Advertising and PR
Maybe you’re an English major whose friends are all receiving job offers
from consulting firms, banks, and the like, and you’re wondering just what
the heck the business world has to offer you. Maybe you’re a banker, but
frustrated because your job doesn’t let you express creativity or take
advantage of your abiding interest in popular culture and the media. Or
perhaps you’re a struggling writer or artist who’s tired of living on ramen
and happy-hour buffets, and you’ve come to the conclusion that a cell phone
and a steady paycheck don’t necessarily make a person a sellout. Then you
turn on the television or pick up a newspaper or magazine, and suddenly it
hits you: Why not work in advertising or public relations?
Advertising
Advertising is big business. The biggest advertisers spend billions of
dollars each per year to market their products and services; General Motors
and Procter & Gamble, for instance, each spend about $4 billion
annually on advertising, direct mail, and promotions. That translates to
lots of work for advertising agencies.
In 2006, traditional advertising activities in the U.S.—the creation and
dissemination of TV, print, and radio ads—generated $13.1 billion in
revenue for advertising agencies, up 4.2 percent from the previous year,
according to the 2007 Advertising Age Agency Report. Interactive
advertising yielded another $3.6 billion in revenue during the year, while
health care advertising—not considered a traditional field—brought in $2.1
billion.
In broad terms, an advertising agency is a marketing consultant. It helps
the client—for example, a consumer goods manufacturer like Nike or a
service provider like Charles Schwab—with all aspects of marketing, from
strategy and concept through execution. Strategy involves helping the
client make high-level business decisions, such as determining which new
products to develop, or how to brand or define itself to the world.
Concept is where the agency takes the client’s strategy and turns it into
specific ideas for advertisements—such as a series of ads featuring
“extreme sports” athletes for a soft-drink maker whose strategy is to enter
the teen market. Execution is where the agency turns the concept into
reality with the production of the actual ads: the print layout, the film
shoot, the audio taping. Full-service agencies also handle the placement of
ads in print and electronic media so that clients reach their intended
audiences. “If you thrive on variety, you’ll probably like
advertising," one insider said. Sometimes the agency works in
conjunction with the client’s marketing department. In other instances—when
the client doesn’t have a marketing department—the agency takes on that
role.
PR
PR has long taken a backseat to advertising in terms of industry revenue
and prestige, but with the proliferation of media outlets and the
increasing complexity of the marketing landscape, it’s growing in size and
importance. In 2006, the PR industry generated $3.1 billion in revenue,
according to the 2007 Advertising Age Agency Report. Unlike advertising,
which is paid media exposure, PR involves communicating the organization’s
message through the news media, whose supposed objectivity lends
credibility to the message and thus makes it more powerful. The goal in PR
is to make your client—or your company, if you work in-house in a corporate
or marketing communications position—look great. PR professionals work
primarily with members of the press to ensure that newspapers, magazines,
and radio and TV outlets run stories favorable to their clients.
In addition, they might speak on behalf of client organizations; arrange
for clients’ presence at appropriate industry events; help mitigate harmful
publicity when, for instance, the federal government sues a client for
antitrust violations; or help clients come up with an overall marketing
strategy for, say, a new product launch. PR professionals serve companies,
government agencies, charitable organizations, and famous individuals—in
short, just about anyone seeking to promote a public image, message, or
product.
The old advertising model is dead. No longer can advertisers expect to
reach their target audiences by force-feeding ads to TV viewers and
magazine and newspaper readers. TV viewers are no longer limited to just a
handful of television networks; the spread of cable TV means that viewers
now have a seemingly limitless array of programming options. And no longer
are readers limited to the newspapers and magazines for sale at their local
newsstand; nowadays, they can readily access any publication that has a
presence online, as well as a host of other websites. Indeed, media markets
are fragmenting—breaking up into smaller chunks of viewers, readers, and
Net surfers with specific interests and demographic characteristics.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that as of July 2005, 14 percent of the U.S.
population was Hispanic, 13 percent was black, and 5 percent was of Asian
descent. Hispanics account for half the nation’s annual population growth.
