Accounts Executive:
 
It is a key career option in advertising agency. He is called an Account Director when he is a member of the Board. He is a link between a client and his staff. The marketing or advertising department of the client briefs him. He communicates this to the agency people.

He reaches out to different clients for seeking new business. Even clients who want an agency’ to work for them contact the accounts executive. This business development work makes it virtually a marketing manager of the agency.

Do right-brained people make better account directors?

The faculties of logic and reason are supposed to reside in the left-brained people. While intuition and creativity are believed to be in the right. So far, accounts director was considered suitable if logical and systematic, i.e., left-brained. But if he has to motivate a team, he should be inspiring and creative too, i.e., right-brained.

Copywriters: 

They are the wordsmiths who do the wording of an advertisement. They are bright and talented. They have a flair for language. They contribute to the theme of an advertisement. Creation of successful copies for different clients establishes them in this field.

Visualisers:
These are artists who put on paper what has been thought out by the copywriter. They in fact design the ad.

Creative Director:

He co-ordinates the copywriting and designing. He is a senior professional who is seasoned in an existing advertising agency set-up to take on this mantle.

Production Department: 

Persons of diverse talents like printing technology, DTP, photography, typography etc. are involved here.

Media Planner:
 
He has to allocate the advertising budget amongst media. He has to select the appropriate media. He decides about the frequency, size and position of an advertisement. He decides about its publication date. He receives the tear-off copies from the media when the ad is published. He is guided by the media research, which he undertakes, or by research undertaken by an outside agency.

Media is the most professionalized department of advertising agencies.

Marketing Research:

Modern agencies are integrated set-ups. They provide a range of marketing services. Research data become very useful as input to the creative process.

The Media

Most of the media today sustain on advertising revenue. They sell space or time. While selling space or time, they have to convince the client about the reach of their media vehicle, the composition break-up of their readers and the pricing of their space/time selling. They monitor the market, survey their readers, and highlight their readers’ demographic and geographic characteristics. They also maintain relationship with the media department of advertising agencies who buy space/time on behalf of clients.

Ancillary Services

These are needed to produce/create advertisement. A whole range of services like studio service, photographic service, printing service, gift item producers etc. fall into this category.

 Freelancers in Advertising
 
These are professionals who work independently and have a successful track record. They are copywriters, jingle singers, radio announcers, artists, visualizers, technical writers etc.

In jocularity it is often said that:

“Advertising is a funny business because it is not only a business – it is half a business, quarter a profession and quarter an art.”

Every business entity, irrespective of its size, ownership and kind of business, does take the help of advertising – the push that makes things happen. Advertising is a function of marketing, and pushes the product in the market for bigger sales. The different kinds of advertising have been discussed in the introductory chapter. Here, we shall be concerned with the study of the organization that plans, produces and places advertising campaigns in the media and the internal organization of the advertising department. When a firm has decided upon an advertising programme as part of its overall promotion mix, it needs to have a system and an organization to implement it for the attainment of the desired objective. Firms do have an advertising and publicity department to manage the advertising function. In some small firms, there may not be a separate department in the name of advertising, but the function is either looked after by the marketing manager or the chief executive. The company’s advertising department usually relies on outside experts, often the advertising agency which prepares the advertisement messages, selects appropriate media, and arranges to release them. The advertising department of a company has only a limited creative function, primarily a supervisory one. This department is merely a liaison point in the company for the agency, though it is responsible for the advertisement budget, and supervises the performance of the agency.

An advertising manager has to co-ordinate with the marketing and sales function, so that the advertising efforts may be fully integrated with the firm’s marketing and sales strategy. He has also to perform the managerial task of formulating advertising strategy and planning advertising through the advertising agency. The agency often assists the advertising manager in programme formulation.