Advertising Agencies – A series to understand their functioning
Most graduates getting out of premium B-Schools in India would have done a million case studies while in campus, but seldom do they get the knowledge of how an advertising agency operates. Management graduates specializing in Marketing and opting for a career in Advertising almost always find themselves chasing artworks for the first couple of years not doing any ‘brand’ related work, resulting in getting discontent with the industry. This is because the senior folks (rightfully so) believe that theory is seldom the ‘same’ as practice. This series of posts is an attempt to get the students to understand the basics of how Advertising operations work. Maybe this will help them arm themselves better for their first two years before they actually graduate from chasing artworks to planning on brands. Maybe this will help in reducing two years to one! Almost all major agencies in the country have these broad guidelines in operations. However, this may vary from one agency to another. Beware!
All agencies have the following departments:
- Client servicing / Account servicing
- Account Planning
- Creative copy
- Creative art
- Print Production
- Films Production
- Media Planning
- Media Buying
- Finance
- HR
- Admin
Some have specialized teams for:
- Events & activation
- Online and digital marketing
- PR (Though this has now become a separate industry in itself)
- Media Planning & Buying (Though part of the ‘Agency’ in traditional days, this has become a huge industry in itself)
Update: A good friend Ravi chose to correct me (see comment)! The past few years have seen Media houses spun out as separate entities and within media, Outdoor advertising (Out-of-home advertising) has become a specialised business.
Client Servicing: Simply, any individual in this department is the bridge between the agency and the client. So in front of the agency, the servicing person is the client and in front of the client, (s)he is the agency. Typically, this is the department in which most freshers from B-Schools join. These guys also are the ‘brand custodians’ for all the brands they handle. The servicing executive has to understand a bit of everything including media, art, print production, films, finances etc. So this series is focused on servicing executives to be the jack of all functions in advertising. And with fresh perspectives and lots of uncommon thinking with respect to branding, the servicing executive is bound to be a great communication professional. Good understanding of these basics, will help servicing executives manage every other department within the agency to provide the best results to the client. After all, happy client’s lead to great relationships and successful career! So watch this space…
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Nanda, this is misleading. This definition of advertising agency is very old. Media Planning and Buying used to be departments, no longer.
If this series is meant for students or others evaluating a career in the marketing communication business, this could confuse them.
Hi Ravi. Thanks for your comment. I agree and I will update the same shortly. While that be done, I also would like to highlight that agencies like Mudra are bringing the 360degree approach back, by bringing every service under one roof. Whether it will succeed in current days is to be watched yet! But still thanks for your update.
Thanks Nanda. On your point of 360 or IMC, as we choose to call it, the solution is no longer structural. In the world of wiki, and crowdsourcing, the all-under-one-roof kind of approach is bound to fail. We need to be open to collaboration with specialist solution delivery companies, not necessarily linked to us through ownership.
360 as a strategy is in. How we execute it may differ from one company to another.
Most welcome. I am yet to reach the media part! I would be very happy to take your views when I write about it! Of course, if it is convenient to you!