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industry guide - advertising Whether it is viewed as an art form or simply a me

industry guide - advertising Whether it is viewed as an art form or simply a means of selling a product, there is no doubt that advertising plays a huge role in the modern world. Stephen Whyte, chief executive officer of Leo Burnett, gives a beginner’s guide to advertising, what it does and how it works “Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th Century.” Marshall McLuhan may have had his tongue in his cheek when uttering this much-quoted statement, but he started a debate which has continued into the 21st century. You can dispute whether or not advertising is art, but there is no arguing that advertising is big business. In the UK, £16bn is spent on advertising every year and the industry employs roughly 12,700 people, more than 75% of whom work in London. It is a young business, where 51% of employees are under 30 and 82% are under 40. Advertising is also a dynamic business, thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of those who work in it. New agencies spring up regularly, while more established agencies are regularly prone to mergers and acquisitions. Advertising’s global landscape is also changing constantly, as agencies and holding companies consolidate to achieve international clout and economies of scale. In this way, global advertising agencies reflect the global set-up of many clients, from Procter & Gamble and Unilever, to Nike and Levi Strauss. Last year, French-owned Publicis bought US-based Fallon and Saatchi & Saatchi, while WPP Group, the UK holding company which owns J Walter Thompson and Ogilvy & Mather, became the largest advertising and marketing services group in the world when it bought the US-based adver- tising network Young & Rubicam in a $4.5bn (£3.2bn) deal. A new holding company, B|Com3, was also created in late 2000, when three formerly independ- ent agencies — Japan’s Dentsu and two US-based global networks, Leo Burnett and D’Arcy — got together to combine their clout. In 2001, the advertising landscape changed again as the Interpublic Group of Companies swooped on its smaller rival, True North. With that acquisition, Interpublic was able to add FCB Group advertising network to become its fourth global agency. The deal also gave it the smaller Bozell Group and the BMSG Worldwide public relations network, which has since been merged with Interpublic’s Weber Shandwick Worldwide to create the world’s largest PR firm. Despite all this muscle, it is getting harder and harder to reach a mass audience because there are more media environments in which to place advertising than ever before. The ongoing digital revolution has increased consumer choice, bringing more television channels, more ways to purchase products and new outlets (such as the worldwide web) for advertisers. Media, telecommunications and electronics are converging to become one giant industry, illustrated by powerful alliances, such as the merger between AOL and Time Warner. Media expansion causes problems for advertisers, but it also presents new opportunities by increasing the possibilities for effectively targeting individuals, rather than taking a scattergun approach. Advertising is currently preoccupied with finding the best ways to adapt to this new media environment. Advertising agency structure As chief executive officer, there is nothing at this agency I should not get involved in, to varying degrees. Essentially we are in business to make a product — advertising — and I have to make sure that the advertising factory works effectively and efficiently. The most important relationship I have is with the creative director. You have to have a close working relationship, because that is what brings the whole business together. Apart from that, the managing director acts as a senior account manager and has a lot of con- tact with senior clients. He or she also works on new business and running the agency, which means paying attention to the quality of the product and making sure the agency continues to grow and evolve. One thing you always have to remember is that clients move, so we have to try and lengthen the average tenure of a client, but also to maintain an influx of new clients. I also keep an eye on profitability — it’s why we’re in business. All the department heads report to me and I deal with their appraisals, pay and everything else. I also have responsibility for financial planning and capital investments such as information technology. Clients, creativity and new business are the three big pillars of my job, and of the agency as a whole. If one of those goes wrong, there’s no hope. Account management More than anything else, account handlers manage the relationship with the client on a day-to-day basis. For the client, they provide a gateway to the agency. The account manager is the hub in the wheel — someone who organises the agency team of account managers, planners and creatives. They call in all the right resources and make sure that everyone works together to deliver a project on time and on brief. Account managers also look after the day-to-day business, such as billing the client and looking after the financial side of the account. They also get involved in seeing the execution of the cre- ative work through, obtaining copy approval and getting the client to sign off quotes. At a more senior level, the account director is a communications adviser. The role extends beyond advertising. They must be business-orientated and commercially aware of the broader issues relevant to the client’s business, such as manufacturing and distribution. The partnership between account directors and planners is very important for developing adver- tising strategies. Stephen Whyte industry guide - advertising Planners The planner’s role is to find the most compelling communication strategy and develop a real insight into the relationship between the brand and the consumer. Consumer research is an important tool of the planner’s trade. A planner needs to keep in touch with prevailing attitudes and trends to ensure that the agency’s advertising is effective and rele- vant. They must understand the brand and know how it interacts with the people it is selling to. Planners are given information from the client about the product and what the client wants the advertising campaign to achieve. The planner then develops a brief which goes out to the creative department and should act as springboard to great creative work. The three roles — account manager, planner and creative — should be as seamless a team as possible; the planner should not do all the thinking on their own. Planners used to be much more separate from the whole process, but clients now expect to have a relationship with all the people developing their advertising. If an agency is about brilliant ideas, planners are about brilliant strategic ideas — they should be the most creative thinkers in the building. Creatives The creatives are the brilliant executional thinkers. They work in teams — made up of a copywriter and an art director — to develop the planners’ ideas and think up ads which will give brands a strong competitive advantage. Creatives must be strategically capable as well as being able to think up brilliant ads. More and more often, they are also asked to present their own ideas to the client instead of handing over to account management at the final stage. They also manage and lead the production of the ads, once the idea has been approved. The creative department is the engine room of the agency’s culture. Creatives should drive their culture through the whole agency and charge it up with energy so that everyone at every level is pushing hard for better and better creative work. New business The new-business department is the marketing department of the agency. It is responsible for communicating the agency’s strengths and capabilities to the most appropriate potential clients. We develop relationships with possible future clients, even though sometimes it is years down the line before something comes of it. There are also brokers and consultants, such as the AAR which matches clients with agencies, and opinion formers like journalists to keep in touch with. At a more junior level, new business involves lots of administration, cold-calling potential clients, writing letters and putting together tenders for pitches. The new-business departments produce marketing material, such as showreels of our ads and brochures. We also have to manage our PR and ensure the agency remains high profile — this is important for attracting potential clients, but we also have to manage the agency reputation within the industry, because that is where we get most of our employees from. The rest These are the four biggest departments at an agency but there are lots more, including TV pro- duction, which makes deals with artists and draws up contracts with those who deliver the creative work. There is also an art studio, art buying, print production and traffic, which pushes work through the creative “factory” efficiently and effectively. The information department helps with intelligence for pitch teams and keeps us all on top of client business. Of course, ad agencies uploads/Industriel/ advertising-guide.pdf