EDITORIALS
So You Want to Work in An Ad Agency?
I sometimes get notes and phone calls from random college students and recently graduated job seekers that heard from someone that I work at an agency they admire. I was on a roll and just wrote this latest kid a novella, since I can't sleep tonight anyway. Thought it might make for a blog post if you're having trouble sleeping too.
WARNING: If this doesn't make you go to sleep then you may need to go into advertising.
On 06/01/11 3:31 PM, XXXXX XXXXXX wrote:
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Eric,
Thank you for getting back to me so soon. A lot of my questions revolve around two main points. I am new to the whole idea of working at an agency. Until recently it hadn't even hit me as an option. But now that I have been more involved in my advertising and design classes I realized that is where my strengths lie. So I guess my main questions for you are what are the different opportunities/positions available at an agency, and what can I do to prepare for an internship at an agency?
I would also love to hear your story and experience. Xxxx Xxxxxxx told a bit of your background with working for Volkswagen, but it would be great to know more. I'd also love to hear from you what agency life is like. Pros? Cons? Favorite aspects? I am just an ad agency sponge that wants to soak it all in.
Thanks so much for taking your time to help me out with this. I appreciate it.
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MY REPLY, POOR KID:
Oh dear. So much to learn. It's good you want to learn. But you'll have to become your own student and not rely just on school and formal programs. Be a geek if you enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, what do you enjoy? Do that. Here's a giant checklist to start so you're never bored.
1. Subscribe to the daily AdAge and AdWeek Emails. Read the articles. Other options are BrandWeek, and a quick updating, kinda gossipy ad trade blog agencyspy.com. Be in the know. Know way more about agencies all over the country (and world) than your young gun peers. If you are the most ad industry savvy of your peers at BYU-I, that doesn't mean much, but it's where you should be anyway. It's a good start.
2. Pick up books by ad veterans, like Paul Arden (i.e. "Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite," and "It's Not how Good you Are, It's How Good You Want To Be." They are super cheap and worth owning and reading about once a year.) Watch movies like "Art & Copy." Read books about culture that interest you. Know what's going on, even if you don't have time to know everything deeply, just know it's there.
3. Get digital. Follow websites like thefwa.com, be a geek on gizmodo.com and understand what flash is, HTML 5 is, different types of web banners, email marketing, CRM schemes, social media trends of the hour, social media marketing campaigns of the hour. How does an agency go about building an entire website to serve a client's goals? Why do the sites do what they do and how do people end up there? Where do they go from there? What's a KPI when it comes to online marketing? This will evolve about as quickly as you learn it, so it's a fun hobby to stay on top of.
4. Become a fan and student of advertising that's not advertising at all. Powerful messaging comes from a powerful product truth. How can the company bring that product truth to life in the consumer's life in a way that changes culture, not just takes advantage of current, already existing trends?
5. Get an internship at a big agency for the exposure. Doesn't have to be giant with offices all over the country/world, but should have national accounts and do really smart, strategic, creative work. If you start there (EVEN FOR FREE), you'll have many more options in your future. You can always settle down for a boring job that isn't as chaotic and demanding later. But you may not always be able to jump into the creative bandwagon. Be willing to move and live in Miami, Minneapolis, LA, NYC, Portland, San Francisco, Austin, Boulder, Richmond and other cities I'm surely leaving out. If you're hesitant to drop your life in one location and go for the gold at a crazy low paying job at a worldly agency in a place you've never been, then you'll be limited to what your options are in the future. If you're flexible and adventurous in college and the first 5-8 years after (and work like a mad man and never stop learning), it'll open up more doors and put you near the top of recruiters lists later. Be willing to work your butt off - nights, weekends, be the guy that will go pick up food at midnight and build binders or proofread copy when what you'd rather be doing is hanging out with your family and friends. It'll get better, promise. Kinda.
6. Be humble and smart. Although you may be intimidated by all the progressive hipsters that seem to fit in so well in this industry, you can be yourself. Be natural and real. But make sure that "yourself" is super smart and nice to have around. Of course, if you're a creative urban type, that's an advantage and will help you fit in on top of your smart humility. But first and foremost surround yourself with people smarter than you and soak in everything you can.
7. The resume and interviews: What makes you stand out? (Not just 'what makes you qualified,' although that's obviously important.) Find it early and make it something worth having, hiring and paying for. Make sure it's clear on your resume and the cliche' stuff isn't getting in the way of seeing why you would be the kind of person that a CEO would want representing him and his company / agency. If you think that person wears pleats and looks like he just got his hair cut with the #3 clippers on the sides and back, then you may be right. But you're probably not interviewing at my agency.
(Exhale)
Good thing I'm a bit of a loner insomniac this week, working out of town. I'm pretty sure I just wrote the skeleton of a presentation I could give at the next BYU-I Communications Day. Know who puts the guest speakers together? Ha.
