Agency Management & Processes
Executive Summary
The paper is intended to explore and analyze the portfolio in any one of the agency management and proper description of the job role. Different agencies are discussed before considering any of them include Advertising Agencies, PR Agencies, Media Buying Agencies, Sales Promotion Agencies, Brand Identity Agencies, Social Media Agencies, Digital or Online Marketing Agencies, Design Agencies, Market Research Agencies, Web Design Agencies and Print Agencies. All agencies have different roles and functions across the field of marketing. The Advertising Agency is decided to explore the portfolio and overall process of campaign management. The job role of advertising account executive has been selected in order to identify the skills required for this job role and its position in the advertising agency.
Executive Summary 2
Introduction 4
Agencies in Marketing Communication Industry 4
Advertising Agencies 4
PR Agencies 4
Media Buying Agencies 4
Sales Promotion Agencies 4
Brand Identity Agencies 4
Social Media Agencies 4
Digital or Online Marketing Agencies 5
Design Agencies 5
Market Research Agencies 5
Web Design Agencies 5
Print Agencies 5
Advertising Agency and Description of the Job Role 5
Creative Brief 7
Managing the Campaign 7
Relation of Advertising Account Executive to the Process 8
The role of the Production Department and Project Managers in budgeting and project delivery 9
Meetings with diverse people and use of call report 9
Devising and testing of creative concepts 10
Process of creative concept 10
Media planning 10
Measuring Campaign Effectiveness 11
Conclusion 11
List of References 12
Appendix 13
Introduction
Marketing communication industry is comprised of different types of agencies such as sale promotion agencies, advertising agencies, PR agencies, social media agencies, online or digital marketing agencies, brand identity agencies, design agencies, print and web design agencies, and market research agencies. Each sort of agency has different tasks to play that are important for communication. However, the advertising industry is a fast paced and creative industry.
The aim of this report is to shed the light on the portfolio of one particular aspect of agency management or agency job role. Therefore, a particular agency that has been selected for the portfolio to reflect on particular job role is advertising agency.
Agencies in Marketing Communication Industry
Marketing Communication industry is very wide and large and different type of agencies develop its structure include Advertising Agencies, PR Agencies, Media Buying Agencies, Sales Promotion Agencies, Brand Identity Agencies, Social Media Agencies, Digital or Online Marketing Agencies, Design Agencies, Market Research Agencies, Web Design Agencies and Print Agencies.
Advertising Agencies
An advertising agency is one of the major parts of marketing communication industry. The advertising agencies are the businesses that are capable of managing each and every aspect regarding advertising and ad campaigning (Lambert, 2004).
PR Agencies
Public Agencies are opposite to advertising agencies as they do the business of promoting companies via editorials. The aim of PR agencies is to serve the companies by promoting them through their writings (Wynne, 2013).
Media Buying Agencies
Media buying agencies play very important role in the marketing of the companies. Media buying agencies help the companies to buy media from newspaper ads to TV commercial to even online banner advertising that is paid by the company (Breining, 2014).
Sales Promotion Agencies
Sales promotion agencies are same as advertising agencies, offering promotional campaigns to the companies; however, they offer sales promotions rather than advertising (OPEA, 2015).
Brand Identity Agencies
The brand Identity or Branding agencies are those agencies in the marketing communication that offer the services of brand logo designing, brand identity designs and consultancy for how to create brand equity (The Branding Journal, 2015).
Social Media Agencies
Social media agencies offer consultancy for the social media services and activities of the business. The agencies usually help in social media marketing of the firms. It provides consultancy for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, you Tube and many other social media (Firebelly, n.d.).
Digital or Online Marketing Agencies
Digital or Online Marketing Agencies provide the marketing consultancy to the companies offering website development, promotion, and optimization. The online advertising services are also provided by these agencies (8-Digital, 2015).
Design Agencies
The design agencies offer innovative solutions to the business companies. Their services can be diverse from the consultancy for product or service designs to the architectural designs for the outlets and shops. Some companies accounted themselves in the design agencies offering online and web design services (Lambert, 2004). Design agencies play very significant role in marketing.
Market Research Agencies
Market research agencies help the organizations to search for market information important to their businesses and provide insights of the market regarding the customers and market trends. They offer research techniques and methods to collect data to gather information about the market of the company’s interest.
Web Design Agencies
Web design agencies are somehow similar to digital marketing agencies; offer the management of web pages, websites as well as graphic designing.
Print Agencies
The print agencies have a wider role and function in the marketing communication industry. From print ads to other publications and printings are being offered by the printing agencies. The print agencies offer the services such as book printing, print media advertisement printing, printing of brochures, pamphlets, calendars, business cards, banners and many other (USAID, 2013).
