How to Choose Your Job in Advertising
Not sure what position you want to pursue for a career in advertising? Let's go through some of the most popular roles and positions at an advertising agency.
Creative Department
Copywriter
What you’ll do: You’re the voice of the brand. You’ll establish the tone and personality for your client (or use their existing tone) and write things like commercials, billboards, taglines, website copy, and a ton more. Basically anything with words! You’ll also do the conceptual thinking for brand campaigns alongside your art director partner.
You may like this role if you:
Like writing (duh)
Are naturally creative
Like telling stories
Can adapt well to any situation since you’ll have to write for a lot of different kinds of brands and tones
Art Director
What you’ll do: You’re the visual storyteller. You’ll establish the style, color scheme, layout of the ads, and any other visuals ways of bringing an idea to life. You’ll be curating visual references, sometimes designing, going on photoshoots, creating presentations, and working through video production.
You may like this role if you are:
Artistic
A problem solver
Good at design or drawing - not always necessary depending on the agency, but definitely encouraged!
Designer
What you’ll do: While the art director is heavier on the conceptual big picture, the designer is more focused on the visual executions that fall within that big picture. You may do package design, create ads like billboards or digital banners, design art cards for videos, typography, illustration, and so much more.
You may like this role if you:
Are artistic
Love sketching, doodling, hand lettering, etc.
Strategy
What you’ll do: As a strategist (also called a “planner”) you will be providing the context the creatives need to do their work. A strategist researches the consumer, the industry, things going on in culture or around the world and digs out nuggets of truth or tension. Those nuggets go into the brief that the creatives will use to build their ideas around.
You may like this role if you are:
Curious
Intuitive
Good at puzzles or finding patterns in things
Account Services
What you’ll do: The people on the account team act as the connection between the agency and the client. You’ll be doing a lot of communication, running status calls with clients to keep them updated, kicking off the agency team on projects, discussing timelines and budgets, and sending lots and lots of emails.
You may like this role if you are:
A people person
A great communicator
Detail-oriented
Positive and engaging
Project Management
What you’ll do: The project manager is the taskmaster. You’ll be the keeper of the timeline and schedule, making sure projects are moving ahead. You’ll communicate with all the different departments to keep everyone on the same page and to get updates on the status of projects. You’ll check everything against the budget, the project scope, and any specific client requirements like brand guidelines or legal disclaimers.
You may like this role if you are:
Type-A
Organized
Great at time management
Adaptable
Cool under pressure
Media
What you’ll do: This team consists of a few different roles like planners, buyers, and analysts. Generally, this team is responsible for putting the work the creative team made out into the world. You could be developing media plans to explain to the client how their money will be spent, working with vendors to purchase ad placements, and keeping track of the ads’ performance.
You may like this role if you are:
Organized
Analytical (though creativity is always a plus)
Good with numbers
Production
What you’ll do: Producers help the work come to life. If the creative team wrote a commercial, you would will help find a film crew to shoot it, scout locations, cast talent, negotiate usage rights, and find editors to put the commercial together after the shoot. You’ll be communicating with vendors and coordinating schedules.
You may like this role if you are:
Patient and cool under pressure
Very organized
Comfortable with being on-the-go a lot
A people person
That’s not all!
The positions I just went over are some of the most popular, but there are SO many more. Use this as a guide to see what kinds of roles you’re gravitating to, and then do a deeper dive into the different roles that specific agencies have to learn about all the possibilities.