By 2050, Hispanics will make up 24 percent of the U.S. population—a number
that doesn’t include undocumented individuals. For multicultural
advertising agencies, the growing diversity of the country means increasing
business opportunities. In the U.S., advertisers already spend a pretty
chunk of change reaching multicultural markets. For example,
Hispanic-focused advertising spending totaled $3.3 billion in 2005.
Look for continued strong growth among multicultural agencies, as U.S.
demographics change and advertisers look to reach specific markets with
more tailored advertising.
Like so many other industries, advertising has experienced lots of
consolidation in recent years as companies join forces to lower costs and
stay competitive in the global marketplace. According to the 2007
Advertising Age Agency Report, in 2006, the top four marketing
organizations—Omnicom Group, WPP Group, Interpublic Group, and Publicis
Groupe, which together own 35 of the 50 largest U.S. advertising
agencies—accounted for 57.4 percent of the U.S. marketing communications
business. In advertising and PR, bigger size means more clout with media
outlets—hence, lower advertising costs and more PR pitch phone calls
answered by news editors. This trend is also a result of the fact that by
owning several different advertising or PR agencies, a single holding
company can control several competing accounts without conflict of
interest.
Just a decade ago, interactive or online advertising was brand-new. These
days, it’s become central to all kinds of advertisers’ strategies, and any
agency that wants to stay competitive now relies on its interactive efforts
to generate a growing percentage of its revenue. Indeed, many advertisers
are desperate to hire pros with significant experience in so-called
integrated marketing.
These days, most folks are jaded by the overload of ads in traditional
media, such as TV and newspapers, and often ignore them. As a result,
advertisers have been vying for attention through nontraditional means,
such as product placement in movies and on TV. Sponsorship is another major
tactic for companies looking to promote their brands. For instance, San
Francisco’s AT&T Park—previously known as SBC Park, and Pac Bell Park
before that—and the Fleet Center in Boston are two professional sports
venues that count sponsorship dollars among their revenue sources.
Municipalities have invited corporate sponsors to fund events while
allowing them to stock prominent locations with their products and feature
the city or town in their advertisements. And thanks to Channel One,
advertising has been a part of daily life at many U.S. schools.
Amid increasing public concern about issues like human rights and the
environment, more and more companies see value in associating their brands
with social movements. For instance, microprocessor maker and Intel rival
AMD spearheaded a campaign in 2006 titled “Is Green, Saves Green.”
Saatchi’s print campaign for Tide detergent showed how much energy you can
save by doing laundry in cold water. Dow Chemical’s “The Human Element”
campaign, launched in the U.S. in 2006 and expanded internationally in
2007, was designed to reinforce the company’s commitment to engage
challenges like affordable and adequate food supply and personal health and
safety. Many big PR firms have practice areas devoted to social marketing.
Like the advertising industry, the PR sector has been marked by extensive
consolidation over the past decade or so. Bigger size means more clout with
media outlets, and a single holding company can control several competing
PR accounts without conflict of interest. In general, ad and PR agencies
that exist under mammoth holding companies such as Omnicom and WPP operate
as standalone businesses, but there are cases where business synergies
result from new ties between agencies. For instance, if you go into PR, you
may end up trying to place stories about an ad campaign created by a
subsidiary of the same holding company that owns your firm.
The Internet has changed the face of PR. On the one hand, it offers a
wealth of opportunities to get the word out on behalf of your client. And
PR professionals can reach specific audiences as never before, by targeting
(or creating) industry- or interest-specific news sites, message boards,
and blogs.
The flip side of the coin is that it’s now harder than ever to manage the
release of information. And the interactive nature of the Internet means
that negative news about your client can pop up anytime, anywhere—from a
popular blog to a high-traffic message board. Many online news sites are
updated 24/7, so PR professionals with high-profile clients have to be
constantly vigilant.
The PR industry has been notoriously lacking in terms of training for young
professionals. In many agencies, most new employees still suffer through a
sink-or-swim, learn-as-you-go period early in their careers. However, many
agencies are beginning to recognize the benefits of offering formal
training—to orient new employees, to ensure that valuable knowledge is
available across the agency, and to help retain valuable staffers.
Though boutique agencies are growing in number and revenue, the big names
continue to handle most of the accounts—and earn most of the dollars. They
also are the primary source of employment opportunities. In addition to the
size of the firm, you'll need to think about its location, its client
list, and the kind of advertising it does: branding vs promotional, general
vs specific industries, all media vs specific media.
