A Career in Advertising

Camryn McLellan

English III Honors

Mr. Alburger

23 February, 2017
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Camryn McLellan

English III Honors

Mr. Alburger

23 February, 2017

A Career in Advertising

On the night of the Super Bowl, people gather around the television to watch the iconic

commercials that play at halftime and throughout the big game. Every year, a commercial so

memorable and unique seems to stick with people even after they turn off the television

following a hard loss or exciting win. What makes these commercials so effective and

unforgettable? Advertisers constantly work to create television ads, newspaper ads, or radio ads

that will reach a specific audience by sparking their interest. Advertisers must do extended

research on consumers in hopes of generating attention to a product or service through only

thirty seconds of advertisement. To develop and master this skill, one must receive the proper

education and a Bachelors Degree in advertising or a related field, as a career in advertising

embodies the creative and strategic elements of business utilized to attract customers and

ultimately determine a firms success.

In order to become an advertiser, one should work towards obtaining a college degree,

Bachelors or Masters, in advertising or a related field. The new specialization of jobs in the

advertising field has lead to various title changes of advertising programs available in both

colleges and workplaces (Quesenberry 1). Where Shall I Go to Study Advertising and Public

Relations?, a directory written by Billy I. Rodd and Jef. I. Richards, helps students by presenting

them with a list of all the of the current available advertising and public relation programs in
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universities and colleges (1). In the 49th edition written in 2015, the guide lists 110 colleges or

universities with an advertising program, but names over 50 different titles of the departments

within that program (1). Some examples of program names in universities include media,

communication arts, communication studies, advertising, public relations and marketing (1).

Because of the rising relevance of social media in the advertising world, agencies have added

these jobs to focus on adapting to the transition from traditional to new advertising. Many

colleges, including Messiah College, a private christian college in Pennsylvania, have undergone

changes to rebuild their very broad advertising programs (3). By reducing core requirements and

adding required specialization courses, Messiah College has helped their students become

experienced and educated in specific aspects of advertising that interest them the most in order to

help them find jobs in their post-college careers. With a degree in any of these wide range of

programs, a person can become an advertiser and focus on a specific and specialized type of

advertising.

To have a successful advertising career, advertisers must embody various skills and have

extensive knowledge in several different academic areas. Advertising and promotions managers,

who utilize mediums such as posters, giveaways, contests or coupons to advertise, must possess

strong english skills. Some of the most important knowledge areas for advertising and

promotions managers include english language, communication and media, administration and

management, sales and marketing, and customer and personal service (Explore). As an

advertiser, someone must have the ability to always think creatively to solve problems,

communicate well with clients, maintain relationships, and do their extensive research (1).

Advertising and promotions managers combine the three aspects of enterprising, art and
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conventionalism in their day to day work (1). Enterprising consists of planning and carrying out

projects, which requires leading others, making quick decisions, and even taking risks. The

artistic aspect of advertising demands the creative ability to work in an environment with very

limited rules and guidelines. The conventional part of advertising involves working with data and

details to do a job efficiently and meet the statistic needs of a firm (1). Along with academic

expertise, an advertiser must practice superior social skills. Five of the most important social

skills that advertising and promotions managers must embody include active listening, social

perceptiveness, speaking, time management, and reading comprehension (1). The ability to

professionally listen and speak to large groups of people to convey information correctly and

effectively makes up a large part of an advertiser's job. Social perceptiveness, or the awareness

of the reaction of others, plays another large role in the life of an advertiser. By utilizing these

strengths and perfecting English and social skills, a person can become a successful and effective

advertiser.

The rewarding salary for working as an advertiser, obtainable by hard work and

experience, differs greatly throughout the nation. In North Carolina, advertising and promotions

managers receive an average salary of about $105,910 a year (Explore). This salary compares

to other salaries as an average amount to make for advertisers in the nation. In New York, the

state with the most rewarding average salary for advertising and promotions managers, workers

can receive an average salary of around $172,720 a year (1). In states with large cities, like New

York, the headquarters of large firms strive and commonly pay their advertisers in higher

amounts. By going into the advertising field, people will not likely struggle financially due to

earning a gratifying salary that they can live off of comfortably.

