Advertising is an important profession and advertising industry provides enormous opportunities for career development. The advertising industry consists of the advertising agencies, the advertisers, the media and the ancillary services. Each of these active participants in advertising provide challenging career options to the students to build up career in this fast developing industry.
1) Advertising Agencies : An advertising agency is a team of professional advertisers appointed by client to plan, produce, and place advertising campaign on the behalf of client.
2) Account Executive : The word „Account. in advertising terminology means „Client. and an Account Executive is the man on the agency staff responsible for handling a particular client. He approaches different potential clients for seeking new business for the ad agency which he represents. He is the main link between the agency and the client.
Account executive is an important career option in ad agency. He explores the possibilities to book new business by approaching new clients. Successful account executives are promoted upto the positions of Account Director.
3) Copywriter : Copywriting is an art and the persons with good communication skills stand a fair chance to be copywriters. They contribute to the theme of an advertisement. In most ad agencies, there are creative teams headed by either a copywriter or a visualizer.
A good copy can be destroyed if the words are badly set. Equally, unwise choice of type faces, sizes and weights can destroy the layout. Creation of an effective copy for the client establishes them as copywriter.
It is the job of the copywriter to conceive advertising themes of copy flat forms, and to write the wording, including heading headlines and slogans.
4) Visualisers : Visualisers are those artists who translate the imaginations of the copywriter on the paper. Visualisers help shaping an effective ad. The visualisers usually have professional degree in fine art or commercial art. It is not essential for a good visualiser to have professional degree or diploma. Visualizing and layout is an important career option.
5) Creative Department : Creative department is the key department in an ad agency. It is in this department that the idea or theme behind the advertising campaign is born and the complete advertising plan is executed. Creative Director is the head of creative department. The department comprises of visualisers, creative artists and copywriters and their duty is to create advertisements. The creative director coordinates the copy-writing and designing.
6) Production Department : Production department also provides good opportunities for career building. The production department can be divided into two sections: one section is responsible for the mechanical preparation of the advertisement or the printed material, and the other for the administration of the detail work. The mechanical production section has many people to deal even technically with block-makers, printers, photographers, DTP operators in designing print outs. Many production departments also handle the job in different languages and need people to assist the advertising job.
7) Art Department : The approved layout pass into the hands of artists to prepare finished drawings for reproduction. Art department is in the charge of an Art Director and it is his duty to co-ordinate the work to select the correct type of treatment so as to prepare the visuals and then the final art work.
8) Free Lancers : These are professionals who work in dependently and have a successful track record. They are copywriter, jingle singers, radio announcers, artists, visualizers, technical writers, etc.
Thus, advertising can be an exciting and rewarding career, provided those in this profession understand the full social implication of advertising and their responsibilities to the profession.