As far what job you want in the agency, that's something only you'll know. If you don't know what departments are in a typical larger agency and how they tick and roll along, learn that. Here's a really basic agency structure 1.0 resources i just found with one Google search:
http://drypen.in/advertising/agency-structure-of-advertising-agency.html
Scour agency websites about the jobs they have open to see what on earth they are even called at various agencies. i.e. Some places call Account Management "Content Management." Account Planners (or just "planners") can be "Cognitive Anthropologists." Not kidding. But most agencies share the same or similar names for positions.
AGENCY JOBS:
Planners find the cultural and business insights that shape a creative brief and the strategy we sell to clients and build work from. In a good agency, they are the unsung heroes of the best work.
Creatives take that strategy and come up with how to apply it to the media. They are copywriters and art directors, creative directors. There are also studio workers and designers, creative technologists and other specialties, but mostly writers and artists that are supremely creative and hard working.
Traffic Managers (or Project Managers) help guide creative and account Managers toward a deadline. They keep all projects on track, organized and on schedule internally.
Account Management (or Account Services or Content Management) are the liaison between the clients and the agency. They are the central hub of organized, client friendly ad experts that work with every department inside the agency as well as vendors and partners outside the agency, not to mention clients, of course, to guide a campaign or project from before its inception (when the client comes to the agency with a task, i.e. a new product launch, or rebranding) all the way through the brief and concepting and back and forth with clients, and media planning and into production to create the TV or Radio or print or OOH (out-of-home) or online work or all of the above, to the details of pushing that work out into the world through whatever means or partner companies you work with to get it into the real (or digital) world, to the post-launch analytics and post-mordems and continual beta tweaking and optimizing (for digital work, it's rarely "finished," even after launch)....then it all starts over and projects overlap so you're always juggling and managing something. This is what I do. Account people need to be experts of their clients' industry within weeks, whether that's cars or phones or pizzas or credit cards or online services, and they need to be friends and champions of everyone within the agency as well. A good account person remembers that he works for his agency, not his client. That is sometimes easy to forget.
Production: producers are the cool cats that actually create the TV spot or digital marvel the creatives thought up but have no idea how to actually create. They have the resources and knowledge to guide the approved ideas into actual work that consumers end up seeing and interacting with. There are broadcast producers, interactive producers, print producers, etc. Each is pretty specialized.
There are more, i.e. media planners, media buyers, business affairs, art buyers, analytics, interaction designers, and all the overhead positions that keep the employees paychecks coming and building functioning, of course. At least in a big agency. The smaller the agency, the more that stuff may be done by anyone from the owner to the "new kid."
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That's all I've got in my system tonight. I'd recomend you get out there and get inside some agencies so you can see what they look like on the inside. Talk to more people and see if I'm just full or crap, so you can get a wider perspective.
But above all, do #5 above. The rest will come naturally if you're actually excited and interested in it.
Best,
eric
This piece is cross-posted from Eric Forsyth's blog.
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Comments
Excellent advice Eric. I'll be sharing this with everyone I know who's trying to break into advertising.
Great work!
Joshua
Couple qualifying questions:
1. Is following the above advice what got you a job in an agency? In my 15+ years of experience in markets large and small, it's almost always about who you know. Rarely is it about how great you are/want to be. Glaring omission to leave off an overt statement about shameless networking--it is the most important thing one could do in any business, but most definitely ours.
2. Considering #6 above, do you really feel like you're in a position to be offering up advice? I mean, from what I can tell, you have about 5 years of professional experience at one agency. Now, granted, the one agency is CB+P, but that doesn't qualify you as an expert on all things advertising. Perhaps if you had worked at a couple notable shops, but seriously, where's the humble?
Thanks for sharing the article to the larger community asking those same questions.
Anonymous: Speaking as one who has spent almost 30 years in this business, I find his advice to be pretty spot on. I personally skipped #5 in my formative years, and had to spend the next four or five un-learning what I'd been taught. Fortunately, I was able to self-educate and found the right path (at great shops) early enough to mitigate the damage.
Regarding shameless networking, perhaps account types can find jobs this way, but the portfolio still rules, and always will, for creative folks. So before you network, please make sure you have your book in order.
@ Gregg, not doubting the validity of the message, just validity of the messenger. And, re: the book, yes, it's cost of entry. But in the past you may have been able to open doors with the quality of "the book," but not anymore. You need a great book, But, unfortunately, who you know matters more. This is how most of the crap work at so called good agencies gets produced--friends of friends, children and siblings of clients, etc. It's entitlement and nepotism. I'd be surprised if you haven't experienced it for yourself.
