Advertising Career Analysis Report

made a major contribution to the development of early organisational forms (Salaman, 2001: 43).  Modern organisational structure will of course depend on the subdivision in question: whether it be an agency, a corporate department or within the media.  These generally specialise in specific forms of advertising whereas a full system advertising agency is involved in all types of advertising.  Such a service will offer research, as well as the planning, production and launch of a campaign.  As Noronha, S. States in her work Careers in Communications (Noronha, 1998: 122), “Most ad agencies are organized [sic] into the following departments: administration or agency management, account management, creative services, media services, print production, traffic, finance and bookkeeping”.  Noronha also described the various roles which allow such organisations to run efficiently.  In small agencies, such tasks are commonly carried out by an owner and any partners, whereas a large agency may be managed by a main executive officer and main financial officer.  It is not unusual for such agencies to have an executive committee or board of directors.                     The account management department is in direct contact with the clients.  This department will then construct a marketing plan which must be approved by the client.  “These functions are executed by an account group consisting of a management supervisor, account supervisor, account executive, account coordinator, and account assistant” (1998: 122).  The creative team then develop and create the adverts.  The creative department is made up of copywriters, photographers, illustrators, art directors, graphic artists, TV producers, and layout and mechanical artists.  This department has control regarding the content of the advert, providing these meet with the codes set out by the Advertising Standards Authority: the “independent regulator for advertisements, sales promotion and direct marketing in the UK”, whose main values are that “ads should not mislead, cause harm, or offend” (http://www.asa.org.uk).                    An advertising organisation is also comprised of a media services department, whose job is to “analyze [sic], evaluate, select, and recommend the appropriate media for the client’s ads.  Job titles in this department include media director, media supervisor, broadcast media supervisor, media planner, media buyer, and media estimator” (1998: 123).  The print production department consists of a print manager, colour experts and photographers who transform the art of the creative department into material print adverts.  The traffic department then coordinates the whole agenda to ensure that adverts are fully produced and reach the specified media.  Agencies also appoint professionals in accounting and financial forecasting to oversee transactions.                This is the typical structure for relatively small agencies, although larger ones may be more intricate, having specialists within each unit, with segregated departments for divisions such as research.               The PR industry is comparable to the advertising industry in that both need an “organizational [sic] structure flexible enough to adapt to external conditions which change rapidly” (Grunig & Dozier, 1992: 476).  The PR industry is “there to develop and maintain good relationships with... publics, to help the organisation achieve its objectives” (Tench & Yeomans, 2006: 27).               A public relations company management team is comprised much in the same way as a marketing agency, with a chairperson, chief executive, finance director and company secretary.  However, a PR business is not self-funded in the same way as an advertising firm, thus PR has company advisers in the form of stock brokers, merchant banks, auditors and financial PR consultants (Beard, 2001: 9). “... most practitioners look at the discipline in several main sectors comprising: financial and corporate communication; government affairs; marketing communication; internal communication; community relations”.  The financial communication department has responsibilities in “relations with ‘major media’... and working with the financial media...” (2001: 7).  Media relations is an important platform in this department and to the company as a whole, because PR firms aim to get free media coverage through methods such as news conventions and press releases.  PR is concerned with community relations, campaigns, events planning and promotion, fund-raising and development.  Some of the roles within a PR company fall under public affairs issues and management, communication, consumer and customer relations and investor relations.  “Half of all corporations utilize an integrated public affairs organizational structure that includes the traditional public relations activities as well as government relations.  Other half of the corporations house the government relations activities and public relations activities in separate departments” (Heath, 2004: 66).                     The structure of such organisations support the incorporation of different mediums of communication, “blending the traditional disciplines of publicity and advertising to creatively present a clear and consistent message” (Smith, 2004: 7), and a collaborative approach which is “a perfect example of a complex adaptive system operating in the creative zone” (Lewin and Regine, 1999: 105).  Creativity is vital in such an environment, as is the ability to adapt to emerging consumer trends if such companies are to remain in business. Moore et al stress in the work, Managing Small Business: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis: “Advertising can accentuate a trend in the sale of an item or product line, but it seldom has the power to reverse a trend.  It must, consequently, be able to reflect changes in customer needs and preferences” (2008: 428)  (Moore & Gooderl, 2008: 428).  We are growing towards an increasingly globalised community, and with the rise of the Digital Age, mass media communications are changing as we witness an age of convergence, leading to changes in both consumer and recruitment trends.                    Media analyst, Jenkins states: “Media convergence is more than simply a technological shift”; it “alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres, and audiences” (Jenkins, 2006: 15).   Various means of utilizing media from print, radio, satellite, mobile phones and the internet has transformed patterns of media consumption as audiences become more fragmented.  It is probable that such trends will become more prominent after digital switchover – “the point at which broadcasting no longer operates on analogue systems” (Johnson et al, 2005: 31).  This is because multi-channel access with increasing viewer choice will result in greater competition to attract audience and gain advertising revenue, thus jobs in the industry will become more widely available.                   Career patterns of those working within the industry are altering, widely due to convergence and the introduction of the internet.  “In 2008, 16 million households in Great Britain (65 per cent) had Internet access. This is an increase of just over 1 million households (7 per cent) over the last year and 5 million households (46 per cent) since 2002” (http://www.statistics.gov.uk).  