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In many colleges, the title of programs in the advertising field vary due to specialization

in different aspects of advertising. Some high ranked colleges that offer advertising majors

include University of Georgia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of

Tennessee at Knoxville, and University of Florida (Explore). While some colleges have their

advertising degree listed as a program under their business school, others incorporate advertising

students into schools with different titles. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for

example, offers both a major and minor in advertising in their Media and Journalism school

rather than their business school (Majors). At University of Georgia, the advertising major

lives in their College of Journalism and Mass Communication (Search). While these

programs rank as the highest in the nation for a degree in advertising, the tuition prices and

acceptance rates remain important to a students decision to go there. To attend the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2017, a person must pay around $25,876 for in state tuition and

around $53,100 for out of state tuition (Majors). Along with a pricey cost of attendance, the

acceptance rate for North Carolina at Chapel Hill remains primarily low, which makes it an

extremely competitive school to get into. In 2017, the acceptance rate sits at 26%, which makes

it very selective (Majors). The cost of attendance for University for Georgia in 2017 stands

pretty similar as that of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with an in state tuition of

about $26,208 and an out of state tuition of around $45,128 (Search). University of Georgia,

however, proves as easier to get accepted into, with an acceptance rate of 53% in 2017

(Search). With a college degree from any of these schools, a person can learn how to

successfully become an advertiser or obtain a job in a related field such as communications or

media.
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Although modern advertising shows immense differences from the way it originated

centuries ago, the ultimate goal of attracting customers remains the same. Ever since the early

years of 3000 BC, businesses have used advertising as a tactic to get the word out about their

product or service (Advertising 7). Although they did not know it at the time, ancient people

created a system of strategies that live on today. Historians believe that the earliest form of

advertising existed as simple signs that the Mesopotamians, Greeks and Romans used to attract

customers into their shops (7). These signs that hung outside of ancient stores did not contain

words due to lack of education and common language, but rather pictures and symbols engraved

in stone or wood to advertise their businesses (7). Because the widespread resources available

today differ from those in ancient times, business owners utilized direct advertising by paying

people to spread a good word about them in busy town squares. Town criers, popularly hired by

business owners at the time, walked through the streets yelling about the newest cargo that had

just arrived to the marketplace (7). This type of advertising originated in Egypt, but soon spread

to other parts of Europe by 900 AD (7). Today, this tactic, comparable to television or radio

announcers that praise products and services, remains popular. This strategy and other

word-of-mouth types of advertising quickly spread throughout Europe and proved beneficial

until printed advertisements became obtainable and ideal (7). In 1440, the movable printing press

entered the market in Europe, causing printed advertisements to overtake most old methods used

by business owners (7). This development in technology began a movement in more advanced

types of advertising that would shape the practice into a nationwide industry.

In the early years of America, advertising seemed impractical due to the lack of easy

communication among the new settlers. In the mid-1800s, however, the industrial revolution
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introduced a new need for advertising. The industrial revolution, which occurred in the United

States before and after the Civil War, immensely shaped the advertising industry throughout the

nation (Norris 5). The increase in manufacturing throughout the country during this time lead to

the use of new advertising methods to raise awareness to competing companies. Although the

industrial revolution helped spread people out all over the country, Vincent Norris claims that the

appearance of national advertising did not rise from a new need to communicate, but rather to

achieve power in the market over other distributors (6). In 1905, an advertiser named Earnest

Elmo Calkins published an article titled Eliminating the Jobber which discusses the growth of

national advertising (6). He noted that Jobbers, or wholesalers that purchased products from

manufacturers and distributed them to consumers, just bought from the cheapest manufacturers

prior to advertising (6). However, with the utilization of advertising, they could eliminate the

jobber in all and convince buyers to buy the most demanded and higher-priced products on the

market. After this realization, advertisers in America turned to a more direct type of advertising

with the use of catalogs that individually got sent to targeted customers. Because of the industrial

revolution, the idea of nationwide advertising spread throughout the country and started a new

approach to advertising.