@Anonymous. I realize my personal story of entry may or may not be the norm, but for me it started with an internship, some ambition and enthusiasm and freelance work I gained solely through professional relationships, not friends or family. Note, I wrote this for the generation trying to get in (actually, I only wrote this for one single college kid who asked, then the Egotist picked it up off my far-from-popular personal blog where i posted it for archiving), not for anyone else. Of course you ought to network on top of everything else, but not in lieu of making sure you're growing as a marketable applicant. If networking isn't intuitive for ANY job hunt, a job seeker has larger issues. This post was intended to be specific to ad agencies, not networking principles that are true for any job. The kid who asked for this didn't ask how to network (thank goodness). He asked about ad agencies.
If we don't like how something in the industry functions (e.g. nepotism), should we try and change it, or just lament how it's such a shame? I suppose a little of both is in order, as long as you don't forget the former. I for one don't help my friends and family get jobs I don't think they would be really, really good at. The ultra cliché truth: Let's be the change we want to see in the world, shall we?
Eric, you've taken my feedback in an unintended direction. I wasn't lamenting anything whatsoever, more delivering it as a fact that those looking to enter the business need to consider.
Anyway, I, too, followed a "traditional" path to agency employment, internships, etc. But the internships were as much to meet the right people (and stay in touch) as it is to get "real" experience. You say yourself that it was your professional contacts that made the difference. And this is ultimately what got me my first real agency job. I made a mistake mentioning networking and entitlement/nepotism in the same comment. It was more to identify that this is a HUGE factor in agency employment; to ignore it is to provide bad counsel. Simply put, this is what makes the business so competitive--talent is cost of entry, but that only goes so far. To say otherwise is to posit that every creative person in this business is supremely talented. In fact, I would filter all your other advice as a way to get to know the players and meet the right people. What I'm saying is that learning how to effectively "network" in this way is invaluable for someone looking to break into advertising. If you haven't noticed, that bar for talent is pretty low in this industry now, and where gimmicks and "good" books are a dime a dozen, getting to know the right people (and making sure you're in the right place at the right time) is what will make the difference.
Secondarily, I did and do question whether someone with 5 years of experience at one shop is qualified to serve up employment advice for the masses. It wasn't a personal attack, so sorry if that upset you.
@Anonymous - As Eric noted, he posted this to his personal blog, which isn't exactly reaching the masses.
Found some good nuggets in here, Eric. Thanks.
Okay, fair enough. But again, not a personal attack against Eric. There are some good nuts and bolts in there for sure. But whether it's advice for one or many, it's incomplete. And, as I've expressed, it's missing the most important part.
I agree with Greg. What I like about this article is that it covers how you you get into the business now rather than how Gregg and I experienced it. 5 years at a great agency easily qualifies someone to write this, especially a larger place because the network of people you work with. Each with their story of how it happened for them.
The one thing that has not changed is having a book with work people like.
I have had a lot of jobs, only one was an opportunity that came from knowing someone. If getting hired isn't about the work, question a place that wouldn't make it about the work.
really steve? reading books and following trends is a "now" thing? and I'm not simply talking about personal connections--you and greg have no doubt both benefited from working at national/well-known shops + big brands, as have I. This also counts a lot for networking and "who" you know, which circles you travel in, who accepts your book in the first place, etc. Look, the best advice I would give anyone is looking for an agency job is to get connected to the people of the business and make friends ASAP. If you're talentless, all the connections in the world won't help you. Or will it? Again, turn on the TV, read a magazine or web site--I'd question those who stand on principle and say it's all about the work. Puhleez. If that's the case, why is there so much crap work out there? Like advertising is some sort of functioning meritocracy. Couldn't be further from the truth.
I thought it was one of the best editorials written here: An idealistic perspective that had a little of eric's personality and included information, considering that is what new people ask for, however, you all have valid points. I think 'poor kid' refers to not being Beyonce: entitled to be autimatically in at a level larger than life. As for being qualified to give advice, I didn't know their were lines drawn in the sand to be established to do that. Ofcourse, all advice is not weighted equal, but regardless it did the trick, most people don't take the time. Having just read the interview by Jordan Atlas on the LA Egotist site...there should be an unsaid comradarie, which is idealistic in itself, nodders. It is annoying to have your name given out as a contact by people that think they are helping and have no inkling to the business! Especially if you don't know the person, their ability, and their circumstance; those components make it near to impossible.
I particularly enjoyed the 'if you can ignore all the hipsters' part. One of god's many distinguishable, generational creatures out there.
why are you scrutinizing Eric's blog entry?
The Egotist posted it/asked to post it.
Kind of ridiculous to question one's understanding based on
years alone, that's no longer an accurate barometer
The answer is simple
"Is one of your family members a well established ad veteran?"
If no, then don't bother.
like any industry
easiest way in
but plenty of exceptions
@chicago no doubt.
Now days, if you don't know anyone in the agency world, it is extremely hard to get in, especially at CP+B. Even for unpaid internships.