Due to such a rise, there are a vast number of new challenges and opportunities within the advertising industry.  Online advertising is expected to overcome TV expenditure by 2010, being second to press advertising.   (Advertising Association’s Advertising Statistics Yearbook 2008, advertising association, news release, Monday 9th June, WARC,).  Press is the largest medium regarding advertising expenditure, attracting 40% of all advertising in 2008.  TV follows with 24%, while internet comes in at nearly 16%.  Although internet has brought opportunity for advertisers, it has also brought great challenge.  The web is fragmented and non-linear, unlike traditional media platforms and it becomes even more difficult to pinpoint the whereabouts of consumers.               The current global financial crisis is another factor which is profoundly altering consumer trends.  According to the Office for National Statistics (Harris, 2008: 2), overall spending has increased by just over four percent since 2007, which is a lower increase compared with previous years.  The rise is likely due to a lower number of instances where people are spending which sellers are substituting by increasing prices.  For example, less people are buying houses these days but overall spending here has still increased by sixteen percent since 2007.  With higher prices comes the need for very proficient advertising and those working in the industry will need extreme competence.  Indicators point to a decline in advertising in most industries, and this is particularly the case with newspapers. Revenue from traditional recruitment advertising has decreased, however, “Employment in the industry is expected to grow 22 percent through 2014, compared with 14 percent for all industries combined... On the other hand, employment growth may be tempered by the increase of efficient non print media advertising, such as internet or radio, which could replace some workers” (Camenson, 2007: 147).                            With the rate of technological change and the internet, employers are now in search of flexible and highly proficient employees, meaning new opportunities for graduates looking to enter the field.The Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA) is the UK’s leading advertising trade body.  It promotes the values of agencies and is a member site to the top agencies within the UK (http://www.ipa.co.uk).  This site would prove particularly useful to a graduate looking to enter the industry as it has job vacancy postings of a vast number of companies and annually publishes its “Graduate Factfile. This is an online listing of all the ad agencies looking to recruit new intake of graduates” (Neidle, 2002: 117).  In addition, some of the agencies offer graduates training programmes, details of which are also published in the Graduate Factfile.  There are also a wide range of websites which are invaluable to graduates, such as ‘the graduate’ (http://www.thegraduate.co.uk).  This offers career advice and has a list of posted vacancies of various employers in search of graduate applicants.  One can also search for placements if they are looking for relevant experience.               A career progression in an advertising agency evidently depends on the structure of the agency in question and the specific division one is looking to enter for work. The typical career path of a graduate working in client services or account management in a large firm is as follows:  graduate trainee > junior executive > supervisor/ manager > director > group director > board director (2002: 14).  Naturally, a graduate level candidate, as with anyone first entering the industry, will most likely have to start at the bottom as a trainee or copywriter and work their way up the career ladder.                        Work experience is one of the most effective approaches to finding a job in the advertising industry, and it “is arguably the most important element of them all” (VGM Career Books [Firm], 2003: 4).  Work experience currently available is vast.  One form of work experience is a summer internship which, like all forms of work experience, is often unpaid.  However, such opportunities expose candidates to the real work environment while also providing opportunity to gain a professional reference and valuable network contacts.  This can lead to a temporary, permanent or contract position upon graduation.  A graduate can also take on voluntary or paid work experience where they shadow a professional in the field and obtain an idea of the type of work involved.  The nature of it will obviously depend on the agency as well as the particular facet of advertising one is looking into.                  Overall, there have been changes to trends in the industry which will create difficulty for graduates, but it will also instigate new opportunities, particularly in the field of internet advertising.  Employers will be keen to find determined and quick-minded employees, and although competition is fierce, graduates should thrive in trying to achieve. Bibliography Beard, M. (2001), Running a Public Relations Department, London, Kogan Page Publishers. Camenson, B. (2007), (ed.) Great Jobs for Liberal Arts Majors, Toronto, McGraw-Hill Professional. Fill, C. (2005), Marketing Communications, Philadelphia, Pearson Education. Grunig, J. and Dozier, D. (1992) Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management, Mahwah, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Heath, R. (2004, Encyclopedia of Public Relations, Newcastle Upon Tyne, SAGE. Jenkins, H. (2006), Convergence Culture, New York, NYU Press. Johnson, C. et al (2005), ITV Cultures: Independent Television Over Fifty Years, McGraw-Hill International. Lewin, R. and Regine, B. (1999), The Soul At Work, London, Orion Business Books. Moore, C. and Gooderl, J. (2008) (eds.) Managing Small Business: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis, International Student Edition, London, Cengage Learning EMEA. Neidle, A. (2002), How to get into Advertising, London, Cengage Learning EMEA. Richards, Macrury, I., Boterril, J. (2000), The Dynamics of Advertising, London, Routledge. Ries and Ries (1999) in Smith, R. (2004), Strategic Planning for Public Relations, London, Routledge. Salaman, G. (2001), ‘The Emergence of New Work Forms’ in Salaman, G. ed. Understanding Business Organisations, London, Routledge. Smith, R. (2004), Strategic Planning for Public Relations, London, Routledge. Tench, R. and Yeomans, L. (2006), Exploring Public Relations, Schweiz, Pearson Education. VGM Career Books (Firm) (2003), edition 3, Resumes for Advertising Careers, Toronto, McGraw-Hill Professional. Articles: Harris, A. (2008), ‘Consumer Trends: Quarter 4 2008, No 51’, OPSI, London, Crown Copyright  Licensing and Public Sector Information. Internet sites consulted: ‘About the Advertising Standards Authority’ http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/about/ accessed 21/04/09 Directgov (2008), ‘Internet Access’http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=8 accessed 28/04/09. ‘the graduate’ http://www.thegraduate.co.uk accessed 29/04/09 ‘IPA, promoting the value of agencies’ http://www.ipa.co.uk/JobsIntro.aspx accessed 26/04/09 World Advertising Research Center (2008), ‘Advertising Statistics Yearbook 2008’ http://www.adassoc.org.uk/Ad_stats_yearbook_2008_-_8june08.pdf, accessed 24/04/09