Top Careers in Advertising

Do you fancy being part of the process of making eye catching adverts? Careers in advertising can be extremely competitive, but also incredibly rewarding, and there are many exciting careers available in the industry.

Read on, as we reveal some of the top careers available in advertising…

Typical careers in advertising

Advertising Account Executive

As an advertising account executive, you’re essentially the middleman between advertising and media agencies and their clients. You’ll liaise with clients to understand their advertising requirements and negotiating a timeframe and a budget.

You’ll work closely with media agencies to develop an advertising campaign that fits the client’s brief, ensuring that communication between the two parties flows efficiently. You’ll monitor the agency’s work progress and update the client, as well as delivering the final product for review.

Advertising account executives need to have excellent verbal and written communication skills. For this role you’ll need to be organized, able to work under pressure and stick to deadlines. This role is open to graduates from any discipline.

Advertising Copywriter

Advertising copywriters provide the written words for advertising campaigns. This includes headlines, slogans, body copy and straplines for print advertising and leaflets, as well as writing for web advertising and social media, tv and radio.

As an advertising copywriter you’ll work on creative briefs alongside the art director, researching and creating written copy to fit with the visuals, in order to make effective advertising campaigns which fit the client’s brief.

To be an advertising copywriter you must be extremely creative, able to write engagingly and work well in a team. Relevant degree subjects include marketing, business, management, media and psychology, although this role is open to graduates of all disciplines.

Advertising Art Director

Advertising art directors are responsible for developing the visual elements of advertising campaigns, working closely with the copywriter and the graphic designer to come up with inventive and striking advertising campaigns that fit the client’s brief.

In this role you’ll send the clients sketches outlining your ideas for the advertising campaign (i.e. ‘roughs’ for print and ‘storyboards’ for television).

Advertising art directors will need to have a strong eye for detail, be creative, have relevant IT skills (such as in Photoshop and Illustrator) and the ability to work well under pressure. 

Social Media Manager

As a social media manager, your job will be to increase brand awareness, managing the company’s social media channels, including Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook and developing campaigns to fit with your company’s brand.

You will develop a social media strategy and set goals, creating and scheduling engaging social media content and monitoring your channels’ performance using tools like Google Analytics.

Social media platforms are constantly changing, so to work as a social media manager, you’ll need to be able to adapt quickly to change, staying on top of trends. You must be organized, creative and have excellent written communication skills. This role would suit business management and marketing graduates.

Advertising Sales Representative

Advertising sales representatives sell advertising space to clients. You will be working for an employer in the media industry, which will hire you to sell space in their newspaper, magazine or radio show to advertisers, negotiating a good price with clients.

For this role you will need to have strong persuasion and negotiation skills, the ability to build strong relationships with clients and have excellent numerical skills.

Less typical careers in advertising

Graphic Designer

Graphic designers create visual concepts for organizations. As a graphic designer you’ll work with the client to develop ideas and create designs that fit the firm’s brand and objectives. You’ll do this either by hand or using computer software. These designs might be used for many different purposes, including websites, magazines, advertising, product packaging and displays.

Graphic designers will need an undergraduate degree related to graphic design and will need to build a portfolio of work to show potential employers when applying for jobs.

Market Research Analyst

The job of a market research analyst is to research market conditions, analyzing marketing and sales trends, gathering information about competitors, finding out which products people want and who will buy them for what price, and measuring the success of previous marketing campaigns.

This information about the targeted consumer will then be used to help the company market its products, enabling them to make commercials, advertising brochures and sales plans.

For this role, you will have to have exceptional written and verbal communication skills, meaning that graduates from social science courses, such as psychology, economics and sociology will be highly sought after for these roles. The analytical side of this role means that graduates will need to have strong numerical skills, meaning that graduates from courses such as statistics, mathematics and research methods are also in high demand. Some roles may also require a master’s degree.

Advertising Photographer

As an advertising photographer you will be taking the eye-catching pictures of products or services featured in advertisements. These photographs should be very high quality and draw the customer’s attention to the advertisement, making them want to buy the product on offer.

To do this, an advertising photographer will meet with the client to discuss their vision for the shoot. The photographer needs to understand what style of photograph the client is looking for and the message the advertisement is hoping to convey to consumers. After taking the photos, the advertising photographer may then need to edit the pictures.

For many advertising photographers, a photography degree will be of great value here. You will also need to have a practical approach to problem solving, strong technical skills in lighting, editing software and camera equipment and a creative flair.