-film advertising9 Work Environment10 Personal characteristics11 Employment avenues12 Public service advertising12 Regulation13 Copyright14 Advertising Agency15 History of ad agency17 Advertising Process19 Typical work flow in agency19 Types of advertising agencies20 The functions of an advertising agency:23 The Benefits of Using an Advertising Agency23 Advertising Agency's Role24 Services offered by ad agency25 Departments & Personnel28 Account Services / Account Management28 Account planner / Director28 Account Supervisor29 Account executives29 Creative department30 Art Directors30 Copywriter31 Digital Studio34 DTP Artist34 Visualizer34 Media Department35 FUNCTIONS OF THE MEDIA DEPARTMENT35 Marketing Research Department37 Creative Services Department38 Event Management and Promotion department38 Traffic Manager (system administrator)38 Radio & TV Broadcast Production Department39 Print Production Department40 Agency Personnel41 Production Team41 Storyboard artist41 Graphic designer42 Advertising interns43 Job Positions and Earnings44 Agency Compensation45 Impact of technology on advertising46 Common software used by ad agency47 Adobe Photoshop48 QuarkXPress48 Autodesk Maya49 Adobe Flash50 CorelDRAW51 Computer-aided design (CAD)52 Famous advertising agencies in world53 Ogilvy & Mather India54 Overview54 Network55 Key people56 Services offered56 Major Clients57 Indian ad legends58 Large vs. Small Agencies62 Workforce for ad agency63 Study / Training & Advancement64 Courses / Institutions66 Future68 Outlook69 Myth: An agency always helps to sell a product70 Case study71 Advertising creative75 Conclusion76 Bibliography & Webliograpy77 Advertising Advertising, generally speaking, is the promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas, usually performed by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of an overall promotional strategy. Other components of the promotional mix include publicity, public relations, personal selling, and sales promotion. Advertising involves the process where in a massage is designed so as to promote a product, a thought, an idea or even a service. The concept of advertising has assumed a dynamic form with the use of the various mediums of communication. From the newspaper, magazines, posters, neon and fluorescent signboards, billboards to the commercial on TV, laser shows to inflated high-rise figures and objects, advertising has come a long way. The work is formidable as it spearheads a process intended to attract, modify, change and influences public opinion. From the local business to multinational firm and all need to advertise. While politicians, social organizations, government special groups need to advertise their motto, national airlines, auto mobile manufactures, food and consumer goods manufacturers have to reach the consumer. Specialist products and services are often advertised through trade magazines and exhibitions. Lately mail-shots, handbill circulation, special offers have become very popular. There are still other ways of advertising. There are window displays, display on telephone directories, transit sign on buses, lamp posters, banners, etc. Advertising through the electronic media has been perhaps the most popular medium. Advertising, as an effective medium, uses a variety of techniques to create effective advertisements. A basic appeal is at the heart of advertising. Slogans and product characters are created to catch the attention of the viewers. Most winning advertisements would encompass factual information with emotional appeal. The advertising industry has three major sectors. †¢ Business or organization which wishes to advertise, †¢ Media which provides the medium for advertising and †¢ Ad-agency which creates the ad to suit the need of the firm. Ad agencies vary in the size and turnover. Nevertheless the process of creating an ad remains the same. The annual expenditure on the advertising has been to the tune of Rs 8000 crores and the figure could be higher. USA has projected media spending on advertising on the net to approximately $7700 by the turn of the century. The scope for advertising professionals certainly shows an upward trend. Industry Snapshot According the Advertising Age's 2002 Agency Report, the world's six largest advertising agencies accounted for over 65 percent of $39. 28 billion spent on advertising worldwide in 2001. But the advertising industry has suffered during the first years of the 2000s. The economy decline prior to and exacerbated by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 has been sustained by the ongoing conflict with Iraq. As an indicator of the softened demand for advertising services, advertising agency employment fell to just over 180,000 in December 2002, down from an average employment of 194,400 in 2001 and 182,400 in 2002, representing the largest decline since 1991. Advertising agencies are primarily responsible for two functions. The first is the production of advertising materials in the form of written copy, art, graphics, audio, and video. The second is the strategic placement of the finished creative product in various media outlets, such as periodicals, newspapers, radio, and television. Advertising agencies can be found throughout the United States, with the greatest percentage located in large cities. Many have headquarters in New York and field offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Detroit, and other major areas of commerce in order to be close to clients. Although the larger agencies are more frequently mentioned in the media and in trade publications, the industry is actually predominately comprised of smaller agencies, many with only one or two principals. Industry bservers credit lower overhead, diversified services, willingness to accommodate change, and an entrepreneurial attitude for the success of smaller, boutique agencies. As many clients have begun to focus on a variety of forms of marketing communications, advertising agencies have had to look beyond conventional media-based advertising. Advertising budgets reflect this shift, with additional dollars being earmarked for point-of-sale promotions, public relations, and a major entry in to the media mix—the Internet. Changing demographics and a savvy American consumer were the driving forces behind these alternative forms of marketing communications. Some industry leaders have projected that advertising agencies will need to augment their primary line of work and change their longstanding compensation system based on commissions. Realizing the need for â€Å"integrated marketing services,† many agencies have responded by offering public relations, direct mail, promotional, and Internet services. Nature of the Industry Firms in the advertising and public relations services industry prepare advertisements for other companies and organizations and design campaigns to promote the interests and image of their clients. This industry also includes media representatives—firms that sell advertising space for publications, radio, television, and the Internet; display advertisers—businesses engaged in creating and designing public display ads for use in shopping malls, on billboards, or in similar media; and direct mail advertisers. A firm that purchases advertising time (or space) from media outlets, thereafter reselling it to advertising agencies or individual companies directly, is considered a media buying agency. Divisions of companies that produce and place their own advertising are not considered part of this industry. Most advertising firms specialize in a particular market niche. Some companies produce and solicit outdoor advertising, such as billboards and electric displays. Others place ads in buses, subways, taxis, airports, and bus