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An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its 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. Ad agencies come in all sizes. They include everything from one or two-person shops (which rely mostly on freelance talent to perform most functions), small to medium sized agencies, large independents, and multi-national, multi-agency conglomerates such as Omnicom Group, WPP Group, Interpublic Group of Companies and Havas. An agency's size should not necessarily be considered a barometer of their billing or ability to handle large accounts. Indeed, these days, smaller boutique agencies are just as likely to count very large corporations amongst their accounts. Full-service, or Media-neutral advertising agencies have the talent and ability to produce creative and advise clients for a full range of media, for virtually any type of account, or company. Some agencies specialise in particular fields such as medical, charitable, FMCG, white goods, retail, etc. Other agencies specialize in particular media, such as print ads or television commercials. Other agencies, especially larger ones, produce work for many types of media (creating integrated marketing communications, or through-the-line (TTL) advertising). The "line", in this case, is the traditional marker between media that pay a (traditionally 15%) commission to the agency (mainly broadcast media) and the media that do not. 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. The creative department -- 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 "write" in their job title, and art directors have the word "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. The other major department in ad agencies is account services or account management. 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. An often forgotten, but still important, department within an advertising agency is traffic. Typically headed by a traffic manager (or system administrator), 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. Advertising interns are typically university juniors and seniors who are genuinely interested in and have an aptitude for advertising. Internships at advertising agencies most commonly fall into one of six areas of expertise: account services, creative, interactive, media, public relations and traffic. An internship program in account services usually involves fundamental work within account management as well as offering exposure to other facets of the agency. The primary responsibility of this position is to assist account managers. Functions of the account management intern may include: • Research and analysis: Gathering information regarding industry, competition, customer product or service; as well as presenting findings in verbal/written form with recommendations • Involvement in internal meetings and, when appropriate, client meetings • Assisting account services in the management of creative projects Interns often take part in the internal creative process, as is illustrated in this agency intern website, where these interns were charged with creating and managing a website as well as developing an advertising campaign. Hands on projects such as this one help interns learn how strategy and well-developed marketing is essential to a sound advertising and communications plan. During their internship, the intern will experience the development of an ad, brochure and broadcast or communications project from beginning to end. During the internship, the intern should be exposed to as much as possible within the agency and advertising process.
Famous advertising agencies Largest Advertising Groups According to the Research Company Evaluating the Media Agency Industry, the 2004 top 6 largest advertising groups ranked by worldwide billings were the following: See also | ||||||||
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