Planning To Opt For An Advertising Career? Here Is Everything You Need To Know

Advertising is the best way to make people aware of your brand, product or service. It is a medium through which you communicate with your audience using some form of media be it print, radio, internet, social media or outdoor platform. It is a form of mass communication. All organizations tend to use some sort of advertising to promote themselves which makes it one of the best career options at this age.

“Advertising is not about creativity, it is about innovation. This is a myth. It is about selling a product. It’s a commercial art.” Said Bharat Dabholkar also known as the ‘Ad Guru’. He has worked on ad campaigns for brands like Amul, Tata brands, Bank of India, Videocon, Frooti, Appy and the mineral water, Bailey. According to him an ad campaign should be relatable to all no matter who your target audience is. The ad itself has to be simple and must explain the product in such a way that it can be understood by the consumer.

While designing an ad campaign one must always keep in mind the end result. Ask yourself the question why are you implementing the campaign? A clear idea about what the organization wants to achieve will help in better formulation of the campaign as well as get the desired results.

Traditional advertising was primarily dependent on content writers but now just writing good copy is not enough. A good advertiser needs to have knowledge about the new age media. Social media is growing rapidly and using it correctly to advertise will benefit the organization to a great extent. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing traffic of your website, increasing visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine.

To pursue advertising as a career, creativity is not the only quality which is necessary; one needs to have knowledge about how the ad industry functions. She/he should be able to take note from the clients, understand their requirements, research the market, prepare a copy accordingly, media buying and planning, producing the ad, publishing it on the decided media platform and evaluating the ad campaign.

A good advertisement has a recall value i.e. the ability of the audience to recollect and recall the ad. An ad with exceptionally good number of recall value is considered to have an impact on the audience. Jingles are an element of an ad with the greatest recall value. A catchy jingle can never be forgotten. The ad should be such the consumers can understand what the brand is trying to convey to them.

A degree in Mass Media communication can help to kick start your career in the advertisement field. Interning with an organization to understand its working will allow you to gain perspective and improve your skills. You can decide which area you want to specialize after analyzing all the departments of an ad agency.

TOP UNIVERSITIES WORLDWIDE OFFERING ADVERTISING PROGRAMMES

• Northwestern University
• University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
• Stanford University
• Harvard University
• Columbia University
• University of California at Berkeley
• University of Chicago (Booth)
• University of Wisconsin
• New York University

TOP AD AGENCIES WORLDWIDE

• Young and Rubicam Brands
• McCann Erickson
• Dentsu
• BBDO
• Ogilvy and Mather

TOP AD AGENCIES IN INDIA

• Ogilvy and Mather
• McCann – Erickson India Ltd.
• Lowe Lintas
• J. Walter Thompson India (JWT)
• Leo Burnett India Pvt. Ltd.