terminals. A small number of firms produce aerial advertising, while others distribute circulars, handbills, and free samples. Groups within agencies have been created to serve their clients’ electronic advertising needs on the Internet. Online advertisements link users to a company’s or product’s Web site, where information such as new product announcements, contests, and product catalogs appears, and from which purchases may be made. Some firms are not involved in the creation of ads at all; instead, they sell advertising time or space on radio and television stations or in publications. Because these firms do not produce advertising, their staffs are mostly sales workers. Companies often look to advertising as a way of boosting sales by increasing the public’s exposure to a product or service. Most companies do not have the staff with the necessary skills or experience to create effective advertisements; furthermore, many advertising campaigns are temporary, so employers would have difficulty maintaining their own advertising staff. Instead, companies commonly solicit bids from ad agencies to develop advertising for them. Next, ad agencies offering their services to the company often make presentations. After winning an account, various departments within an agency—such as creative, production, media, and research—work together to meet the client’s goal of increasing sales. Widespread public relations services firms can influence how businesses, governments, and institutions make decisions. Often working behind the scenes, these firms have a variety of functions. In general, firms in public relations services advise and implement public exposure strategies. Firms in public relations services offer one or more resources that clients cannot provide themselves. Usually this resource is expertise in the form of knowledge, experience, special skills, or creativity; but sometimes the resource is time or personnel that the client cannot spare. Clients of public relations firms include all types of businesses, institutions, trades, and public interest groups, and even high-profile individuals. Clients are large and small for-profit firms in the private sector; State, local, or Federal Governments; hospitals, universities, unions, and trade groups; and foreign governments or businesses. In an effort to attract and maintain clients, advertising and public relations services agencies are diversifying their services, offering advertising as well as public relations, sales, marketing, and interactive media services. Advertising and public relations service firms have found that highly creative work is particularly suitable for their services, resulting in a better product and increasing their clients' profitability. Media Commercial advertising media can include wall paintings, billboards , street furniture components, printed flyers, radio, cinema and television ads, web banners, web popups, skywriting, bus stop benches, magazines, newspapers, town criers, sides of buses, taxicab doors and roof mounts, musical stage shows, subway platforms and trains, elastic bands on disposable diapers, stickers on apples in supermarkets, the opening section of streaming audio and video, and the backs of event tickets and supermarket receipts. Any place an â€Å"identified† sponsor pays to deliver their message through a medium is advertising. Covert advertising embedded in other entertainment media is known as product placement. A more recent version of this is advertising in film, by having a main character use an item or other of a definite brand – an example is in the movie Minority Report, where Tom Cruise's character Tom Anderton owns a computer with the Nokia logo clearly written in the top corner, or his watch engraved with the Bulgari logo. The TV commercial is generally considered the most effective mass-market advertising format and this is reflected by the high prices TV networks charge for commercial airtime during popular TV events. Virtual advertisements may be inserted into regular television programming through computer graphics. It is typically inserted into otherwise blank backdrops or used to replace local billboards that are not relevant to the remote broadcast audience. More controversially, virtual billboards may be inserted into the background where none existing in real-life. Virtual product placement is also possible. Increasingly, other mediums such as those discussed below are overtaking television due to a shift towards consumer's usage of the Internet. Advertising on the World Wide Web is a recent phenomenon. Prices of Web-based advertising space are dependent on the â€Å"relevance† of the surrounding web content and the traffic that the website receives. E-mail advertising is another recent phenomenon. Unsolicited bulk E-mail advertising is known as â€Å"spam†. Profile of major advertising mediums MEDIUM |ADVANTAGES |LIMITATIONS | |Newspapers |Flexibility; timeliness; good local market coverage; |Short life; poor reproduction quality; small | | |broad acceptance; high believability. |pass along audience. | |Television |Combines sight, sound and motion; appealing to the |High absolute cost, high clutter, fleeting | | |senses; high attention; high reach. exposure, less audience selectivity | |Direct mail |Audience selectivity, flexibil ity, no ad competition |Relatively high cost, junk mail image. | | |within the same medium, personalization. | | |Radio |Mass use, high geographical and demographic |Audio presentation only; lower attention than | | |selectivity; low cost. |television; non standardized rate structure; | | | |fleeting exposure. |Magazines |High geographical and demographic selectivity; |Long ad purchase lead time; some waste | | |credibility and prestige; high quality reproduction, |circulation; no guarantee of position. | | |long life; good pass-along readership. | | |Outdoor |Flexibility; high repeat exposure; low cost; low |Limited audience selectivity; creative | | |competition. |limitation. | |Brouchers |Flexibility; full control; can dramatize message. Overproduction could lead to run away costs. | In-film advertising In-film advertising used to mean a couple of product billboards placed behind the hero's car, Till Taal came along. That's the film that put Coke — and product placements à ¢â‚¬â€ firmly in the plot. In-film advertising has only gathered more fans since. It's not just the colas, brands like Hero Honda, Bru, and Fair & Lovely have got into the act. It has become a well-thought out and legitimate part of a brand's marketing plan, and as the film industry gets more corporatised, it's likely to get more popular. This season's got a blockbuster hitting the screen, with all the attendant song, dance and scandal. Kaante stars Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Kumar Gaurav, Lucky Ali and Mahesh Manjrekar — and Thums Up. Coke's paid Sanjay Gupta, the film's producer, to feature the cola in some scenes — rumours put the figure at Rs 4 crore, but Coca-Cola, as well as the producer, say it isn't so — and it's also airing promos for the film that incorporate the Thums Up brand. Leo Entertainment, the film marketing division of Leo Burnett, is working with White Feather Productions in their marketing efforts. Work Environment Ad agencies are based within office settings. Accounts Executives, Account Planers, Media Executives, Art Directors and Copywriters spend most of their working time in agency office. Account Executives have to travel extensively, visiting clients and suppliers. While other staff, travel occasionally to attend meetings with clients, or visit locations during film production. Ad agencies are very busy places and often work is on till late hours. In 2004, workers in the industry averaged 33. 