Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations

Advertising is a particular form of communication - it is described as a combination of art, science, business and show business, all rolled into one. The sector employs some of the brightest and most creative artists, producers, writers, economists, researchers and business people available.

Most people like to think that they are immune to the persuasive powers of advertising and marketing, but in reality, we are not. Just think of the amount of exposure you get on a daily basis, through advertising materials - billboards, TV, radio, magazines, direct mail, shop front displays all influence our decisions when purchasing clothes, food, cars, music and everyday items. Even our holiday destinations are influenced by advertising.  Universal access to the internet and social media now means that we are surrounded by advertising - 24/7.

Successful advertising should grab our attention, stick in our minds and most importantly, influence us to buy the product. Advertising is a huge area and it will continue to grow alongside consumerism.

Sector Regulation

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) is the independent body responsible for promoting the highest standards in advertising, promotional marketing and direct marketing. The ASAI is self-regulatory. This means the advertising industry adopted standards drawn up by, and on behalf of all advertising interests. The standards are enforced through the commitment and cooperation of advertisers, agencies and media.

Just some of the many different job roles in advertising:

Account Manager
Represents the client at an advertising agency and plays a key role in the development of the advertising campaign. Account Managers/Handlers are responsible for developing an in-depth understanding of the client's marketplace, their business, their objectives and then working closely with planners to translate the brief into agency creative briefs. Their job involves dealing with almost every department in managing the whole advertising process.

Strategic Planner
Strategic planners represent the consumer. People in this job are typically trained researchers and are responsible for bringing a whole consumer perspective to the communications process.

Strategic Planners develop the key strategic insight behind the advertising idea. To do this, they need to understand as much as possible about the consumer, or target market. They work closely with the client to research the market, using and commissioning quantitative and qualitative data research. The Planner will then write and present a strategy for the advertiser in response to the findings i.e. hopes, fears, behaviour, of the consumer base. 



Media Planner
Planners in a media agency will take a brief from the client which highlights the message they want to communicate to the consumer, in accordance with a particular budget or planned spend on the campaign. Together with the strategic planning people, the Media Planner will identify the optimum target audience, develop a close understanding of this audience's media habits and use this information to create a media plan and identify the channels that should be used to maximise the creative idea that will best connect with the target audience.

The Creative Department
The creative department of an advertising agency is where the advertising campaign comes together. Creatives generally work in pairs e.g. a Copywriter and an Art Director. They take the client brief and work with it to invent ideas to address the brand's business issue. Next, they work with media planners/buyers and the production department to turn the ideas generated into a reality.

An Art Director is usually, but not always, art-college trained. The role of the Art Director is to respond to the creative brief by communicating ideas or moods visually.

A Copywriter may have graduated with a degree in any of a number of subject areas, but may just as easily be art-college trained too. It's not the qualification that's important — success in this field is based on creative talent. The copywriter's role is to respond to a creative brief by communicating ideas in written or verbal form. To get a job as a creative, the most important thing is your 'book' — the portfolio of your ads and work to date to showcase your talent.

Creative Services & Production Department
This is where art and creativity meet reality and commerce! - where ad campaigns are made and make money. People working in this area need a variety of skills.

Most other disciplines within an advertising agency are pretty much set in stone, but creative services differ across advertising agencies. The following job roles typically come under creative services: 

• Creative Services Director
• Creative Services Manager
• Art Buying
• TV Production
• Studio Project Management
• Traffic Management and
• Print Production.

Creative Services Director – manages all resource, ensures that the department is running efficiently and all costs spent are competitive and output is to the very highest standard. 

Creative Services Manager – people in this job role report to the Creative Services Director and take on shared responsibility and day-to-day issues in getting the project to completion. 

Art buyer – provides the creative team with a variety of photographers and illustrators that will execute the ad in the most beautiful and effective way possible. The Art Buyer manages the pre-production meetings where all aspects of the shoot are approved, e.g. casting, styling, location etc.

TV Production Department
This department normally has a TV Producer and Production Assistants. The department is responsible for the production of all TV commercials, cinema advertising, virals, radio and mood films - basically, it handles anything moving or with sound.

