Advertising Agencies are the hubs of creativity and vision. To explain advertising careers in three words, they are Creative, Communicative and Coherent (and Casual too!). For a clearer understanding, here’s a gist of the two main and dynamic departments that function simultaneously in an ad agency:

The Executive Department looks after:

• Client Servicing/Account Managing: act as POCs (Point of Contact) between the Client and Creative Department,
• Market Research and Development: to research competitors, gather insights and spot marketing trends,
• Campaign Execution and Management: creating a roadmap/blueprint of the campaigns, right from its pre-launch to post-launch phases,
• Media Research: to select the right medium of communication and allocate budget accordingly,
• Pitching and Retaining Clients: to seek new business opportunities and retain existing clients.

The Creative Department looks after:

• Creative Directors: visualize and lead the creative side of campaigns,
• Graphic Designers and Animators: create the visual communication for the campaign,
• Copywriters: textualize the campaign wherever required,
• Photographers, Videographers, Musicians, and Sound Designers.

The avenues of advertising keep on changing and new tools and technologies come up every day. If you don’t update yourself, your knowledge becomes stale. Here are Wit and Chai’s Top 5 Tips to stay relevant in the field of advertising:

Tip 1: Be creative (and original) under high pressure
An ad agency is a place where new ideas and campaigns are constantly brewing and everyone has to proactively meet strict deadlines. It’s all about finding creative and innovative ways to solve the client’s problems and to make a generic product become a memorable brand that sells like hot cakes. As advertising professionals, it’s quite common to keep multiple tabs open on your devices and in your brains. Always be on the lookout and observe your surroundings, especially people who give you valuable insights that can be relevant to use for your future campaigns.

Tip 2: Be thick-skinned and learn to accept NOs
Every idea you have may not be accepted. Every creative sent across to the client might need a lot of changes (once we made 17 changes to a creative!!!), every pitch will not always convert to a client and every campaign might not produce expected results (or sometimes any results at all!). With glamour attached to advertising, the ability to take criticism is attached too.

Tip 3: Stay child-like curious!
From an entry-level employee to a top-level manager, every campaign will always have a steep learning curve for every professional. Ask questions to the clients to ‘de-brief’ their Brief, learn new skills from your colleagues, and know what is happening around you just like a curious child. Push your imagination, embrace the absurdity and challenge your limits.

Tip 4: Research, Research, and Research!
Whoever said “Comparison is the thief of joy” was definitely not an advertising professional. No matter what department you belong to, researching your competitor brands exposes their shortcomings and helps you develop ideas that will set you apart from them. Though Advertising is highly rewarding, it is an equally competitive and fast-paced field that adds a lot of thrill and excitement to your career.

Tip 5: Flow like water!
The flexibility to change approaches towards different brands is the hottest skill in the advertising industry. Every challenge is new and monotony is rare. Existing clients expect you ‘level up’ with every new campaign and deliver better results compared to the previous ones. Challenging yourself and coming up with better ideas is necessary to retain clients.

For the ones who love to work on multiple projects at once, want to avoid monotony, love creative freedom, and enjoy socializing with like-minded people, advertising agencies are the right fit for you and will be the best long-term career option! Join us at Wit and Chai to experience the agency culture to the fullest.