8 hours per week, a little higher than the national average of 33. . Most employees in advertising and public relations services work in comfortable offices operating in a teamwork environment; however, long hours, including evenings and weekends, are common. There are fewer opportunities for part-time work than in many other industries; in 2004, 14 percent of advertising and public relations employees worked part time, compared with 16 percent of all workers. Work in advertising an d public relations is fast-paced and exciting, but it also can be stressful. Being creative on a tight schedule can be emotionally draining. Some workers, such as lobbyists, consultants, and public relations writers, frequently must meet deadlines and consequently may work long hours at times. Workers, whose services are billed hourly, such as advertising consultants and public relations specialists, are often under pressure to manage their time carefully. In addition, frequent meetings with clients and media representatives may involve substantial travel. Most firms encourage employees to attend employer-paid time-management classes, which help reduce the stress sometimes associated with working under strict time constraints. Also, with today’s hectic lifestyle, many firms in this industry offer or provide health facilities or clubs to help employees maintain good health. Personal characteristics People in the accounts or client servicing i. e. , the Account Executives, Director and planer need to be adept at negotiating. The ability to communicate easily is vital. They face the challenge of competing in the market with other agencies; hence need to have drive determination and tremendous physical and mental stamina. Sensitivity to consumer behavior, trends and human nature are important for success in advertising. They should be able to assimilate the client’s requirements and in a lucid style prepare briefs for other departments. The ability to get the work executed by all departments is specially required. The creative people need a good visual ability, languageartistic skill. Copywriter requires literary ability but an interest in commercial success which comes from understanding what motives the target audience is important. Writers must be able to work, to a strict brief, within restricted space and in limited time. Advertising must follow legal requirements and rules hence considerable creative self-discipline is needed. A feeling for words, economy of style and imagination is needed. The copywriter works with the art director, and the creative director. The work can be very frustrating particularly when an idea is rejected by the art director and amendments made by the creative director and the client. This can often restrict the imaginative capacity of the copywriter. The openness to stand criticism is absolutely essential. Media Executives, Planners and Executive directors with others in an integrated team. They should be able to interplant a great deal of information. Media buyers spend most of their time negotiating over the telephone to buy space or time. Attention to detail is needed for keeping to the budget allocated. Employment avenues The business of advertising has been growing in proportion to the national economy. Greater competition between domestic and multinational firms has spurred marketing and advertising efforts. Competition for these jobs is growing. Creative college graduates with communication skills will get the best jobs. Job opportunities are in advertising agencies, commercial radio and public, Multinational firms, advertising/PR department of organisations/business/government. Advertising agencies have the highest profile in a much larger advertising industry, composed of various media, advertisers, printers, photographers, typesetters, and others that act as suppliers to the industry. Accordingly, agencies attract most of the people who want to get into advertising. Generally speaking, an agency is not the place to start an advertising career until the candidate has acquired two sorts of knowledge not available in most academic institutions. First, an extremely good working knowledge of how a wide variety of businesses work is necessary, for agencies serve so many kinds of clients. Second, one must develop good interpersonal business skills to be successful in the agency industry, and these skills are usually developed only in on-the-job experiences. Public service advertising The same advertising techniques used to promote commercial goods and services can be used to inform, educate and motivate the public about non-commercial issues, such as AIDS, political ideology, energy conservation, religious recruitment, and deforestation. The Government of India has for a long time relied considerably on the talents of the Advertising Agency and the Advertising Agencies Association of India for social causes. Family Planning is the most successful campaign for a social cause by any advertising agency. Advertising, in its non-commercial guise, is a powerful educational tool capable of reaching and motivating large audiences. Regulation There have been increasing efforts to protect the public interest by regulating the content and the reach of advertising. Some examples are the ban on television tobacco advertising imposed in many countries. The general aim of such codes is to ensure that any advertising is legal, decent, honest and truthful. Some self-regulatory organizations are funded by the industry, but remain independent, with the intent of upholding the standards or codes. In India there is Advertising Agency’s Association of India (AAAI) that supervises the affairs of the industry. There is a body called Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), which looks at issues pertaining to regulation of advertising. The advertising of controversial products such as cigarettes and condoms is subject to government regulation in many countries. For instance, the tobacco industry is required by law in India and Pakistan to display statutory warnings cautioning consumers about the health hazards of their products. Some potential ETHICAL ISSUES often come under scrutiny form moral or ethical perspective and border on being regulated are mentioned here. The idea is to be more aware and sensitive to them looking at advertising. †¢ Untruthful and misleading claims made in the ads. Misrepresentation of facts or situations in the name of creative license. †¢ Obscenity and misuse of sex advertising. †¢ Advertising inducing children †¢ Advertising of products that are commonly assumed to have harmful effects like alcohol, cigarette, drugs, weapons, etc. †¢ Surrogate advertising with hinted or hidden message. †¢ Media issues like use of billboards and other outdoor advertising (f or traffic & safety reasons) †¢ Copyright, trademark and issues of making unfair competitive claims. †¢ Civil rights or rights of privacy or citizens Copyright Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. At its most general, it is literally â€Å"the right to copy† an original creation. In most cases, these rights are of limited duration. Copyright may subsist in a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms or â€Å"works†. These include poems, plays, and other literary works, movies, choreographic works, musical compositions, audio recordings, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, software, radio and television broadcasts of live and other performances, and, in some jurisdictions, industrial designs. Copyright law covers only the particular form or manner in which ideas or information have been manifested, the â€Å"form of material expression†. It is not designed or intended to cover the actual idea, concepts, facts, styles, or techniques which