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Advertising Agencies

Advertising agencies have come a long way since the nineteenth century, when they were essentially space brokers. Today, the full-service agency employs writers, artists, media experts, researchers, television producers, account executives, and others as part of the organization. John S. Wright and his colleagues have identified three main functions for the full-service advertising agency:

1. Planning. The agency must know the firm, its product, the competition, and the market well enough to recommend plans for advertising.

2. Creation and execution. The agency creates the advertisements and contacts the media that will present them to the intended audience.

3. Coordination. The agency works with sales people, distributors, and retailers to see that the advertising works.

Within the full-service agency are several major functions and groups:

1. Account management. The account executive and his or her staff provide services to a firm or product. An account management director is responsible for relations between the agency and the client.

2. The creative department. The creative director supervises writers, directors, artists, and producers, who write and design ads.

3. Media selection. A media director heads a department in which the specific media to be used for particular ads are chosen.

4. The research department. Advertising messages are pretested and data are gathered to help the creative staff fashion a specific design and message. The research director supervises in-house research and hires public opinion firms for more extensive national and regional studies.

5. Internal control. The administrative operations of the agency, including public relations, are concentrated in one department.

An administrative director runs the agency. Of course, large agencies have a board of directors and the usual trappings of a big business.

Unlike the full-service agency, a boutique has more limited goals and services. It is essentially a creative department and may hire other agencies and independent services to provide advertising services for particular clients and products. Often boutiques work closely with in-house agencies-that is, a small ad agency formed by a business to handle its own products. Most boutiques are small agencies established by people who once worked for full-service agencies.

Inside the agency. What an advertising agency offers is service, and it is confidence in that service that brings clients to pay 15 percent of their total billings to the ad agency. Just what happens from the initial contact between an agency and a client to the finished advertising campaign varies considerably, depending on the size of the agency and the nature of the account. But, essentially, this is how it works:

Either the account management director calls on a business — say, a local company that manufactures solar heating devices — or someone from the business contacts the advertising agency. Indeed, the solar heating company may contact several agencies and ask all of them for proposals, with the understanding that only one will receive the account. The account management director selects an account executive from within the agency, who arranges a meeting between executives from the solar heating company and his or her boss, the account management director, and other appropriate people from the agency. They discuss potential advertising objectives: Who are likely customers for the device? How can they best be reached? Through what medium? With what appeals?



Then the account executive goes to work inside the agency. The research department conducts research to answer some of the questions about potential consumers. The agency's creative department holds brainstorming sessions, discussing ideas for potential ads and a potential campaign. Artists and writers draw up sample ads. These may be rough sketches of newspaper and magazine advertisements as well as broadcast story boards, which are a series of drawings on a panel indicating each step of the commercial. Depending on how complex and detailed the campaign is to be, a variety of other specialists may be involved, such as sound engineers, graphic artists, lighting experts, and actors.

The result of all this is sample ads, which are then pretested on potential consumers. The agency's research department goes over this pretesting and suggests which of several approaches would be best for the client. This research also guides the agency and client in deciding what media to use — print or broadcast, outdoor advertising, or matchbook covers, for example.

The account executive then pulls this information together and, along with other agency personnel, conducts a presentation for the company. But first, potential costs are clearly laid out so that the solar heating company can evaluate the proposal. The presentation is often elaborate, with slide and tape presentations and sample ads. Research and creative personnel are called in to discuss the ads, and people from the media department discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using particular media for the campaign. Now the ball is in the company's court. The executives either accept or reject the agency's proposal. Their acceptance may, of course, be conditional on various modifications.

Once the green light is given, the account executive coordinates activity within the agency to produce the actual ads and then works with the media department to contact the media and arrange for the advertising campaign actually to reach the public. The research department usually prepares to evaluate the campaign so that the agency can present evi­dence about whom the campaign reached and with what effectand thus ensure that the ac­count will be renewed in the future. Eventually, the advertisement for solar heating devices reaches the consumer. The success or failure of the campaign depends on whether an ample number of consumers head toward a local store to buy the devices.

 


Date: 2015-12-17; view: 775


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