Advertising Agency and Description of the Job Role
Advertising agencies include several job roles to play, and the wider range of skill set is required by each person working in the agency to complete the tasks. The major role of advertising agencies is to run the campaign in numerous outlets of media. Advertising agencies through paying diverse channels for running advertisements motivate people to buy services and products from client companies. They play an important role in changing the attitude of people towards the product or brand of the companies of clients. Advertising agencies develop and implement the advertising strategy for their clients’ companies. These agencies employ professionals with the purpose of providing better services to their clients.
These agencies come in numerous sizes that include small, medium, and large. However, regardless of the size, all advertising agencies adapt same basic organizational structure, the structure of these organizations is based on six departments such as creative department, account research, and planning department, media buying and planning department, account management of service department, and finance and account department. These departments can be further divided into more sub-departments; the only difference between the large and small size advertising agencies is that in small agencies some people may perform more than single role; they involved in playing a diverse role at the same time. Even in some cases, a single person represents the entire department.
Advertising agencies cover the wider types and range of services that they offer to their clients. For example, these agencies are liable to create, manage, and integrate advertising campaigns. They perform as a liaison between supplier and client, liable to plan, conduct research, and evaluate the research and results. Advertising agencies undertake the administrative tasks make pitches, handle budgets of the campaign and plan and create a communication strategy. These agencies are liable to target the right audience setting the message and tone of the message. In particular, advertising agencies are liable to convert the company’s message to the customers of the company in effective manners and evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign. They are responsible for creating designing, and producing campaigns (AGCAS, 2016).
The advertising agency includes several job roles such as advertising account executive, advertising account, advertising art directors, advertising copywriter, event organizer, market researcher, marketing executive, media buyer, media planner, public affair consultant; public relations account executive, public relations officer, and sale promotion account executive. However, the role I decided to choose from my career perspective is advertising account executive. The skills that will be required to perform duties as an advertising account executive include the creation of the linkage among the advertising agency and its clients. This role includes the responsibilities of communicating everything related to ad to everyone who is involved in the process and coordinating overall ad campaigns. Hence, this job role demands outstanding communication and interactive expertise. Along with this, an advertising account executive should have the skill and ability to handle the pressure and is able to handle and manage a large quantity of complex information in effective and efficient manner. Also, an account executive should be an excellent negotiator and influencer and also should have effective and efficient networking skills. The particular role (advertising account executive) fits in the account service segment in the diagram and account managing department (AGCAS, 2015).
The job directly relates to the communication of the client expectations from the campaign because account executive is the person who communicates with the client regarding all details of the campaign. The account executive needs to interact and communicate the client brief clearly to account planner and other associated people in order to come up with the campaign which is according to the requirements of the client. The account executive is involved in the overall process of the campaign from the creation to the evaluation and measurement of effectiveness as a spokesperson of the client. The advertising account executive simultaneously integrates with numerous clients for selling the creative work. This is done by explaining to the client that how the agency will work for the brand (Linacre, 2014). The job includes the communication with account managers, account planners, and creative managers.
Creative Brief
The creative brief is amongst the most common documents of the advertising agency; it is the key document used in the process of the development of an advertisement and necessary for effective campaign development. It is an informal agreement that is done by the advertising agency and its client and represents an agreement that what the advertisement campaign wants or intended to achieve for the client. Creative briefs are not same for all organizations and vary in their degree of specifications with client organizations. The purpose of the creative brief is the communication of Client Company’s objectives and description or explanation of the major project’s deliverables. It describes the considerable features and deadlines on which the campaign is required to be completed. The creative brief includes the portfolio of the client organization, firm’s objectives, and primary and secondary target audience the message will be directed to them. It includes the budget of the campaign, its timeline, message image, message tone, details regarding the design specification, and other things that are essential for an effective advertising campaign (Elmansy, 2015). Creating a brief is a collaborative task that is performed by the agency with the involvement of all stakeholders associated with the planning of the campaign. However, the advertising account planner or account manager is liable to write the final creative brief. The account executive or manager is responsible for keeping the customers happy and coordinating the work with them. Therefore, account executives or managers are liable to take approval from the client for their creative work or creative brief (Powell, 2015). For better understanding that what the creative brief is, it is crucial to present the example. Therefore, for the presentation of a creative brief and demonstration that how a creative brief can be developed, the example of tango’s (a popular fruit soft drink brand in the United Kingdom) creative brief has been placed in Appendix (See Appendix 1). This example can clearly communicate the way in which an effective creative brief can be developed by advertising account planner.