may be embodied in or represented by the copyright work. Several exclusive rights typically attach to the holder of a copyright: †¢ to produce copies or reproductions of the work and to sell those copies (including, typically, electronic copies) †¢ to import or export the work to create derivative works (works that adapt the original work) †¢ to perform or display the work publicly †¢ to sell or assign these rights to others Ad agency is supposed to follow the rules and regulations of copyright laws while creative ads for any product they must see that the concepts are not fully copied from somewhere else. Advertising Agency Getting the best out of advertising is a highly skilled job. It requires the inputs of e xperts in many different fields like writers, artists, photographers, designers, television production crews and many others. Even the biggest advertisers cannot afford to employ all these experts. Almost all advertising is therefore arranged through an advertising agency which provides the necessary skill to turn the message into a memorable and effective advertisement. Advertising has not only come to reflect pop culture but has also become an important element of economic growth. Today, every person connected with the Indian economy or public should be fully aware what advertising really is and why effective advertising campaigns can be performed by full-service advertising agencies. Advertising agency is one of the most important components of advertising industry. It has played a significant role in the development of modern advertising. The advertising agency has evolved to provide the specialized knowledge, skills and experience needed to produce effective advertising campaigns. It provides a quality range of service greater than any single advertiser could afford or would need to employ. An advertising agency is a firm that specializes in the creation, design and placement of advertisements, and in the planning and execution of promotional campaigns for products and services of their clients. The Association of Advertising Agencies of America (AAAA) defines advertising agency as â€Å"An independent business organization composed of creative and business people who develop, prepare and place advertising media for sellers seeking to find customers for their goods and services. † The glamour, the unlimited expense accounts, and the exhilarating lifestyle – all these popular portraits of life in the big-time advertising agency are misleading. Advertising is demanding, challenging, hard work. It is also interesting and fulfilling. Advertising requires a mix of personal abilities, considerable business skills, and an ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines. Compared to larger industries, there are never many entry-level positions open in advertising agencies (dozens rather than hundreds). And competition is stiff. The industry, however, is constantly on the look out for skilled, bright, articulate, creative and personable men and women with a well-rounded education and a good business sense. An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for their clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients. Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Agencies may be hired to produce single ads or, more commonly, ongoing series of related ads, called an advertising campaign. History of ad agency 1. Period of early growth 1841 – 1865. The first advertising agency on record in the US was Olney B. Palmer. In 1841, Palmer organized a newspaper advertising and subscription agency. By 1849 he had established offices in the cities of New York, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia. At this early fate, there were no directions of newspapers and no published rates for space to be sold to advertisers. Palmer acted as an informatory agent in these matters to prospective advertisers. In essence, he served as a salesman of space for publishers and they in turn, gave him a commission of 25% of such sales. The publishers found these methods of selling more effective than trying to sell direct and advertisers, wishing to reach more than one territory found value in such service. Completion increased, and the usual price cutting occurred. Success seemed to depend upon one’s ability to bargain with the publisher and advertiser. The natural result of this policy was a general reduction in profits to the agency; this led to a search for new competitive tools which would return a profit. 2. Wholesaling Period 1865 – 1880 George P. Rowell, who opened an agency in 1865, supplied the new competitive tool. Rowell contracted with 100 newspapers to sell him a column of space each week for a year. Throughout the wholesaling period, the agent continued as a seller of space for publishers. This took on different forms, one of which was the exclusive right to sell space in certain publishers. Thus, one agency developed a controlled list of religious papers, another a â€Å"List of Thirsty† household magazines. Any advertiser wishing to buy space in the controlled publications was forced to buy through the exclusive wholesaler for that paper. . Semi Service Period 1880 – 1917 The wholesaling phase of agency work was checked when publishers began to establish their own sales departments for selling space. Some of these departments sold direct to the advertiser, others to the general advertising agency. Thus, the agency was forced to turn its attention somewhat away from the particular function of s elling space for publisher and toward the function of buying space for the advertiser. Early in the semi service period agencies offered to write the copy for the advertiser, thus giving added weight to their claim of being servants of the advertiser. This concept of service was slow to develop; but in the early part of the 20th century, agencies began to emphasize strongly this â€Å"free† service. One agency in 1905 advertised that it paid $28,000 a year for a copywriter. These methods increased the agency business and forced most space sales to be made through them. 4. Service Period 1917 – Present By 1917 the idea of service had grown until not only was copywriting done for the advertiser but many other things as well. During the service period, many agencies have grown to the position of advertising and marketing counselors for advertiser. The service elements has modified the position of agencies to such a degree that radio and television, network and magazine publishers have come to depend upon them as the primary channel through which time and space are sold. Publishers claim to have had an important part in encouragements of agencies to provide extra service to the advertiser. By providing advertisers with the kind of assistance that will improve the effectiveness of advertising, more time and space naturally will be sold. Advertising Process When preparing your search proposal, you should take into account that the â€Å"lead-in† time needed to place an ad can vary anywhere from days to months depending on the publication. You should plan to have your ad approved and an estimate of the cost done at least one month prior to the date when you want the ad to be published. The advertising process for professional staff and faculty positions involves five basic steps: 1. Writing an Ad 2. Getting Approval for the Text of the Ad 3. Estimating the Cost of the Ad 4. Placing Ads & Posting Announcements 5. Paying for Ads Typical work flow in agency STAGE |WORK PERFORMED AT STAGE | |Briefing Stage |Briefing from the client | | |Internal briefing to the creative and media | | |Any research briefing if required | |Creation Stage |Ad campaign and media plan development | | |Internal review and finalization | | |Presentation to client and