Carlos
what advice do you give to an aspiring advertiser?
i've watched mad men a lot lately and i am just so fascinated with what they do and i want to do how to get into that world. #advertising #buisness
3 answers
Scott Turner
Scott’s Answer
Hey Carlos - I love Madmen. Great show and it really shows you what it used to be like. Things are different now and work in an ad agency is really variable. Meaning that there are tons of different things to do from writing copy, sketching concepts, creating strategy, coding websites, data analysis, you name it, there are a lot of different things you can do.
The one thing that is really interesting about working in an agency is the love for creativity and new ideas. Sure, we all have to get our work done but everyone has the opportunity to bring a new idea to the table.
If I had to give you a piece of advice, I'd say to figure out what you want to do in an agency then drive towards it. In college, you will take general courses that will give you an overview of each area...Once you find a few things you like, dig deeper into them and get really good at them. Second piece of advice, do an internship. Keep doing internships. You learn a lot and make great connections for your career.
Hope this helps.
Scott
Working in an agency really helps you learn lot as the learning curve is wide. You get to explore more options and also test on new domains. You will not remain boxed into one vertical. There will always be ways to give more different ides as to how you can manage the accounts for clients better performance.
Madhu Manjunath
Angela Coleman Sherman
Angela’s Answer
Hi Carlos -
I love Mad Men too. Keep in mind that not only can you work at an agency, but you can also for the end client, aka the specific brand or company's advertising department. There are many different avenues you can take in the advertising world.
I would break down your strengths as you start to take classes in college, and see if you're more a creative person or analytical person (or maybe both)! If you have creative skills you can work on ad campaign strategy and development of creative assets for a campaign. If you're more analytical, you may be happier working on the planning side, and deciding when and where ad campaigns should launch and be shown. Lots of options! I would also recommend getting an internship at an agency during college, to get your foot in the door and to see what the real day to day is like (it's changed a lot since the Mad Men days).
Good luck!
Angela
Kristin Lord
Kristin’s Answer
I agree with Angela - and I also love Madmen! You can work in an agency (a la Don Draper) or at a vendor, where you'll be pitching advertising solutions to meet the client's business goals. Or, you can work for the end client where you'll strategize with whomever you use (and it could be your own internal team!) for advertising on how to accomplish your businesses goals. Definitely breaking down your strengths but also what you love to do is a great first step. I found that I liked talking to people, solving problems and writing. So, advertising sales is a great fit for me! It took me one major change in college (journalism to communications) and an internship in sales to find that out. So again, agree with Angela on obtaining an internship in some kind of advertising capacity to see if you really like it :)