Managing the Campaign
Campaign management is an important process in advertising agencies; campaign management is a process in which several interrelated activities are designed for the attainment of specific marketing goals. Most of the time the campaigns are composed of more than one promotions; each campaign aims to attract the interest of consumers and frequently carried out within a definite timeframe. For example, beverages campaigns are run in summer season and coffee advertisements are on aired in the cold season.
Campaign management process
(Kumar & Reinartz, 2014)
A complete campaign management program from a client brief to the creation and production of final execution and measuring the effectiveness of campaign can be separated into three major steps. The process of campaign management includes campaign planning and development, campaign execution, and campaign analysis and control.
Each function includes several activities. For example, the first step, campaign management, and development include setting strategies and objectives, recognizing customer segments, development of communication strategy, development of offer, developing and managing the budget of the campaign and its testing. The second step, campaign execution includes implementation and coordination of the campaign schedule, activity schedule, and campaign program. On the other hand, the monitoring and modification are based on the activities like a revision of planning, fine-tuning of media selection, and considering, and implementing corrective actions. However, the third step includes the analysis of responses, profile analysis, and campaign feedback analysis (Kumar & Reinartz, 2014).
Relation of Advertising Account Executive to the Process
The overall process of campaign management is accomplished through several sub-activities and the completion of these sub-activities further demands several tasks to play. The account planner plays an immense role in the whole process of campaign management. He is involved in each step through the process. For example, the campaign planning and development process include the segmentation of audience and validation and augmentation of research, and these are the responsibilities of an account planner. Further, an account planner involves in creating a campaign in designing the message, appeal and setting the tone of the message. The account planner is also liable to test the concepts of the campaign, its evaluation and for the measurement of the effectiveness of advertising. An account planner is responsible for coordination and fine-tuning the campaign after analysis the sales data and customer responses.
The role of the Production Department and Project Managers in budgeting and project delivery
The production department is an important division of advertising agencies. The production department makes the ideas real. The production department is liable to produce the campaign within a limited budget. For the successful delivery of the project, the department works closely with the department of media. The department makes sure the smooth working of the overall process. Advertising agencies hire project managers for maintaining and managing the flow of the work. Project managers play a key role in budget planning, setting timelines, setting milestones, and deliverables for the advertising campaign. A project manager guides the integration of inspired components from the team of copywriter, designers, technologist, producers, and social media strategists to others. The integration of all these things helps the organization in completing the project within assigned budget. Project manager performs approximately all the tasks that a production department perform. The manager provides support and aligns the whole process of project management with the vision and mission of the organization. Even he maintained the right climate for creative developments and involved in all phases of the life cycle of the project (Keck, 2010). The project manager is liable for the on time delivery of the project that is within budget and according to the client specifications
Meetings with diverse people and use of call report
For creative advertisements, a collaboration between stakeholders is a key act that must be managed appropriately. Managing regular meetings with suppliers, client, and agencies is an important element of advertising agencies. These meetings are conducted with the purpose of creative ads development, and an account executive is a person who is liable to arrange and attend all sorts of meetings. An account executive manages meetings with the staff of other agencies for making pitches and for winning new business for the advertising agency. The job title is liable to negotiate with other agency staff and clients regarding the campaigns’ details. An executive arranges meeting with a client for presenting the creative brief for approval (AGCAS, 2015).
A call report in an agency is a document that presents the records of meetings with client and details the tasks of team and decisions that have been taken with the consent of client (Slembrouck, Taverniers & Herreweghe, 2009). This document helps in a quick overview of all the work that has been done on the project. It is an essential document that an account executive must bring with him or when to attend client meeting. After every meeting, this call report is rapidly submitted to the client and at the top of the report, the place of the meeting, it's timing, what was presented to whom in the organization of the client and other major details are mentioned. The call report gives the client a brief statement of items and decisions that are taken until the now. For example, when an account executive meets the client, he or she carries a document with it that help the client in recalling that what have been done and how much more work is required to complete the project and what are the meetings that have been conducted with the client’s other staff members. After the meeting, the report is handed over to the customer, so the clients have a record of all the activities and decisions.
Devising and testing of creative concepts
Creative concepts are the big ideas that are developed for capturing the interest of the audience, for influencing their emotional responses and encouraging them to take action. a creative concept is a unifying theme that is used throughout the campaign messages, audience, and communication channels. Usually, a creative message comes to life in a tagline and with key visual. Some of the examples of creative concepts include “just do it” Nike’s campaign and the red ribbon campaign.
Process of creative concept
Step 1: The process of creative concept development includes the development of problem statement, a good communication strategy, and creative brief.