In the 19th century, the launch of big brand name companies altered the advertising

industry dramatically by creating staple companies for buyers (Advertising 8). Prior to large

manufacturing companies, people purchased their food and other goods from local markets or

neighborhood street vendors. When large firms began packaging food and products under big

brands name, however, the business owners knew that they needed effective advertising to

influence the purchasers. Soap makers, one of the first business people to package and nationally
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advertise branded products, created soap brands that date all the way back to the 1880s, and

influenced the creation of other brand name products like Quaker Oats and even Coca Cola in

the turn of the century (8). By creating specific branding and packaging that sold nationally,

companies effectively gained attention from consumers and still exist today because of their

advertising success.

The creativity that comes with working as an advertiser makes the job very unique from

other options in the business world. In order to attract specific customers, advertisers must utilize

creative strategies to spark interest and make a profit. The role of creativity plays a large and

important role in consumer response (Kover 1). Although brain research has not reached its peak,

advertisers have become interested in utilizing it in order to better understand what happens

when a customer sees different content in advertisements. By using neuroscientific research to

see what happens in a consumer's brain when they see something that they like, and learning how

to create that effect, firms could draw in a whole new crowd of customers (2). However, the

ultimate goal of advertising creativity should not stop at just success in gaining attention, but

rather in putting meaning behind a product and making it meaningful to a person. In order to dig

deeper on a product and generate emotional response, an advertiser should generate a need for

the product that did not exist before, assure the customer that they made the right choice when

purchasing this product, and create a unique specific brand for the product by differentiating it

from others (2). The advertisement should focus on clicking with a consumer and making a

lasting impact on the way they look at that specific product. By making use of creativity,

advertisers can achieve more success by displaying unique and meaningful content that aims at

attracting specific types of customers.

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To prove the significance of creativity in advertising, some firms have launched case

studies that observe consumer behavior in response to advertisements. In 1986, Stewart and

Furse created a code book identifying about 150 creative devices used in the advertising process,

and tested them to pinpoint which would successfully generate consumer response (Hartnett 1).

In 2016, researchers recreated this experiment by studying 312 television ads for different

products, all presumed to use differing creative vehicles (1). After extensive research, they

concluded that the strategies that Stewart and Furse came up with years ago still identify with the

strategies used today. Along with that, researchers also realized that not one of the creative

vehicles or strategies proved as more beneficial or brought about more sales than the others.

Hartnett states that there is no one simple cookbook for making sales effective advertising,

though such research offers some important guidelines (3). As time goes on, skeptical

advertisers have focused on different aspects of advertisements in hopes of picking out what

makes people respond positively. Originally alterations in headlines, font types, boldness, and

letter color of advertisements improved advertising recognition but as time goes on, other aspects

such as background music, scene changes, and voiceovers have become a new focus of study due

to the evolution of media and communication (3). Despite what type of creative vehicle gets

used, advertising creativity has proved to largely factor into the effectiveness of the

advertisement.

Advertising art directors, who work to create a unique face for brands, exist as one type

of advertising job in the very broad field. The job of advertising art directors consist of bringing

together the three strands of creativity: the creative person, the creative setting, and the creative

process (Phillips 1). By doing this, advertising art directors design and establish a distinct visual
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brand identity. Visual brand identity, or the unique face to a brand that distinguishes it from the

others of its kind, helps give a company a personality. Distinguishable aspects that make up

brand identity, such as specific logos, fonts, colors, shapes and styles assist in brand

identification (3). The evident importance of brand identification lays on the shoulders of not

only the art directors, but an entire staff of advertisers. Art directors work with clients, media

planners, and research specialists to make sure the brands interests get met (4). Although it takes

a whole team to create a successful brand identity, the job of initially introducing their visions

and ideas belongs to advertising art directors. However, if their original plan does not correspond

with their client, they must willingly change courses to create what will ultimately benefit the

client and create a good relationship for business. Because brand identity has recently become so

essential to large firms because rather than verbal brand communication, visual brand

communication has taken over (1). The importance of visual branding lays within the design of a

product, packaging of that product, and through the selection and combination of visual elements

for use in advertising and promotion (1). The role of advertising art directors play an important

creative part in advertising success.