approvals | | |Any pre-testing if required | |Production Stage |Budget and estimate approv als | | |Production of ilm, press ads, collaterals | | |Media Scheduling and media booking | | |All release approvals for creative & media | |Post Production Stage |Material dispatch to media | | |Media release monitoring | | |Any post-testing if required | | |Billing and collection | Types of advertising agencies Ad agencies come in all sizes, from small one- or two-person shops to large multi-national, multi-agency conglomerates such as Omnicom Group, WPP Group, Interpublic Group of Companies and Havas. Some agencies specialize in particular types of advertising, such as print ads or television commercials. Other agencies, especially larger ones, produce work for many types of media. Lately, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms have been classified by some as ‘agencies' due to the fact that they are creating media and implementing media purchases of text based (or image based in some instances of search marketing) ads. This relatively young industry has been slow to adopt the term ‘agency' however with the creation of ads (either text or image) and media purchases they do qualify technically as an ‘advertising agency' as well as recent studies suggest that both SEO and SEM are set to outpace magazine spending in the next 3-5 years. Not all advertising is created by agencies. Companies that create and plan their own advertising are said to do their work in house. Today selection of ad-agency is very difficult. The advertiser should make list of all possible agencies that can serve his purpose and the agency best qualified to provide required and effective services are selected. Some advertiser may select more than one advertising agency to handle effectively the various product lines. Following are major types of advertising agencies that are currently serving the advertising industry. Full Service Agencies A full service ad agency is one that provides a range of marketing services. A full services agency provides services that are directly related to advertising such as copywriting, artwork, production of ads, media planning etc. It also provides such services in respect of pricing, distribution, packaging, product design etc. Modular agencies A modular agency is a full service agency that sells its services on a piece meal basis. Thus an advertiser may commission an agency’s creative department to develop an ad campaign while obtaining other agency services elsewhere. Or, an advertiser may hire an agencies media department to plan and execute a program for advertising that another agency has developed. Fees are charged for actual work undertaken. In House agencies Those companies, which prefer to have closer control over advertising, have their own in-house agency. This type is owned completely by the advertiser. It performs almost all functions that an outside advertising agency would perform and that’s why some people refer to it as full-service advertising department of the advertiser. However, the difference between an in-house agency and an advertising department is that the in-house agency can undertake to serve several other clients, if the owner so desires, but an advertising department solely undertakes that work of its owner and not of outside clients. Secondly an advertising department may not be equipped the personnel and facilities, which an in-house agency would posses. In-house agency not only provides control over advertising schedule and costs, but also offers convenience for its owner, because it is just available in the same building as that of the head office of advertiser. Such in-house agency also benefits the owner as it can bring revenue through agency commission that are offered by the media and by way of fees that are collected from outside parties for undertaking their advertising work. Such revenue increases the funds and profits of the company. There is another version of in-house agency whereby advertiser handles the total agency functions by buying service unit to buy time, space and place the ads. Such an In-house agency is an administrative center (under the direction of an advertising director) that gathers and directs varying outside for its operation. Creative Boutiques These are shop agencies that provides only creative functions and not full-service. The specialized creative functions include copy writing, artwork and production of ads, they charge a fee or percentage of full service agencies, and as such most of them convert into a full service agency or merge with other agencies to provide a wide range of services. Mega agencies A significant of 1980’s is the development of mega agency. Agencies worldwide merge with each other serve their clients in much better way. It was in 1986, Saachi & Saachi, a London based agency who started the movement and at present it is the third largest agency network in the world. The Specialists Agency There are some agencies who undertake advertising work only in certain areas. there are agencies that specialize only in financial services or only in publicity or only in point-of-purchase material etc. for instance Soubhagya advertising agency concentrate on specialized in financial advertising. The functions of an advertising agency: †¢ To accelerate economic growth and create public awareness †¢ To provide a total, professional, experienced service which is very personal in its nature †¢ To take the advertiser's message and convert it into an effective and memorable communication The Benefits of Using an Advertising Agency †¢ Added Expertise †¢ Media Knowledge and Unbiased Advice †¢ Easier Administration †¢ Media Buying †¢ Quality Control †¢ Information †¢ Fending off the media †¢ And when things go wrong †¢ Cost Saving †¢ Time Saving Advertising Agency's Role Suppose you are a company with a product. It may be a totally new product. As a company with a product or service to sell, designing and making that item is only part of the battle. People are not going to beat a path to your door. You have to seek a channel of communication. Ad agency need to consider, for example: †¢ For whom is the product or service designed? †¢ Who would use it? Who is the â€Å"target group†? †¢ What's special about the product? In what way is it distinct? Unique? Different? †¢ What's its â€Å"position† in relation to other similar products? †¢ What do you want to convey to the public about y our product? †¢ How should your company contact the public? †¢ What medium should it use? Radio? TV? Newspapers? Magazines? Billboards? Bus/subway ads? Direct mail? etc. †¢ How extensive a region should your company try to cover? †¢ How often? Communication and marketing decisions involve specialized expertise. Many companies that design and produce products or offer services lack these specific capabilities. This is where advertising agencies fit in. Advertising agencies exist to help companies to communicate with the public, Market the company's product. [pic] The process of advertising involves considerable specialized knowledge and expertise †¢ about people – their interests, preferences, needs, wants, lifestyles, expectations †¢ about media – their reach, their effectiveness, their specific appeal †¢ about the company and its product – and about competing companies and their products Services offered by ad agency Total Advertising Services Strategic planning, creative development and media services for advertising, particularly in television, newspapers, magazines and radio; providing the best creative designed to capture the imagination of consumers Marketing Services Provision of a number of advertising related services, including sales promotion, market research, PR and event marketing. e-Solution