"Be humble and smart." As someone bouncing back and forth between advertising and the legal field (odd combo, I know), being humble is integral to any kind of success in life. (Note that I have yet to meet a humble attorney but I still have hope.)
But I digress. I agree with the posts above. I didn't get started in advertising with an internship. I met with a friend's dad who let me drop his name to get some informational interviews. Through him and these interviews, I got a great job at a huge agency. Prior to this job, I had worked in construction development and financial services. I'm fairly confident that without the help of my friend's dad I would never have gotten the job at "Agency X."
As for the author/poster's experience, it doesn't matter to me if he has 5 years or 15 years of experience. He clearly has a passion for the industry and he has given newbies and the more experienced some good info.
You put media (and analytics) under "there are more."
Where do I begin with my commentary on that choice and the insulated view it represents?
It is a 2-way st. moving along with the media craze of everybody knowing everyone[or thinking they do] & saying 'who's that', when they have a sighting. It obviously doesn't hurt to be a celebrities sibling or so&so, but there are both succes/horror stories. I always thought name dropping was lame...but it can get you somewhere. It does not make you the best at something or one of the best in any facet of an industry!
Anyway, I didn't think this was about that? which can be a debateable statement, if you have more time to waste? Some fields are impossble, however.
@SmallMediumatLarge and all: If there were two things I could update on this post they would be:
1. Fix the perception of trivializing other essential roles at agencies, like media and analytics. I didn't even mention the front and back end dev gods and goddesses that actually bring the digital work to life - what a gaffe on my part. I just got super tired and I knew this kid didn't need it to be 100% thorough. Didn't anticipate it ending up on the Egotist.
2. Add #7: "Keep in touch with your favorite and most influential / open-door professional contacts you meet along your adventure. Aka 'networking' and aka 'duh.' "
As a recruiter at a large agency, I love this post. This is what I have to regurgitate 1000s of times.
I would add: BE RESOURCEFUL and be prepared to take criticism well. I can't tell you how many times I have stunned a candidate by calling them out on the lack of research they have done on the industry they supposedly "have been dying to work in." It's good to reach out and ask for informational interviews but don't rely on that (or your friend's mother's cousin at an agency). Learn how to make things happen on your own.
Thanks for the post Eric, I think it's just enough advice (and then some) to get a kid started from scratch.
Hell, in Denver, even the older creatives have no idea what's going on in the industry. They could use some, if not all, of this advice to land a gig and stay relevant. Denver is rife with middle-aged juniors.
and Boulder is rife with know it all twenty something hipsters
who really know it all
Great post Eric. Saw it over the weekend on twitter and am really glad the egotist picked it up.
why do people think this is a great post? the info is really pretty basic stuff that would apply to any job seeker in any industry--work hard, read up, stay informed, etc. i think the author would be right to update the post as he notes, but no need to "duh" the networking bit. it's clearly not so obvious to everyone (it was after all omitted from your post). and if you're trying to inform someone about how to get a job in advertising, it seems from the responses that it's pretty important. Either way, doesn't seem "humble" or "smart" to be glib about it.
I thought Eric's post was excellent, especially the "Agency Jobs" section. Personally, I don't think many agencies are hiring generalists these days; they are filling specific positions. If they post a job for a designer, you need to show/sell yourself as a designer. If they need an information architect, copywriter, account manager, etc., etc..
My suggestion to the student is to focus on digital if you want to get into the agency business. Traditional shops are still figuring this area out, believe it or not. If you're not a creative type, learn the technical side. Make lots of websites, even if no one visits them. Experiment with the medium. Learn SEO. Put everything into a portfolio.
The first job in this business is definitely the hardest, so take your time, and be extra passionate.
Maybe some good advice, but the guy seems like kind of a kook who is pretty high on himself...
"If you think that person wears pleats and looks like he just got his hair cut with the #3 clippers on the sides and back, then you may be right. But you're probably not interviewing at my agency."
Eeaaasy buddy.....
Eric - I appreciate your note, and imagine the audience it was intended for, a college student, likely printed it out and will review it weekly over the course of this summer and year. Maybe you could have added more, written less or covered different aspects, but I would put money on the fact that most in this industry would not spend the time required to provide this real world opinion to a lowly college graduate. Kudos good sir.
Amen.
Regarding "networking," I thought this new Onion article was funny, as most elephants in the room can be. Just a little semi-related chuckle for anyone in the mood. http://www.theonion.com/articles/study-89-percent-of-networking-nonconse...
onion = truth
Would a #4 on the sides and back preclude me from an agency job?
@Michael. Ha. No way. Nor would #3. Rock your style and thrive. :)
Amazingly enough, I only read this article AFTER I had moved to Shanghai. Without leads in January, and now I'm working at Ogilby & Mather.
How well paid are positions in Ad Agencies?
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