Step 2: Once the problem statement is ready, the organization selects a barnstorming team, A team based on the available information creates several concepts.
Step 3: The brainstorming session is conducted in which all participants and stakeholders give their views based on the provided information.
Step 4: Stakeholders are asked to give their ideas and suggestions on the methods that will work best.
Step5: Then each participant is given some time to generate their best ideas and present then in a form of notes.
Step6: Once the ideas are on the table, selected ideas are expanded and presented to the client for approval.
Step 7: After having approval, these concepts are tested through sharing the ideas with a targeted audience for having their feedbacks. Audience feedback helps the organizations in deciding on the best idea before the material is designed. Audience feedback allows creative teams to revise their concepts, retain the one that is appreciated most, and discard that could not vibrate well with the target audience.
Step 8: After checking the feasibility and reworking on ideas, these ideas are transformed into visuals (Health Compass, 2016).
Media planning
Media planning is a role of media department, a media department in an agency is liable for placing advertisements so these advertisements can reach to the right audience, through the right place and at the right time. In media planning, the media department after having primary and secondary research procures the best required space and time for the success of the campaign. Media department can choose either one media or multimedia strategy. Media executive the person who is liable to brief the media department, then media planners develop the plan according to the brief. However, a media buyer is responsible for the time and space booking (Moriarty et al., 2014).
Agencies use diverse remuneration methods; the four very common include commission, retainer fee, retainer plus incentive payments related to the performance, and project fee. The agency will adapt a project fee method, according to this method the agency will charge its clients on project’s time base. If any changed in time occur during the project, the agency will charge the client accordingly. This method required research and estimation of costs that can occur during the project. However, for paying to other agencies, the advertising agency will adapt retainer fee method (IAPI, 2016).
Measuring Campaign Effectiveness
The key performance indicators for measuring the performance are several. For measuring the immediate performance of the campaign, response levels, and brand awareness will be considered as KPI’s. Increased rating on television, increased number of subscribers on YouTube, increased number of likes on Facebook, and enhanced tweets on Twitter, and blogs will communicate the performance of the advertisement. However, increased sales will be the ultimate measure of the campaign effectiveness. The agency would follow-up the client with results through providing a detailed report on responses gathered from each media. The agency will guide the client to look on blogs that communicate the brand awareness and positive comments of clients regarding ads and brand. However, increased sales and return on investment will communicate the success of the campaign to the client.
Conclusion
It has been determined that the advertising account executive in an advertising agency is amongst the most valuable people who perform the majority of the tasks and involved in the whole process of campaign development from the planning to the execution as he has direct interaction with the client and create a communication channel between the agency and client. Advertising agencies use the detailed process for creative concepts and ensure the effectiveness of the campaign that allows client organizations to have major benefits in the result of sales. These agencies take full responsibility for successful advertisement and for reporting the immediate results to the client.
List of References
AGCAS (2016). Industry Insights Marketing, Advertising, And PR. Available from http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.126324!/fileManager/Marketing_advertising_PR%20Industry%20Insight.pdf [Accessed 13 March 2016]
AGCAS. (2015). Advertising account executive. Prospects, Available from https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/advertising-account-executive [Accessed 13 March 2016]
Elmansy, R. (2015). How to Create a Professional Creative Brief. Designorate, Available from http://www.designorate.com/how-to-create-a-professional-creative-brief/ [Accessed 13 March 2016]
Health Compass. (2016). How to Develop a Creative Concept. Available from http://www.thehealthcompass.org/how-to-guides/how-develop-creative-concept [Accessed 13 March 2016]
IAPI. (2016). The IAPI Guide To Finding The Right Agency. Available from: http://iapi.ie/findingtherightagency/remuneration-methods-2.html [Accessed 13 March 2016]
Keck, D. (2010). Accelerating transportation project and program delivery: conception to completion (Vol. 662). Transportation Research Board.
Kumar, V., & Reinartz, W. (2014). Customer Relationship Management: Concept, Strategy, and Tools. London: Springer Science & Business Media.
Linacre, N. (2014). Advertising for Account Holders (RLE Marketing). New York: Routledge.
Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N. D., Wells, W. D., Crawford, R., Brennan, L., & Spence-Stone, R. (2014). Advertising: Principles and Practice. Australia: Pearson Australia.
Powell, H. (2015). Promotional Culture and Convergence: Markets, Methods, Media. London: Routledge.
Slembrouck, S., Taverniers, M., & Herreweghe, M. V. (2009). From Will to Well: Studies in Linguistics, Offered to Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen. S. Slembrouck, M. Taverniers, & M. van Herreweghe. Academia Press.
Appendix
