By Subhojit Roy, Partner, Connections PR
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Advertising & Marketing Communications
There is perhaps, no other business that so greatly influences our daily lives. Advertising dictates our choices regarding cars we drive, our drinking preferences, or our clothes, it is a great influence on our daily lives.
Work
Advertising offers a unique blend of opportunities as a career. Rare in other industries will you find a more eclectic group of individuals under one roof! The major areas of operation are client servicing, media planning, creative and research.
Client Servicing
The face of the agency, Client Servicing, represents the agency to the client and the client within the agency. On receipt of a detailed brief from the client, the Account Executive and Account Planner chalk out a strategy based on the brand’s positioning, its USP and its communication peg.
While the more renowned agencies require an MBA, some others will be satisfied with a Degree/Diploma in marketing or mass communication.
Media Planning
They guide ad agencies select the best outlet or medium to reach the customer they want. Media planners plan, schedule, book and purchase space in the print media (newspapers, magazines) or outdoors (billboards, kiosks and bus panels) and time (TV & radio, internet). The media planning also involve conducting some targeted research to assess recall and viewership/ readership of a campaign. Media planners should ideally have a background in Maths and Statistics, an MBA.
Accounts Planning
The servicing department which strategize and help evolve the budget, selecting the right media and drawing up the communication message after exchanging views with the client and with its own creative team, the media planning department and on occasions, the market research agency.
Copy Department
Copywriter’s task is to send across the message in words – headline, followed by the body copy in the case of a press ad, a dialogue or jingle for a radio spot, or a detailed story board in the case of a TV commercial.
A good copywriter’s must come out with unique and out of the box ideas and co-relate masses of data and research findings so as to present the conclusions in language that is lucid and convincing. He/She also needs patience to craft words into a definite and successful sales pitch. The paramount requirement is creativity and versatility.
Creative Department
The creative department’s job is to identify the correct words, the most appropriate visuals – to catch the attention. The creative team can be further divided into two sections: Copy and Creative.
The Art Department
The look of a campaign accommodating the different components i.e. headline, visual, picture, text, logo, etc. in a given space. Selecting the size and type of the font, the visual treatment and the overall treatment is the purview of the visualisers and art directors.
A high level of originality and creative talent form the pillar, a degree in applied art or graphic design with knowledge of computer graphics/multimedia is required.
Market Research
The Research department tries to measure the effectiveness of the ad campaign. It Is research that provides the media planner and creatives a scientific and measurable basis to sharp-focus their strategy. These professionals are from a variety of disciplines, but share a common comfort level with mathematical or statistical modelling, sampling techniques and psychographics.
Remuneration
In this industry rewards are directly commensurate with the initiative you display, the effort you put in and the results you achieve. If you are ambitious and hard working, you can quickly move up the ladder. Starting with Rs.6000 or thereabouts as a fresh wet-behind-the-ears trainee, you can easily gross ten times as much five years down the line if you’ve got what it takes.
Institutes/Colleges
Though few colleges offer specialisation in advertising at the bachelor’s level. But elements of advertising such as media planning and client servicing are covered in Mass Communication courses offered at both the under-graduate and post-graduate level.
Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, JNU, New Campus, New Delhi 110067 (UT) http://www.iimc.nic.in
MS University of Baroda, Fatehganj, Vadodara 390002.(Guj) http://www.msub.edu
Mudra Institute of Communications (MICA), Shela, Ahmedabad 380007 (Guj) http://www.mica-india.net
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, V.L. Mehta Road, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai-400056. (Mah) http://www.nmims.edu
National Institute of Advertising, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi 110002 1(UT). http://www.nia.org
National Institute of Design (NID), Paldi, Ahmedabad 380007 (Guj) http://www.nid.edu
Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art, Dr DN Road, Mumbai 400001
University of Delhi, College of Art, Tilak Marg, New Delhi 110002
Wigan & Leigh College
Xavier’s Institute of Communication, St. Xavier’s College 5, Mahapalika Marg, Mumbai 400001. (Mah) http://www.xaviercomm.org (Note:Returns are directly commensurate with the initiative effort and the results. Ambition and hard work can take one up the ladder).
About the author – Subhojit Roy the Partner and Co Founder, Connections PR. Roy has been a mentor for StartUp Summits by Franchise India and writes articles in the Annual Publication on Career Opportunity for the Indian Express group as a PR expert apart from writing for leading International digital news platforms like Indiablooms, Tran world Features, Entrepreneur on behalf of his clients on diverse issues of business interests.
He is Recipient of Outstanding Young Person (OYP) Award of Kolkata in 2002 from the JAYCEES and Avenues of Service Citation from Rotary International for his humanitarian work for thalassaemia patients and different avenues of service as a Rotarian. Currently he is also serving as the Honorary Secretary of the Eastern Chamber of Commerce looking after business interests of members from the SME & MSME sectors. He is also a Rotarian for the past 22 years and has served many positions in the Rotary hierarchy.