When you watch television are you more interested in the commercials? When you flip through a magazine are you drawn to the ads with their bright colors and catchy slogans? Have you ever wondered if the same things seem to stick out to other people? Maybe you should consider applying your natural ability to a career in advertising. Ironically, a degree in advertising will make you just as marketable in other industries, such as public relations. In this profession you would be in charge of implementing, and possibly managing, a company’s advertising strategies. It would be critical for you to be able to approach it from a sales perspective, a technical perspective, and a business perspective. You will likely be responsible for negotiating agreements with outside sales representatives, as well as managing discussions and sales with agencies and sponsors. Your success will largely depend upon you being able to use different types of marketing techniques such as internet, publications, radio, and television. In order to work in the industry of advertising you must first obtain a formal degree.
It is important that you understand that each of these degree programs will consist of slightly different coursework, but will result in you having similar training in the end. As you work on your bachelor’s degree in advertising design you will learn about theories of advertising as it relates to consumer behavior, public relations, and market trends. Your coursework will teach you about visual arts concepts such as scale, shape, layout, and color and how to advertise in a professional and ethical manner. You will receive training on how to create commercials, campaigns, and other design projects that can be used in many different aspects of the media. Prior to completing your degree program you will be expected to complete an internship and to compile a portfolio of your work. You will use your portfolio to show potential employers what you are capable of producing, so it will be important to do a good job as you compile this. Take a moment and request a free information packet from any of the schools on our site that interest you.
Once you have obtained your degree in a field of advertising you will be able to seek employment as an advertising sales agent, as a public relations specialist, or as a copywriter, among other popular options. Of course, should you decide to further your level of educational degree you will have additional job opportunities available to you. Get started on your advertising courses today, research any of the schools shown below.
Everyone has seen some form of advertising. Whether they see those ads that are connected to your social media feeds, or seen commercials on television. Advertising is everywhere. For that reason, there are tons of college students who are getting their degree to work in Advertising. For those who are still undecided, here is a closer in-depth look into this field that so many are entering into.
Advertising is a huge business! You will find that almost every company out there has some form of advertisers on their team. Thus, the chances of finding a job in this field are relatively high. With this being said, just what is advertising? What does it entail? What is the typical day of an advertiser going to be like? These are all important questions to know before deciding this is the career path that you want to take.
One of the common misconceptions is that advertising and marketing are the same thing. However, they are not. Advertising is defined as the paid, public, non-personal announcements of a message that is meant to be persuasive. In many cases, this is the non-personal presentation of a company’s products or services to potential and existing customers. Advertising is a component of marketing. Those who work in advertising are strictly limited to the advertisement itself, rather than researching the market, the public relations aspect and the like. While they go hand in hand, advertising is just a single slice of the marketing plan of a company. In advertising, a person will design the ad, and they will look at the placement of these ads. The placement process is going to help develop which type of ad is going to work best for the client they are working with. On top of the creative side of advertising, there is also the accounting side that has to be taken into consideration.
Those who go into the accounting side of advertising are looking for ways in which they can pay for advertisements and what sort of dividends that an advertisement is going to bring to them. There are those who do both sides of advertising. However, in most bigger companies, there are several people who are handling each side in order to ensure there are no cracks or issues with the advertisements.
A typical day in advertising is considered nontraditional. Most advertisers go to work and have a typical office setting of a 9 to 5 worker. However, they often work longer hours than 9 to 5 each day. For those who work the accounting side of advertising, they may travel frequently in order to meet with investors or to see where their ads are getting the most feedback. On the creative side of advertising, a person may work long hours in order to complete an advertisement on time.
In addition, advertisers often spend a lot of time within customer relationships. This is especially true when dealing with a strictly advertising firm. Both sides of advertising, accounting and creative, have to listen to their client and what they want from this advertisement. They must also keep in mind that the customer is always right, even if the requirements they lay out are not what they feel is obtainable.
Ultimately, this is a career that is high paced and rewards can be reaped. However, it will require hard work, a lot of hours and often weekends spent designing and accounting for these advertisements. Thus, it is a field that is best suited for one who is ready to put in the time and the effort it takes for success.
Degrees and Schooling Related to Advertising
With a better understanding of what advertising is and what the day of an advertiser entails, just what degree should you get? The good news is that this is a field that accepts several different degrees! There are those who go into school with the idea of becoming a journalist, who then end up going into advertising. Due to the many characteristics of an advertiser, the degree in which they get often influences just which side of advertising that they are working on. Here are a few of the degrees that are often recommended to be held by the person seeking this field of work:
- Advertising Degree
- Journalist Degree
- Public Relations Degree
- Literature Degree
- Sociology Degree
- Philosophy Degree
- Psychology Degree
- Business Degree
All of these are bachelor’s degrees. Most companies will not accept an associate, as they do not feel as though this is enough schooling to go into this field. The one common denominator that all these degrees have is that they look at not only the creative side, but they are those who are going to know the customer.
There are several other routes that a person can go with a degree when wanting to seek employment in advertising. For example:
- Those who have a degree in computers can often go into digital advertising easily.