In the past decade, global has become the way to go. Several huge global
marketing and media conglomerates now dominate the advertising industry.
These include Omnicom, the WPP Group, Interpublic Group, Havas, and
Publicis Groupe. They are joined by advertising agencies that have expanded
their operations by opening offices around the world and by acquiring other
marketing and media companies. Together, these firms own many of the major
players in traditional and interactive advertising. Publicis Groupe, for
example, owns Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Leo Burnett
Worldwide.
While a lot of hot shops have been snatched up by the big global holding
companies, there are still plenty of smaller shops—some with as few as five
employees. Often these are creative boutiques—agencies started by people
from bigger agencies who have hung out their own shingle to follow their
vision of what makes good advertising. Mad Dogs & Englishmen in New
York and Butler, Shine, Stern, and Partners in Sausalito, California, are
two of the hundreds of smaller shops.
Interactive agencies specialize in online marketing and advertising. This
includes everything from conceiving, designing, and placing banner ads to
designing corporate websites to developing e-commerce solutions for
corporations. This segment of the industry was devastated in the early
2000s when dotcoms, which spent a lot of money on online advertising,
started collapsing left and right. But the segment has undergone a healthy
recovery, as advertisers from a broad range of industries try out new
online strategies with a more realistic perspective on what Internet
advertising can do.
Firms that specialize in providing PR services include Edelman, Ketchum
(owned by Omnicom), and Hill and Knowlton (owned by WPP). Internally, one
difference between PR and ad agencies is that PR firms tend to organize
themselves around practice areas, such as public affairs, investor
relations, labor relations, crisis management, entertainment, media
relations, consumer product marketing, and corporate reputation management.
Smaller PR firms, like ad agencies, may specialize in a particular field,
such as the Internet, health care, or telecommunications.
Beyond the traditional ad and PR agencies, there are a number of other job
sources in this field. Research firms, such as IRI (Information Resources,
Inc.), Nielsen (of TV-ratings fame), Gallup, and J.D. Powers all measure
the success of agency campaigns. Other firms specialize in certain aspects
of the advertising world, such as direct marketing or promotions. Although
some of these are independent, others are owned by big players.
Also, large corporations usually have marketing communications (marcom)
departments that create and produce brochures, product sheets, and other
marketing collateral. Marcom departments also often write and distribute
press releases and perform other PR functions. And some large companies
even create and produce some or all of their own advertising. For example,
Charles Schwab and MasterCard both have in-house ad departments.
The advertising and PR industries were hit hard by the decline of the
dotcoms, the tech downturn, and the overall recession. But things are
looking up as companies are starting to spend again, albeit not at the
levels of the late 1990s. As advertising and PR budgets increase, agencies
add new jobs. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is optimistic, predicting
employment in advertising and PR to grow 22 percent by 2014. As the
industry continues to expand the ways it reaches the consumer, it will also
continue to seek out new, creative talent to launch its campaigns.
You'll face stiff competition if you want a career in advertising or
PR. Still, these industries remain sexy to many job seekers. In
advertising, many writers and artists are drawn to agencies' creative
and production departments because the salaries are much higher in the ad
game than in the starving artist game. For business types, advertising
offers an exciting proximity to the creative process, if not an actual role
in that process. PR offers liberal arts types jobs that can be steady and
fairly lucrative while still being creative. Pros in both industries often
enjoy perks like dinners, plays, and ball games with clients. And everyone
in these industries gets to spend their days with the hippest, most
culturally aware coworkers around—and play a role in creating the stories
and advertisements that shape our culture.
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No matter where you work in advertising or PR, you'll have the
opportunity to experience quite a bit of variety as you progress in your
career. You'll get to work on different accounts, each with its own
problems to solve. Over time, you might work on everything from computer
software to sporting goods. One advertising account management insider
says, "It's never dull. You're always working on a bunch of
different things. If you thrive on variety, you'll probably like
advertising."
