HOW TO START YOUR CAREER IN

ADVERTISING
a makin ads book
If you ask a handful of people who work on the creative side of the advertising
industry how they got there and why they chose advertising, you!ll get some varied
answers. Some might be artists who didn!t want to be starving artists. Others may
have been guided by their love of writing or design. All probably share an
uncontrollable enthusiasm for creative ideas. It can happen in a single moment of
inspirationbeing moved by a great commercial. Or seeing a really horrible
commercial and thinking, I could do better than that.
However you got to this point, we!re glad you did. Advertising is an exciting career.
We wrote this ebook because we love what we do. Hopefully we!ll answer a few of
your questions and help you decide if advertising is for you. Specically, if the
creative side of the business is your cup of tea. And, if so, how to get from where you
are now to where you want to be.
YOU ARE HERE.

Topeka? Wichita?
were glad
Some people think of advertising as the rock "n! roll side of the business world.
You get paid to come up with cool ideas that thousands, maybe millions of
people will see. You don!t deal with spreadsheets, rarely wear suits (unless you
really want to), and earn your paycheck by sitting around with your feet up on
the desk with interesting, like-minded people, asking, What if?
No wonder people want to be in advertising. And it!s no wonder that the
competition to get a really good, really rewarding job is pretty intense.
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN ROCK !n" ROLL
AND THE CORPORATE BOARDROOM
Let!s start with the broad view: Marketing. Marketing covers everything
from the creation of a product, service or an idea, to how it!s consumed.
It!s a pretty big eld, and there are a lot of marketing services out there.
Design rms to create everything from business cards to your soda bottle.
Public relations agencies to help companies present a good image in the
news media. Direct mail agencies that specialize in creating what you
probably refer to as junk mail. At some point, pretty much everything is
touched by marketing. Advertising is just one part of marketing (but it!s
maybe the most fun part).
Most advertising that you see was created by an advertising agency. Ad
agencies are companies that specialize in creating commercials, print ads,
billboards, websites and anything else that helps get a message out about
a product or brand.
When a company wants to advertise, they!ll usually hire one of these
advertising agencies. Some agencies are huge, with ofces all over the
world that bill billions of dollars each year. And there are some very small
onesjust a few people housed in a downtown loft.
In advertising, the size of your agency doesn!t matter. It!s all about the size
of your ideas.
ADS ARE COOL
who makes them?
[idea not to scale]
Most* advertising is pretty bad. Boring. Uninspiring. It speaks to you like you!re a
moron. You mean I should act now? Because this sale won!t last forever? Could you
repeat the part about 10% off? You only mentioned it four times.
And then there!s the other kind. The kind that speaks to you. It makes you consider
something in a new or interesting way. Makes you laugh, cry or want to dance. It tells
you something you didn!t know before.
The best creative advertising is surprising. It connects with people in an emotional
way. In short, it!s the kind of work you want to be doing.
If you!ve ever watched a commercial that was so funny or smart or creative that you
thought, I wish I!d thought of that, then you!ve taken the rst step to becoming an
advertising creative.
* By most, we!re talking roughly 97%. Maybe 96% during a good year.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CREATIVE
o hair style
cool glasses
rubber chicken
o ideas
Really, everyone!s creative. One of the great things about working in advertising is
that there are a lot of very diverse, very smart people throwing ideas together.
Everyone contributes.
But let!s break it down a little. In an ad agency, this is how it typically works.
When a company wants to advertise, it nds an ad agency. Inside the agency, they
call that company the client. To help manage the client, the ad agency has the
account department. They!re the people who run the business side of advertising.
They talk with the clients every day, relay messages to the rest of the agency and
make sure everything is running smoothly.
The agency!s planning department is different from the account department.
Planners develop the outline, called a brief of what needs to be communicated in
the ads. Who is the audience for the ads? What do we know about them? What do
we want to say to them?
The brief then goes to the creative department. When you hear someone say they
are a creative, that means they!re a member of the creative department. A
copywriter, art director or creative director.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CREATIVE
So you have a creative brief. You know what to say. If you!re a creative, it!s
your job to come up with how to say it. What!s going to get people!s attention?
What!s going to keep them from changing the channel? What!s going to
connect with the audience and move them?
In the typical creative department, art directors and copywriters work together
as creative teams. Strictly speaking, the copywriter is in charge of the words
and the art director is in charge of the visuals. In reality, though, it!s much more
uid. Art directors sometimes write, and copywriters can suggest design ideas.
The big job of the art director/copywriter team is to come up with the creative
idea for the ad. They usually work together for weeks generating stacks of
ideas (although having less than 24 hours to come up with an idea isn!t
unheard of). Then they take their best ideas to their creative director. The
creative director is usually the senior, more experienced creative voice. He or
she reviews the ideas, makes suggestions or revisions, whittles the many ideas
down to the best few, and in the end gives the stamp of approval for which
ideas will be taken to the client.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
agency style
[art director] [copywriter] [client]
The agency presents the idea or ideas to the client, and the client either
buys an idea to produce, asks for revisions, or rejects the ideas altogether
and sends the creative team back to the drawing board. If the client buys
an idea, the creative team is responsible for bringing it to life. They work
with producers, directors, photographers, editors, musicians, actors,
designers and anyone else to make sure that their creative vision is
realized.