Studio Project Manager – this job role handles the workload going in and out of the studio. The Project Manager's role is to oversee timing and production budgets and drive the project through to completion. They must ensure that deadlines are kept and at every stage of the process and communication between the account team and creatives.

Traffic Manager – ensures that all briefs go through the Creative Department smoothly. They have to manage the time of the Creative Team Members, juggle their workloads and allocate briefs with the Creative Services Director.

Production Manager – The Production Manager is responsible for the output from all advertising campaigns.

Getting into Advertising

Breaking into the advertising business is not easy. Most jobs in the sector require a degree-level qualification. Internships and related work experience are valuable. Retail sales experience is also great preparation.

 

People think of "Marketing" and Advertising as one and the same, but they are not. Advertising is simply one of the business activities that makes up the field of marketing.

Marketing is a broad area. For those interested in working in marketing there will be opportunities to work either in-house for a company, or for an agency who provides marketing services.

The following are key areas:

• Advertising
• Brand management
• Direct marketing
• Marketing communications i.e. online marketing, social media
• Market research

Advertising and Public Relations functions are often performed by outside agencies that specialise in those areas, while overall marketing functions are usually performed in-house in large or medium-sized companies and corporations by the Marketing Department. Smaller companies that don't have an in-house marketing department will contract-in an outside marketing firm to handle their marketing needs. The majority of marketing jobs are found within larger companies and not at marketing firms.

Certain marketing roles are closely related to sales, while others are more involved with the strategic aspects of the job. The marketing department of a large organisation is like the centre of a wagon wheel with each spoke connected to other departments (in-side and out-side of the company) including sales, production, research, advertising, etc. The centre of the wheel connects the various parts so they work in harmony. 

Marketing involves a lot of research into customers’ likes, dislikes and preferences. Marketing also identifies who exactly should be the customer. That is, what groups within society should particular products be aimed at. Market research is used extensively used to seek out the 'image' which appeals to the consumer. The pair of jeans, the mobile phone, the holiday abroad, the car - these are often purchased based on their image and on how they make us feel as much as anything else. Marketing strategies are then used to advertise the services or package the products in user friendly ways that appeal to the target consumer group. 

The following are some of the job roles typically found in marketing:

Marketing Director - may help the sales force reassess how they target potential clients or may be involved in the development of a new product to insure that consumer expectations (and needs) are being met. May suggest a new feature be added to an existing product based on feedback from the sales staff or review potential ads submitted from the ad firm she hired.

Marketing Manager - responsible for the strategic direction of all marketing activity on specific products and services.

Marketing Co-ordinator - Co-ordinates the marketing activities of the marketing team.

Marketing Executive - varied role which includes implementation of marketing projects to support the brand. The work of a marketing executive is often challenging and fast-paced.

Social Media Co-ordinator - Job is to integrate the organisation’s social media strategy, increase brand awareness, provide inbound traffic and boost the adoption of relevant social media techniques.

Larger companies tightened their marketing budgets during the recession years and many reduced their staff. However, the fast changing world of technology is also changing the face of consumerism, pushing the requirement for investment in marketing activities to increase again.

 

Public Relations, or PR as it is commonly known, is the discipline that looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. 

PR is a planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill between an organisation and the audiences that are important to it. These audiences – also called publics – include existing and potential customers, employees, investors, the media, government, suppliers and opinion-formers.

The PR industry has been writing eye catching content for years for brand campaigns, be it last minute or pre planned, so it makes sense that content creation is something that can benefit digital marketing. Digital can learn a lot from PR in how to manage a crisis should it arise, such as bad situations, unhappy customers, customer complaints, etc. This also focuses on the reputation on the brand and how PR can look after this. 

The PR function requires a constant online presence in its daily activities. Media monitoring is no longer confined to the newspapers, extending to online news sites, news aggregate sites and blogs depending on the client’s needs. 