One insider swears that he says just that to his wife every evening when
she asks how the office was that day. Of course he’s kidding, but he likes
the atmosphere. "It's light," he says. "There are a lot
of young people." A creative insider says, "For a corporate
environment, it's the most relaxed you can get. The dress is casual,
you can joke around with people, there may be a pool table or a Ping-Pong
table or that kind of thing...." Another advertising creative insider
agrees: "Even when I have a bad day at work, I laugh really hard
several times during the day." A PR insider says, "We all go out
together all the time." An advertising account management insider sums
it up: "A lot of fun and interesting people work in the
industry."
You can change the way people think or speak with an effective ad campaign.
Imagine your work entering the consciousness of people across the
globe—just ask the people involved in the “Just Do It” ad campaign for
Nike.
No matter how much some people in the industry would like to believe good
advertising is the same thing as art, the fact is that it's not.
"It's probably as base a consumer-oriented thing as you can
do," says an insider. In fact, in advertising you may end up
advertising a product you don't think much of. And PR's no
different in this regard. Someone's got to spin the story for the oil
company after the big spill at sea; someone's got to defend the
chemical company that doesn't want to pay damages to the third-world
community over which its facility released a cloud of noxious gas. That
someone works in PR.
Job security can be tenuous, due to the amount of money and work a single
client can bring to an agency. For example, an agency might lose a big
account, and 20 percent of the staff is suddenly laid off.
Advertising creatives are unanimous in occasionally disliking aspects of
the agency's relationship with the client, and most people in the
business have been frustrated by their dealings with clients at some point.
One insider says, "We had a bagel client who insisted that we not have
any punctuation in the ad copy. It was the most absurd client demand I’d
ever heard." Another says, "You can spend six months working on a
project that just suddenly dies [because the client changes its
mind]." Another complains about foreign clients that don't
"get it," like the Asian auto manufacturer that kills great
creative ads because it doesn't understand American humor. An account
management insider says, "I hate having to babysit the client."
As another insider notes, though, "You need the client. So you have to
compromise your integrity sometimes."
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|
Top U.S. Advertising Agencies, by 2006 Traditional
Advertising Revenue
|
|
Rank
|
Agency(Parent Company)
|
Headquarters Sales ($M)
|
1-Yr. Change (%)
|
|
1
|
JWT* (WPP)
|
445
|
4.8
|
|
2
|
BBDO Worldwide* (Omnicom)
|
444
|
8
|
|
3
|
McCann Erickson Worldwide* (Interpublic)
|
443
|
1.8
|
|
4
|
Leo Burnett Worldwide* (Publicis)
|
312
|
2.6
|
|
5
|
Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide* (WPP)
|
277
|
4.0
|
|
6
|
DDB Worldwide Communications* (Omnicom)
|
1,023
|
8.4
|
|
7
|
Y&R*
|
250
|
4.2
|
|
8
|
Grey Worldwide* (WPP)
|
235
|
5.3
|
|
9
|
Saatchi & Saatchi* (Publicis)
|
212
|
2.4
|
|
10
|
DraftFCB Chicago/New York
|
210
|
5.0
|
*Figures are estimates.
Source: Advertising Age
|
|
Top Five U.S. PR Agencies, by 2006 Revenue
|
|
Rank
|
Agency
|
Sales ($M)
|
1-Yr. Change (%)
|
|
1
|
Burson-Marsteller (WPP)
|
U.S.:100-200; Global: 300-400
|
NA
|
|
2
|
Edelman
|
354.5
|
21.8
|
|
3
|
Fleishman-Hillard Inc.
|
131.3*
|
NA
|
|
4
|
Hill and Knowlton, Inc. (est.)
|
91.3*
|
29.0
|
|
5
|
Ketchum
|
53.8 (est.)
|
16
|
*2007 figures.
Source: Hoover's, Advertising Age, WetFeet Analysis
|
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A lot of people outside the industry think that advertising is all about
creative work. In fact, there are three primary career tracks: creative,
account management, and media. In each of these areas (and in PR as well),
there is a fairly standard hierarchy of positions. Generally, new hires
start out as account coordinators or assistant fill-in-the-blanks, then
"assistant" is dropped from the title (assistant copywriter
becomes copywriter). Next, you are promoted to senior fill-in-the-blank,
vice president, and then senior vice president.
