Structure of an Advertising Agency
Rahool Saksena walked us through the evolution & Structure of an Ad Agency. The session provided a greater depth of understanding and threw a whole lot of light, that will surely help us in the long run, to decide the stream of Advertising that would actually suit each one of us.
Advertising is apparently a subset of COMMUNICATION. Now that Adverising is communication, what would one eventually think about when one wants to Communicate a message?
1) What to say – This is probably the first thing one would think about – This is taken care of by the Account Management department
2) How to say – This is handled by the Creative team which figures out the best way of conveying which all of us try to apply in our everyday lives.
3) When, where & how much to say – This is eventually a job of numbers and is handled by the Media Planning & Buying groups.
4) To Whom to say – This plays the key and this is particularly handled by the Strategic Planning Executives who would probably head the agencies.
Coming to the ‘How to say’ part of it – there are two furhter subdivisions – one being Art & the other Copy. It takes an attractive visual as well as catchy expressions to make a successfuly ad which is when Art and Copy marry each other.
Now, which stream of Advertising do you want to head into?
Whatever you choose, try to be an Ideas Person.
We are thankful to Rahool in helping us get the fundamentals right
Regards,
Poornima
Important Class on blogging
Kiruba would meet us on 11th March to introduce us to advertisements on personal blogs/websites. It is about getting to know and apply Google adsense & adwords.
With mounting expectations set for the class, I will come back to write a note of it.
We have a little homework to do – google about “Google AdSense”. So what we expect to learn tomorrow is a way of selling your blog that has an original content. If Passion can get you writing, the New Media would perhaps credit you!
Lets keep our fingers crossed! The D-Day is here!
To view the previous class of our faculty Kiruba Shankar, please Click Here
Cheers,
Poornima
Creative Brief
Our faculty for the day, Mr Vignesh is the key Account Director for an esteemed brand.
He took us through the nitty-gritties of writing a Creative Brief.
Once the client gives you a communication brief, you as an Account Executive write the Creative Brief which does just that – briefing the Creative team. But it isn’t as simple as it sounds. There are different formats for Creative brief followed by different ad agencies, though the essence would continue to be the same.
Thanks to our faculty, for until last class we had the perception of an Account Executive to be in possession of great communication skills as he stands to be the face of the company. Yes that he needs adept Communication skills. However, that goes beyond – for an Account Executive needs Analytical skills to measure the curent positioning of the Brand, the problems & opportunities surrounding the brand, the thumb line that would suit the product, the stimulus that would instigate the customer, et al.
We are looking forward to an Assignment on creating our own Creative Brief. To skim the previous class handled by Vignesh, please Click Here
Thanks,
Poornima
Online Advertising
I knocked the door at 6 35pm & he warmly greeted me, ‘Hi Poornima’. Happy as I was to be recognised, yet a little surprised how he knew me by the name, I got in. Only to find the class turned into a Round Table Conference or ‘Unconference’, going by the book he is writing.
Thanks Kiruba! We felt more confident of ourselves when you were around in the Class.
As for those who missed the class, it was related to Online Media and our next assignment was to have our own individual blogs. He made a meticulous note of who the students of AdClub are, what they do currently & what they aspire to be. Its tough to recreate through this blog, the Life he broughtforth to the class. Probably try not to miss, next time!
Regards,
Poornima
The Advertising Club Bombay
Industry News :
http://www.adclubbombay.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=34&Itemid=34
Advertising Standards Council of India
1. http://www.ascionline.org/regulation/ASCI_Code_of_Self_Regulation.pdf
2. http://www.ascionline.org/feedback/Ad%20Campaign%202009.pdf
Official Handbook for Advertisers and Advertising Agencies – www.aaaindia.org
Advertising Agencies Association of India – www.aaaindia.org
Advertising Agencies Association of India – http://www.aaaindia.org
Download : http://www.aaaindia.org/beginers_series.htm
So, you want to join Advertising?
Men with bushy moustaches, women with a sense of humour, management graduates with ponytails… and then some. Welcome to the world of advertising.
If you’re a fresher standing at the threshold of the ad world with your head peeping in nervously, click here to get a crash course in advertising. Learn about the basics first, and then get a peek into the various departments of an ad agency – creative, planning and servicing.
AAAI Beginners Series:
The Advertising Agency (PDF 2.01 MB)
The Creatives (PDF 167 KB)
Account Planning
(PDF 189 KB)
Client Servicing (PDF 207 KB)
Client Servicing
Clients come up to Ad Agencies to find out how the latter can help them advertise their products/ideas/services. A Client Servicing Executive’s role is to be the face of the Agency to the Client.
Typically, she would be responsible for finding the Product/Service information from the Client, ask questions (if any) to the client to get a better understanding of the Product in offer.
Client Servicing representative finds out from conversing with the client as to who is the target audience, what does the client want to convey to the audience, how does the client want to project the brand, et. al
Once this gets done, she prepares a Communication Brief, gets that verified by the client if possible and passes it over to the Creative Team.
The creatives come up with ideas and the Client Servicing guy takes those back to the Client.
The key skills here involve Communication, Team building & Delegation. Though there is no stringent educational qualification norms for a Client Servicing representative, an MBA grad might sometimes be having an edge over the rest.
Vignesh, our faculty, also took us through the growth chart of a Client Servicing representative in terms of how she grows from a Jr. Executive.
The crux of the Client Servicing role remains to be – ‘Ask’ & find out as much to your client as is needed to conjure up a Brand Image for the Product offered.
The session got over with a role play, wherein we had two teams one of which played the client and the other took over as the Ad Agency.
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