The following are some of the job roles typically found in PR:

PR Officer -  uses all forms of media and communication to build, maintain and manage the reputation of clients, who can range from public bodies or services to businesses and voluntary organisations. Work includes communicating key messages, often using third party endorsements, to defined target audiences in order to establish and maintain goodwill and understanding between an organisation and its public. The PR officer will also monitor publicity and conduct research to find out the concerns and expectations of an organisation's stakeholders. They then report and explain the findings to its management.

PR officers often work in-house and can be found in both the private and public sector organisations. They may also be based in PR consultancies.

Press officer - Liaises with the media, fielding their questions and queries for a particular employer, product or person. A press officer would also write press releases, organise press conferences and assess media coverage. 

Public relations account executive - Promotes the reputation of a product or person through news items, without the use of advertising. This could involve product placement and news articles which contain no cost. It also involves liaising with the client and writing reports to inform them what effect the PR is having on their personal, company or product's reputation.

Public affairs consultant - Keeps informed with political news. Role involves offering political and public policy advice to a range of employers. The Public Affairs Consultant liaises with and builds relationships with key stakeholders in the decision-making process in European, national, regional and local government bodies.

 

Digital marketing has become the shiny new buzz word used at every opportunity in the marketing and communications industry.

The focus today is on web content creation and implementation - top quality content that must be interesting and engaging. It's all about improving a website’s SEO.

Typically, webmasters and SEO experts work to improve the rank of sites through Google by creating high quality and innovative sites that consumers will want to use and share.



Once the technical part is thought out, the focus is on producing interesting, eye-catching and shareable content that is appealing to the possible target market.

Information saturation is at an all-time high and brands are constantly looking for new ways to cut through the noise and deliver meaningful messages.

Digital marketing is bringing with it lots of new career opportunities. There are 150,000 jobs in Digital Marketing predicted by 2020.

Many of the world’s leading digital giants like Google, LinkedIn and Twitter have HQs located in Dublin, providing a wealth of job opportunities for digital professionals to choose from. Rarely a week goes by without a new announcement of digital jobs for multinationals, national brands and even SMEs.

Ryanair has recently created 200 digital jobs, many of which were digital marketing positions. The Web Summit saw the announcement of 400 new jobs across a range of digital marketing roles, including social media. LinkedIn is set to double its workforce to 1,200 staff; Microsoft plans to hire 100 more digital graduates.

According to The Marketing Salary survey by The Marketing Institute, the top five areas recruiting for digital marketing positions are:

• Foreign Direct Investment
• FMCG (Fast moving consumer goods)
• Agency
• Utilities and
• Financial services

Social media straddles both the PR and the digital marketing functions in business, allowing them to reach new consumers faster and easier than with traditional media. It aims to open up a two-way conversation between the brand and the client.

For millennials, social media comes naturally. They’ve grown up using the many platforms out there.  

There are key areas within social media industry in which it is now possible to build a career, from digital content and how it is delivered, to campaign strategy:

Social Media Planner -  This role is all about advertising. As a planner, it will be up to you to find a way to advertise a product or brand across social channels. You’ll be in charge of allocating budgets, targeting the right demographics and deciding on the right content to push. 

Social Media Coordinator - generally following a strict posting calendar, the coordinator works to ensure that all social media posts go live at the agreed times, that they are accurate and correct in line with the company's brand values. 

Social Media Specialist - As a social media specialist you will be responsible for developing strategies to meet companies’ and clients’ social media needs. To do this you’ll have to follow posts closely to determine which direction a company should go. 

Social Media Analyst - This area is about understanding the data generated through social media. A social media analyst is responsible for the numbers associated with brand platforms to help determine the brand's strategy.

Social Media Community Manager - If interacting with people online is your thing then this is the suited role for you. Social media community managers are there to interact with the audience in an appropriate way. This is a fast paced role that puts you right in the centre of the action and allows your personality to shine through. You are expected to answer questions, join conversations, and offer solutions. 

Social Media Manager - If being in charge is your thing then this is the right role for you. The social media manager is in charge of all aspects of the social media campaign. You’ll oversee the strategy, implementation, and marketing and delegate where you see appropriate. Having good communication skills and the ability to work under pressure is a must for this position.