Services e-solution services, including system integration services, e-business consulting and customer relationship management (CRM), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and e-promotions using the Internet and mobile. Content Business Sales of sponsorship, broadcasting and other rights, and the production and marketing of such media / content as sporting events, films, TV programs, animated content, music and other forms of entertainment. Integrated Media Services Bringing value to both clients and media-related companies by offering a wide range of media solution services Sales Promotion Providing comprehensive sales promotion planning designed to complement mass media and other activities Event Marketing Assisting clients by providing dynamic vehicles for their messages in the form of on-the-spot interactive communications Integrated Branding Services Assuring clients the highest quality of branding services for their communication needs Organization Structure The activities within an advertising agency are typically divided into 4 broad groups: account management, the creative department, media buying, and research. These divisions are usually physically separated, although all four areas work closely together to produce an advertising campaign in its entirety. Account managers usually have daily interaction with a counterpart at the client's office and coordinate the activities of the other departments according to the client's wishes. The creative department designs original themes or concepts for ads, while the media department places finished ads within the media in which they will receive the most exposure to a target audience. The research department provides data about consumers to help the agency and the client make informed advertising decisions. Recently added to advertising agencies' roster of services are public relations, direct marketing, and promotional services. Other activities that used to be completed by outside vendors, such as photography and high-tech print work, have been brought in-house in many agencies. ORGANIZATION CHART [pic] [pic] Departments & Personnel Account Services / Account Management The other major department in ad agencies is account services or account management. Account service employees work directly with clients and potential clients, soliciting business for the ad agency and determining what clients need and want the agency to do for them. They are also charged with understanding the client’s business situation and representing those needs within the agency, so that ads can be brought to bear on the correct problem. Account planner / Director The Account Planner is the main planning executive who works in partnership with the client on long-term account planning. He knows what is happening in the market place, the attitude of the consumer towards the client’s as well as the competitor’s brands. Account Planner Deals with senior members of the client organization. He is responsible for agency performance as a whole with limited involvement in routine agency projects. The Account Director is responsible for forward, long-term planning, deployment of agency personnel and overall account profitability. The account planner was originally employed to â€Å"represent the consumer† in the advertising i. e. , find the best way to pitch the clients products to people by better understanding them, what they want and how to talk to them. Planning's role has expanded considerably since it was originally introduced. Planners are now also brand strategists and, to a certain extent, media strategists – using consumer insights to understand where and how people are most receptive to certain messages. In many agencies, there is a dedicated media department and there are also some large and small agencies that exclusively handle media strategy and media buying. Account Supervisor A middle management position: he or she manages the account within a medium term perspective. This includes strategic planning, market analysis, competitive activity analysis, as well as recognizing and capitalizing on business building opportunities. Account executives Account executives represent their ad agency to their clients. They understand sales and advertising problems of the client and address the client’s need to the advertising approach. In advertising ‘The account’ is the client. The business of each client with the agency is referred to as an account. An ad agency handles assignments of a number of clients. A client’s business is assigned to a team of people from the ad agency with the Account Executive at the head of team. An account executive may be handling the business of number of non-competing clients at the same time. The Account Executive supervises his team of people drawn from all departments while planning, scheduling and executing the assignment. Before a campaign is launched research on the client’s business methods, the product to be advertised is made. With this background information there is a meeting of the creative media and marketing division along with members of the client’s team. The objective of this meeting is to define the nature and use of the product, and the target users as well as other competing brands. After all the information is assigned the agency team prepares a draft brief with recommendations. These are presented to the client by the Account Executive. The brief and budget are discussed and after finalization of work. The Account Executive motivates guides and coordinates the activities so that deadlines are met and the client’s expectations become a reality. He spends lot of time keeping the client updated on the progress. The Agency’s Director too has to be kept informed. This is done directly in smaller firms but in larger firms there may be an Account Planner or Director. The chief role of account executive is to extract the best possible work from the other departments of the agency. They are in daily touch with clients. Creative department The creative department is the people who create the actual ads – form the core of an advertising agency. Modern advertising agencies usually form their copywriters and art directors into creative teams. Creative teams may be permanent partnerships or formed on a project-by-project basis. The art director and copywriter report to a creative director, usually a creative employee with several years of experience. Although copywriters have the word â€Å"write† in their job title, and art directors have the word â€Å"art†, one does not necessarily write the words and the other draw the pictures; they both generate creative ideas to represent the proposition (the advertisement or campaign's key message). Creatives frequently work with outside design or production studios to develop and implement their ideas. Creative department consist of two key personnel i. e. art director and copywriters. These positions and ad agency is explained below. Art Directors Art Directors in Advertising aren't necessarily the head of an Art Department although the title may suggest it. They typically work in teams with a copywriter. Together the team works on a concept and design for commercials, print advertisements, and any other advertising medium. The art director is mostly responsible for the visual look and feel of the creative product as well as the concept. The Art Director ensures that the end product has the same look and feel as the original concept. The copywriter has ultimate responsibility for the product's verbal and textual content, and both are responsible for coming up with big, effective and persuasive ideas. Depending on the competencies of each, they may share tasks that are traditionally designated for one or the other, for instance, an art