- Those who have an art degree are often sought after for their creativity with advertisements.
What Courses Can You Expect?
With any degree, there are going to be specific courses that are related to that degree. However, for those who know for certain that they are wanting to go into advertising, they will want to ensure that they are taking courses that are going to help them with this career. These types of courses include:
- Marketing
- Consumer Behavior
- Market Research
- Sales
- Communication
- Visual arts such as graphic design, photography and the like
- Math courses such as accounting or higher-level math courses if they are considering the accounting side of advertising
- Creative arts courses that work with color, mediums and the like
- International marketing
- Telemarketing/direct sales
- Promotion
- Marketing communication
- Market research
- Organizational communication
- Data processing systems procedures and management
The more business courses a person takes, the better off they will be with a career in advertising. Learning whatever you can about the consumer market is also going to be of an invaluable help in this field.
You may also want to consider an internship soon after getting your degree. Many companies find it impressive when candidates have been involved in an internship before hiring them. These internships are often available for those college seniors that are approaching graduation as they see these as granting the student with even more education in the field.
The advertising field is a high paced field and it seems that the demand for these specialized individuals will not slow down in the future. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, this field is expected to grow by 9%, which is faster than other careers. It is believed that between 2014 and 2024 there will be 19,700 positions open up for advertising personnel. Those who do work in this possession on average make $61.22 per hour or $127,560 per year for those who are in a salaried position. Those who are in their lowest paid positions often earn less than $44,950. Those who are in the highest percentile earned more than $208,000.
State by State Figures for Advertising
Advertising is one of those careers that is seen throughout the country. It is not dominant in just one area of the country, thus the chances of finding employment in a location in which you want to live is fairly local. Below are figures according to the changes that each state expects to see in the next year or so in this field.
For those who are looking into the advertising and promotional field:
- Alabama: no change
- Alaska: 3% decrease
- Arizona: 6.9% increase
- Arkansas: 1.6% increase
- California: 4.8% increase
- Colorado: 4.7% increase
- Connecticut: 1.4% increase
- Delaware: 2.3% decrease
- District of Columbia: 2.9% increase
- Florida: 5.1% increase
- Georgia: 4.2% increase
- Hawaii: 2% increase
- Idaho: 2.8% increase
- Illinois: 2% increase
- Indiana: 6.6% increase
- Iowa: .8% increase
- Kansas: no change
- Kentucky: 1.3% increase
- Louisiana: 5.3% increase
- Maine: .6% increase
- Maryland: .4% increase
- Massachusetts: 3.1% increase
- Michigan: 1.1% increase
- Minnesota: 2.4% increase
- Mississippi: 1% increase
- Missouri: 1.6% increase
- Montana: 2.6% increase
- Nebraska: 1.6% increase
- Nevada: 5.8% increase
- New Hampshire: 2.5% increase
- New Jersey: .4% increase
- New Mexico: no change
- New York: 4% increase
- North Carolina: 3.5% increase
- North Dakota: no change
- Ohio: 1.5% increase
- Oklahoma: 1.2% increase
- Pennsylvania: .2% increase
- Puerto Rico: 2.7% decrease
- Rhode Island: 3.9% increase
- South Carolina: 1.6% increase
- Tennessee: 3.3% increase
- Texas: 3.2% increase
- Utah: 7.8% increase
- Vermont: 2.5% decrease
- Virgin Islands: no change
- Virginia: 2.6% increase
- Washington: 6.5% increase
- West Virginia: 2.7% increase
- Wisconsin: .3% increase
For those who are looking to get into the sales agent part of advertising. They will find that this is very similar to the growth that is seen within the advertising promotional field. These figures are:
- Alabama: .2% decrease
- Alaska: 3.8% decrease
- Arizona: 3.3% increase
- Arkansas: .2% decrease
- California: 2.5% increase
- Colorado: 1.9% increase
- Connecticut: 2.4% decrease
- Delaware: 1.8% increase
- District of Columbia: 2.5% increase
- Florida: 1.2% increase
- Georgia: 2.2% increase
- Hawaii: .3% increase
- Idaho: 1.3% decrease
- Illinois: no change
- Indiana: 1.4% increase
- Iowa: .2% increase
- Kansas: 1.1% decrease
- Kentucky: 2.3% decrease
- Louisiana: 2.2% increase
- Maine: 1.1% decrease
- Maryland: .3% increase
- Massachusetts: 1.9% increase
- Michigan: .7% decrease
- Minnesota 1.5% increase
- Mississippi: no change
- Missouri: .4% increase
- Montana: 1% increase
- Nebraska: .7% increase
- Nevada: 3.3% increase
- New Hampshire: 1.9% decrease
- New Mexico: 3% decrease
- New York: 1.6% increase
- North Carolina: 3.5% increase
- North Dakota: .7% decrease
- Ohio: 3.8% decrease
- Oklahoma: no change
- Oregon: .9% decrease
- Pennsylvania: 1.2% decrease
- Puerto Rico: 5.6% decrease
- Rhode Island: .8% decrease
- South Carolina: .2% decrease
- South Dakota: .7% decrease
- Tennessee: 4.2% increase
- Texas: .4% decrease
- Utah: 3% increase
- Vermont: .3% increase
- Virgin Islands: no change
- Virginia: .6% increase
- Washington: 2.5% increase
- West Virginia: 1.6% decrease
- Wisconsin: 4.3% decrease
- Wyoming: 5.1% decrease
Within these states, there are private companies looking for advertisers, and bigger advertising companies that are looking to hire fresh talent that has recently graduated. The key is ensuring that you are ready for the job and acing the interview process.