Account management and media positions require a BA or BS, preferably in
communications, English, journalism, business, or economics. Jobs on the
creative side often only require a two-year degree and a strong portfolio,
although a BA won't hurt—especially for copywriters. For those without
a degree, the industry is full of administrative jobs.
These are the suits who manage the relationship with the client and develop
strategy. In advertising, account executives manage the creation of the
pitch and the ad campaign. In PR, the account executives generally take
responsibility for implementing the public relations program, working with
the client, drafting press releases, and pitching stories to the media.
Salary range in advertising: junior account executive, $40,000 to $62,000;
senior account executive, $70,000 to $89,000; account supervisor, $79,000
to $96,000. In PR, the account executive range is $34,000 to $58,000; the
range for account supervisor is $66,000 to $93,000.
Working with the art director, you come up with the copy (words or script)
based on the strategy that's been defined for the ad campaigns. The ads
you create go into your portfolio, something you'll need if you want to
switch jobs. Salary range: junior copywriter, $34,000 to $45,000; senior
copywriter, $54,000 to $67,000; and really good ones make more.
Art directors work with the copywriters to develop the story line, and they
are responsible for the visuals in an advertisement. They prepare layouts
for print ads and television storyboards and oversee filming of television
commercials. As with the copywriter position, advancement is based on the
strength of the portfolio. Salary range: junior art director, $49,000 to
$90,000; senior art director, $62,000 to $118,000.
The media planner learns about people's viewing and media habits in
order to plan how and where to place ads based on the client's
objectives and budgets. This is very numbers-oriented work with little
client contact. The media buyer negotiates with media sales reps to buy and
place ads for the client, calculates rates and budgets, and makes sure that
ads appear correctly. In PR, the equivalent position is media relations;
this person is responsible for calling up members of the media and pitching
story ideas in an effort to get media coverage for a client. Salary range:
assistant media planner or media buyer, $33,000 to $45,000; media planner
and media buyer, $50,000 to $76,000; media director, $95,000 to $125,000.
This type of job is more specific to PR firms. Many companies hire media
spokespeople or communications experts to handle all media contact, event
publicity, and media requests. You can find these positions by working up
through a company's communications or public relations department, or
by transferring from an agency. Salary range: $85,000 to $126,000.
Many PR agencies hire specialists to work in particular areas. Lots of
agencies have a speechwriter, often a former reporter, who ghostwrites
op-eds (opinion and editorial pieces) or speeches for clients in order to
help raise their visibility. A specialist in investor relations would help
a client enhance its image among investors or perhaps help it raise
additional capital. Labor relations, public affairs, media relations
management, corporate reputation management, consumer products marketing,
and crisis communications are other common specialties. Salary range:
$50,000 to $100,000 or more.
Advertising isn't easy to get into. Most people start out at the entry
level and jump agencies as they move up—insiders say that it may even be
essential to move from agency to agency in order to get to work on new
clients. Once you pick your area—creative, account management, media—it can
be difficult to change, unless you want to go back to the entry level.
Public relations agencies are more likely to hire somebody with several
years of experience outside PR, but that depends on the experience. Proof
that you can juggle lots of projects, write well, work under deadline,
understand media, and serve a client will help you land a job. If
you're interested in getting into this industry, keep these things in
mind:
-
Many advertising agencies hire people only at entry level. If you're
in college and you know you want to enter the industry, see if you can
get some work experience. (Every year a huge number of internships in
advertising and public relations are available.) If you've interned,
you'll have a definite leg up on others trying to land a spot.
-
Before an advertising interview, look at some magazines and watch
television. Pick a couple of campaigns that you like and be able to
explain why you think they're good. Think about how they target a
particular audience and what they do well.
-
In creative, you'll need to present your book, a portfolio of
projects you've helped design or write copy for. If you don't
have one, but want to break into the industry, then make one. Create some
ads or concepts on your own ("on spec" in industry parlance).
Your book must demonstrate your design or writing ability and your
marketing sense. Creatives must take a different path into advertising.
For them, it's less about whom they know, where they went to school,
or what their grades were. Creatives must have a good book to get a job.
As one insider puts it, "It's not about your resume; it's
about your book."
-
Advertising and PR are all about selling products. To get hired, you need
to sell your abilities. If you can't communicate why you're
better than all the other people who want the job, then you probably
don't belong in the industry.