The entire process can be very fun, stressful, frustrating and exciting at
the same time. But in the end, when you have a well-crafted commercial
on television, billboard on the highway or website up and running, it!s a
great feeling.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS IS LONG
so we continue
its description
here
When you!re applying for a job as an art director or copywriter in an ad
agency, no one will ever, ever, ever ask to see your GPA. They probably
won!t look at your resume. They won!t care whether you have a BS, an
MS, a PhD or a police badge.
To get a job as a creative in advertising, you!re going to need one thing: A
portfolio. A portfolio, often called your book, is a collection of ads you!ve
come up with that proves you can think and execute creatively.
Forever ago, there were many doors into an agency. English majors,
journalists, and stand-up comics might be hired by an agency based on an
interview. Or someone might take a job as a receptionist just to be around
the creative director, with the hope of some day writing copy. It used to be
that agencies would train and mentor these edgling creatives. But those
days are unfortunately gone. There are always exceptions, but the best
way in is through the front door with a good book.
THE FRONT DOOR WITH A GOOD BOOK
You need a portfolio to get a job in advertising, but you need a job in advertising to
develop your portfolio. Catch-22 right? Not necessarily.
Fortunately, creative directors don!t care if the ads in your book never ran in a
magazine. In fact, they expect that ads in your book aren!t real. What they!re
looking for are big ideas, well executed. They want to see that you can think
strategically and creatively, and that you can design, write, or do whatever it takes to
bring your ideas to life.
WHY YOUR BOOK MATTERS
and then we see a
battalion of rapping
ninja-monkeys
riding unicycles
and nothing
else does
Advertising is a business that loves award shows. And there are a ton of
them.
Every year in late spring, the One Club for Art and Copy holds its award
show (the One Show) where a board of judges selects the very best work
from around the world. All that work is bound into a huge bible of a book
called The One Show, which is usually published at the end of the year.
Other global award shows worth checking out are Cannes and D&AD.
Communication Arts publishes its Advertising Annual each December,
and Luerzer!s Archive and Creativity are a couple other publications that
feature great creative.
These publications and annuals can be expensive ($24 - $60 each), but
most of them also have websites that feature the award winners. And if
you want to do great work, you!re going to have to see what great work
really is. These books are as close as you!ll come to nding a creative
textbook.
ANNUALS AND AWARD SHOWS
and why theyre
important
Putting your book together and slugging it around from agency to agency
is one way to get a job in advertising. But working by yourself is a hard,
usually inefcient road. There!s a lot of competition, and often you!re going
to need all the help you can get.
A number of schools in the United States specialize in helping students put
together a solid portfolio and get a job in advertising. Usually called
portfolio schools, they!re advertising!s equivalent of medical school.
The benet of going to a portfolio school is that you learn from people
who!ve been in the business a long time. And you!re in an environment full
of creative energy, where you can partner up with other creatives and
mimic the kind of atmosphere you!d nd in an agency.
Each school has its own advantages. The VCU Brandcenter is the only
one associated with an accredited university, and you leave with a Masters
degree. Miami Ad School has branches all over the world, from San
Francisco to Amsterdam. The Chicago Portfolio School is just a one-
year program (most of the others are two years).
PORTFOLIO SCHOOLS
A few undergraduate schools, like the University of Texas, consistently
turn out respected portfolios, and there are also a few art schools with
advertising programs as well. Some schools are more expensive than
others, but if you!re sure advertising is your destiny, don!t skimp on your
education. It!ll pay off in the long run.
One way to get an idea of which schools are doing well is, again, to look at
the award show annuals. Most have a student section that features the
best work from the various portfolio schools. There!s also CMYK, a
quarterly review of the best student advertising work. Checking out which
schools consistently place work in these publications and shows can help
you decide which school is right for you before you apply.
It!s hard to say how much longer any of this content will continue to be
valid. Technology, the changing economy, and consumer trends force
advertising agencies to constantly adapt. For years, people have predicted
the death of the 30-second commercial because of DVRs. And while many
people are still getting paid to write and produce commercials, more and
more agencies are incorporating digital and guerilla (or non-traditional)
advertising into their repertoire.
How we reach people changes, but some things will always stay the same.
Advertising is about coming up with creative ways to captivate, surprise,
entertain and ultimately connect with people.
There will always be a need for ideas that do this. And there will always be
a need for people who can communicate in unique and interesting ways.
Whether it!s on a shopping website or the label of an energy drink, the
advertising industry will always value big, creative ideas. Hopefully, you!ll
be one of the people who!re coming up with them.
TRADITIONAL AD AGENCIES
and where were
going from here
whats a
twitter?
1. Get a copy of a recent Communication Arts Advertising Annual or
One Show Annual and ip through it to see if that!s the kind of
work you want to do. Or visit creativity-online.com and check out
what creative agencies have been doing this week.
2. Email or call some portfolio schools and ask them to send you
information on their programs.
3. Call a local advertising agency and ask if they have any internships
in their creative department. (But don!t just look ADVERTISING up
in the Yellow Pages and start calling. You!ll be crushed under the
weight of mediocrity.)
4. Highly-recommended reading:
Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan
The Houdini Solution by Ernie Schenck
Cutting Edge Advertising by Jim Aitchison
Pick Me: Breaking Into Advertising and Staying There
by Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin
I READ YOUR E-BOOK.
now what?
Please visit
makinads.com
A blog for students of advertising, portfolio school hopefuls and anyone else putting their book together.
This book written and created by Makin Ads. It was Illustrated by Copywriters.