Although advertising remains as a popular field of work, debates over its general

effectiveness continues to arise amongst firm owners. While contemplating the necessity of

advertisers, people have conducted research experiments to decide if they should pay advertisers

to campaign for their product. To compare the effectiveness of different advertising vehicles for

different companies, Shrihari Sridhar and his firm began a study by grouping advertising into

three different types of subsets: national, regional and online advertising (Sridhar 1). The

difference between the three types lays within the people that advertisers and firms wish to
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ultimately reach. National advertising consists of media vehicles, such as television commercials,

that do not get restricted to a particular region of the nation (3). Regional advertising restricts the

broadcasting of advertising, such as newspapers, just to a customized geographic section of the

nation (3). Online advertising identifies as internet-based media that essentially anyone with a

computer can reach. In their study, they grouped 12 years of data together for 662 manufacturing

firms and separated them into the three subsets, and then compared their data (1). In their

experiment, they concluded that the overall use of advertising shows a significant and positive

effect on the success of firms. However, an interesting observation made on the effectiveness of

each advertising vehicle brought about new strategizing of vehicle exposure. When an increase

took place in one vehicle, the respected other two suffered and became less effective. For

example, when a 1% increase in online advertising increased, the firm performance improved by

.32%, but national and regional advertising effectiveness decreased (1). Therefore, this

experiment concluded that advertisers play legitimate and positive roles in firm success and

firms should utilize them and launch national, regional, and online advertising campaigns.

Because of the high demand for advertising, the types of companies one can work for

includes a large variety. Skylan Morris, who currently works for the Detroit Tigers as a

Promotions Coordinator, knows how the broad field of advertising can allow for countless job

opportunities. Promotions Coordinators, who uniquely serve every company, frequently work on

different projects to create giveaways, host special events, and draw people to support the

company they represent (Morris). Skylan, who graduated from Clemson University with a

Bachelors Degree in Communication Studies, says that the very broad program helped by

providing students a little piece of everything before finding the right route within advertising
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(Morris). After becoming interested in the sports industry, Skylan had the realization that it is

very much a get your foot in the door industry. I worked a full-time job in an undesired

department with one baseball team and 2 internships with other teams before I, luckily enough,

landed this full time role in my desired position (Morris). This means that in order to

successfully earn a job in the advertising industry, one must work their way up to reach their

goal. The endless possibilities in the field of advertising make it an ideal career for someone who

does not wish to do the exact same thing every day, and wants many options when searching for

jobs.

As media evolves and becomes a staple in the everyday lives of people around the world,

advertisers have faced challenges and struggled to adapt. The way that people have seemed to

start living through media rather than with it, an idea referred to as media life, makes media an

ideal place to advertise (Deuze 1). Although the idea of using the media for advertising appears

as easy to execute, advertisers have struggled with making them effective. The challenges that

advertisers have faced with this new unlimited advertising space include customer relatability

and appropriation to specific advertisements (Kumar and Shaphali 1). Because the internet gives

people boundless opportunities, advertising online can get difficult to reach certain audiences

and get their attention. Although it has created problems for agencies, by learning how to master

the media, many new types of advertisements can become obtainable (Deuze 1). Firms should

utilize the limitless opportunities, such as aesthetically pleasing advertisements that anybody can

interact with, that comes with the overexposure to media. In attempts to adapt, companies have

introduced concepts such as integrated marketing communications in the 1990s, which aimed to

accentuate the boundaries between above the line (advertising, media planning, and
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production) and below the line (sales promotions, public relations, and other marketing

services) techniques within their companies (Kumar and Shaphali 2). Many of these jobs listed

arose in the advertising world because of the new relevance of media. In the future, utilizing

technology will become much necessary due to the way it gives insight to firms on who most

likely will purchase what products, and when they will do so (1). The prevalent importance of

media to the future world of advertising makes it necessary to utilize and master.

Advertising, or the collective term for public announcements designed to promote the

sale of specific products or services (Advertising 1), plays an important role in business by

earning a customers attention and loyalty. With a Bachelors or Masters degree in advertising,

one can learn to combine creative and strategic elements to create a visual brand identity that will

create a bond with customers. Because of the proven effectiveness of advertising to a firms

success, it will remain as a necessity to companies, just as it has for thousands of years. In the

following years, as technology becomes more prevalent in society, advertising in media will

remain as a worthy and promising challenge to face. Although the path to a career as an

advertiser deviates between many, the limitless possibilities within the advertising field makes it

a promising field of work.

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