director may suggest certain wording and a copywriter may suggest a certain aesthetic for a project. Art directors may also oversee a team of junior designers, image developers and production artists. In a smaller organization the art director may fill these roles as well. In a larger organization, art directors may oversee other art directors in a senior/junior art director relationship. Copywriter A copywriter is a person who writes text, or copy, for clients. Most copywriters work in advertising or marketing, producing copy that's intended to persuade a reader to buy a product or service or otherwise take action. Copywriting involves providing words, which are read or heard in advertisements. This may include slogans or jingles or detailed text for catalogues, brochures, leaflets and journals. Copywriting also takes the form of script for television and film commercial advertisement. Copywriters can contribute words and ideas to print ads, catalogs, billboards, commercials, brochures, postcards, online sites, e-mail, letters and other advertising media. Ultimately, the kinds of ads and media a copywriter will work in depend on his or her own inclination and what clients ask for. A copywriter often works as part of an advertising team. Agencies and advertising departments partner copywriters with art directors. The copywriter has ultimate responsibility for their ads verbal and textual content, the art director has ultimate responsibility for the visual look and appeal, and both are responsible for coming up with big, effective, persuasive ideas. Copywriter and visual art work go hand in hand and this is the work which goes on in the agency’s creative department. Briefs from the Account Executive outlining the target group for the advertisement and information about the product, followed by discussions with the account planner, along with research material, and perhaps a meeting with client put the creative department to work. The essential skill of the Copywriter lies in interpreting and understanding the mind and needs of the target audience and the characteristics of the product. They must identify what it is that would make people want or need the product being promoted. The Art Director and the Copywriter together then work on an idea that should catch the attention of the public and put the selling point of the product across; many ads are discarded, reincarnated and created. The final product is a team effort of the Copywriter and Art director with each other having suggested alterations to the other. The more successful creations are then shown to the creative director who in turn may suggest further modifications. Final drawings are then produced and shown to the client. Once the client accepts the concept and layout is modified and the details filled in. The design and copy is sent to the production team for typesetting, photographs and drawings for printed advertisements or filming for television commercials. Giants in the copywriting field include David Ogilvy, William Bernbach, Robert W. Bly and Leo Burnett. Many creative artists spent some of their career as copywriters before becoming famous for other things, including Dorothy L. Sayers, Joseph Heller, Terry Gilliam, Salman Rushdie, and Don DeLillo. Creative Department people need following attributes for this back-breaking job. †¢ A good psychologist. †¢ Willing and able to set high standards. †¢ An efficient administrator & Research minded †¢ Capable of strategic thinking – ‘positioning’ and all that. †¢ Equally good at package goods and other kinds of accounts †¢ Well versed in graphics and photography †¢ A hard worker and fast †¢ Slow to quarrel Prepared to share credit for good work, and accept blame for bad work †¢ A good presenter & good recruiter Creative Process Policy [pic] Digital Studio Often called the DTP section, this set of people work on the final artwor ks that are sent to the various publications for release. DTP Artist DTP Artist is Desk Top Publishing worker, a special name used in Advertising agencies, Publisher, Color separation, Printing and other related industries. A DTP Artist usually skilled in multiple computer design applications, such as QuarkXPress, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, Adobe InDesign CS, and others. DTP Artist is formerly known as FA Artist (FA: Finishing Artwork), the name changed due to the digital revolution. DTP Artist is a common name used in India, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries. In America, advertising DTP associate is the term frequently used to describe graphic artists working for in-house art departments. American advertising agencies separate the role of graphic artists between art directors and production artists. Visualizer Visualizer is a position designed by Advertising agencies to assist Art directors, in producing quick & good quality artworks, for presentation (to please the clients). The salary of a Visualizer is very low, usually an average salary of a Visualizer is less than half, or sometimes quarter, of the salary of an Art Director. Visualizer is a special name used in advertising agencies in non-native English speaking countries, Malaysia, Singapore and others. Media Department Size and scale of the advertising is not important. What's in the mind is important. The big bucks are not being spent on production, they are being spent on broadcasting. The Media Department of an advertising agency is responsible for the planning and placement of advertising time and space. It is a function that in recent years has undergone considerable change. The proliferation of media forms and the escalating cost of media time have brought a new focus to the Agency Media Department. Media Executives The main task of the media executives is to place the advertisements where they will be seen by the right target audience keeping the budget in the mind. Hence this job requires planning, research and buying space in the press or time for commercial radio and television. In large agencies this task may be allocated to two or three different specialist. There may be a media planners and media buyers. In small agencies the task may be handled by the same person. FUNCTIONS OF THE MEDIA DEPARTMENT Media Planning The Media Department is responsible for the preparation and the actual presentation of the media plan. This department recommends media and media vehicles that in the agency's opinion best fulfill the client's marketing and advertising objectives. The recommendations are based on a careful assessment of the client's strategic requirements and the subsequent matching against these of the various available media forms. In the process there is great reliance on research and the known strengths and weaknesses of various media. Computer analysis is frequently used to sift through and compare all the media audience data that is available. The final media plan will present a carefully thought out recommendation that delivers the right target group, at the right time, in the right place, with the right number of messages. Media planners have access to up-to-date information about each advertising medium. This includes the relationship and circulation figures for news papers and magazines, viewing figures for different times of the day, listening audience figure for commercial radio stations etc. They are also aware of the various locations for hoarding and billboards. They are a vast array of choice. There are thousands of brands to advertise the work is challenging. It is though the selection of the right media that a good media department can save large advertisers money as well as give credibility. Media Buying Once a media plan has been approved by a client, it must then be purchased. The