There are several tips that you can utilize in order to do well in your interview and ultimately land yourself a job in the advertising field. These tips include:
1. Be sure that you do your research about the company that you are interviewing with. Be familiar with their product if you are going to a smaller company, or be familiar with products that they have represented if you are working with an advertising agency. Having as much knowledge as you can find about the company will show that you are prepared and that you do want this job, something that could make you stand out from the others that may be interviewing.
2. Show how creative you can be. This is a great time to showcase any past work that you may have done within the advertising realm. If you have none as you just graduated, show mock ads that you have made for products that may or may not be real. The key is to show the company what you bring to their creative team.
3. Be sure that you have an online brand of yourself. What does this mean? In this digital age, you can bet that your future employer is going to look online and see your social media profiles. Thus, be sure that you are branding yourself in a way that is going to make the company want you. Many professionals even suggest that a person make their own personal website to showcase work and past successes.
4. Be prepared to talk about experience if you have some experience in this field. For those who are new to the world of advertising, they are going to be looking closer at your personal image. Thus, be prepared for this.
5. Dress to impress. This means that you should look at the company and their dress code. If you are interviewing to advertise in a fashion forward field, then you want to be fashion forward. Likewise, if you are interviewing with a more traditional field, then you are going to want to dress more traditional. Always dress the part, as first impressions count towards a lot when it comes to an advertising job.
6. Have you references laid out and ready to go. While some employers may not check these references, the majority are going to look through this. For those who have been in advertising before, consider team members that you have worked with in the past. For those who are new to the world of advertising, they will find that including teachers would be a solution.
7. Have questions to ask your interviewer! They are going to expect a great question from those whom they are interviewing, so be ready to give this to them. Make sure the question is not one that makes you look bad. For example, asking about how long of a lunch break you get, is to be avoided. However, asking about their policies towards certain situations, or what type of technology they are working with right now are intelligent questions that show you are interested.
8. Once the interview is over, be sure to thank the interviewer with a thank you note or email sent within 24 hours of the interview. This is a step that is becoming out of style, so it does make you stand out from the crowd of other applicants. Most people prefer to send a handwritten Thank You note as they are going to find that this adds that personal touch that employers love to see.
Questions Your Interviewer May Ask
While the tips above are going to be a great way to start making an impression in the world of advertising, for those who really want to be prepared, they need to know what types of questions that potential employers may ask of you. Here is a list of some of the more commonly asked questions of students who are just going into advertising or those who are having a career switch.
1. What do you feel is the most effective form of advertising? Why?
2. What tools have you worked with to create campaigns?
3. Why are you interested in a career in advertising?
4. What are some of the major trends in advertising that you believe really do work?
5. Is the old saying that all publicity, even bad, is good publicity, true?
6. Do you understand who our target clients and markets are?
7. Why do you think this agency is a good fit for you?
8. Tell us about an ad that you worked on, even a mock ad in college, that would be successful in today’s time.
9. How would you deal with unhappy clients?
10. What is it that motivates you?
11. Describe a campaign that you loved, it can be new or in the past. What is it about this campaign that you love?
12. How would you integrate social media into campaigns?
13. Do you feel social media is a viable advertising media?
14. What philosophy guides your work?
15. What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of working in advertising? How do you plan to overcome this?
These are questions that may or may not be asked. However, you can almost guarantee that a few will be asked of you when in an interview. Remember, your answer to these questions can make all the difference between getting hired and being passed over.
For those who do decide to go into the advertising field, they are going to find that there are several qualities that they should have naturally to really work in this field and find success. These skills include:
1. Analytical skills
2. Communication skills
3. Creativity
4. Decision making skills
5. Interpersonal skills
6. Organizational skills
7. Ability to improvise is the situation calls for it
8. Ability to work under pressure and with tight deadlines
9. Ability to supervise others
10. Manage people and tasks with ease
An advertising career is one that is going to be full of surprises. One day you may be working on one aspect, and the next, this aspect totally changes in order to meet the new needs of the client. You have to be ready to go with the flow and get into work mode whenever you are needed. However, for those who do graduate from a college and go into the advertising field, they are going to find that this is a promising career field. Advertising is something that is all around us and it will continue to be as this is the backbone of the consumer market. The key for any college graduate is to be ready to start from the bottom of the company and work their way up. The same can be said of someone who may be switching their career to advertising. Time and patience is what it takes to make it in the world of advertising, but doing so will be a great ride as you will get to see some of the best pieces of advertising come to life!
References:
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/advertising-promotions-and-marketing-managers.htm#tab-7