procedures for this vary according to the medium under consideration. In print media, for example, most purchases are made on the basis of rate cards issued by various newspapers or magazines. In broadcast, however, negotiation is involved. The objective of this negotiation is quite simple – to achieve maximum media efficiencies in obtaining the most for the least, or, in other words, the most audience for the least amount of money. Media buyers buy advertising time/space for the agency’s client. The work closely with the media planer if the two functions are carried out separately. Television and newspaper advertising are expensive. The media buyer’s expertise is in the negotiating the best possible deal for the client. The commercial breaks with the most viewers are the most expensive and so also the newspapers and magazines with the Media Estimating Every single purchase made by the Media Buyer must be recorded in advance of the actual running of the advertisement. This is to enable the agency to bill the client for monies spent on their behalf and to check the invoices submitted by the media. This document is called an estimate. Marketing Research Department Marketing research is three things: 1. The identification of information needs (i. e. defining the problem) 2. The systematic gathering, recording, analyzing and interpreting of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services (i. e. providing a solution to the problem) 3. The analysis and evaluation of action taken on the basis of information (i. e. monitoring and modifying the initial solution). The single most important reason then for doing marketing research is to guide the marketer in the analysis, planning, implementation and control of marketing and communications programs to satisfy both customer needs and organizational goals. It does this by providing decision-makers with information necessary to choose between alternative courses of action. While marketing research information can never eliminate all risk from decision making, good research can and should substantially reduce the odds of failure. In short, the essence of marketing research is â€Å"problem-solving†. Creative Services Department The creative services department may not be so well known, but its employees are the people who have contacts with the suppliers of various creative media. For example, they will be able to advise upon and negotiate with printers if an agency is producing flyers for a client. However, when dealing with the major media (broadcast media, outdoor, and the press), this work is usually outsourced to a media agency which can advise on media planning and is normally large enough to negotiate prices down further than a single agency or client can. In small agencies, employees may do both creative and account service work. Larger agencies attract people who specialize in one or the other, and indeed include a number of people in specialized positions: production work, [Internet] advertising, or research, for example. Event Management and Promotion department These are marketing support services which coordinate with external suppliers and use internal resources to implement the client's plans. The work here is coordination, with specific responsibilities being more specialized. Event management, an industry that is just taking off in India, plans, organizes and executes live events, which could include a brand/product launch, an exhibition, a concert or even a conference. Traffic Manager (system administrator) An often forgotten, but still important, department within an advertising agency is traffic. Typically headed by a traffic manager, this department is responsible for a number of things. First and foremost is increasing agency efficiency and profitability through the reduction of false job starts, inappropriate job initiation, incomplete information sharing, over- and under-cost estimation, and the need for media extensions. In small agencies without a dedicated traffic manager, one employee may be responsible for managing workflow, gathering cost estimates and answering the phone, for example. Large agencies may have a traffic department of ten or more employees. Radio & TV Broadcast Production Department The Broadcast Production department is responsible for making television and radio commercials to be aired across the country. Each project is different and the job demands both creative and administrative ability. The most successful people in Broadcast Production have strong aptitudes in both creative and administrative areas. This means that they should be active in creative spheres. They must also have a very high organizational ability as there are a myriad of details to attend to in any production. There are two basic classifications of jobs in Broadcast Production: †¢ Producer †¢ Production Co-ordinator and/or Traffic Co-ordinator The production team's main function is to purchase the services of the correct film or videotape Production Company and to administer and produce the TV commercial production on behalf of the advertising agency and the client. The Producer The Producer is responsible for supervising all aspects of a TV commercial production, from the selection of the production company through budgeting, scheduling, casting, locations, sets, music creation, production meetings, filming, editing, sound mixing, to the final approval of the finished commercial. This means that the Producer must be completely familiar with all aspects of the film and videotape process, including animation, live action, and stop motion. Production Co-ordinator The function of the Production Co-ordinator is to work with one or more Producers, providing administrative and creative support in such fields as budgeting, scheduling, producing production books, and auditioning talent. A Co-ordinator very often will handle revisions and adaptations of TV commercials with the production company. They may also have experience in Broadcast Traffic learning other rules on talent or how to â€Å"traffic† a complex television schedule. Print Production Department Print Production, more than any other agency department, relies on graphic art technology to help give birth to an ad. If there are to be no complications in the ad's delivery to the printed page, then strict technical rules must be followed. Of course, rules were made for valid reasons. An ad must obey that magazine's exact size and film requirements. To defy those specifications, even slightly, would make it incorrect and therefore not publishable. What Print Production People Do? Print production people: †¢ Meet deadlines. Publications insist on strict deadlines and it's crucial that production pay strict heed to them. †¢ Use sophisticated technology. To ensure that those deadlines are met, the Production Manager must possess a solid working know- ledge of the latest graphic art technology. As technology changes it is now imperative to be computer literate and understand their function. †¢ Co-ordinate and manage. The Print Production department's job is to ensure that print advertising is reproduced correctly whether in colour or in black and white. This means exact attention to detail and it is up to the Production Manager to provide the specifications to suppliers. †¢ Skills and training. What are the skills necessary to make it in Production? Technical art expertise and a willingness to keep abreast of new developments; an aesthetic feeling for some of the craftsmanship involved in the graphic arts; accounting and math skills; and a sharp eye for detail. Computer literacy and an understanding of systems is another necessary skill. Production skills aren't something that can be bought, nor are they something that can be learned overnight. It t