Businesses small, medium and large use the services of ad agency to help promote their products or services. Advertising is an expensive and often complicated business which is why many businesses use experienced agencies in hope of getting better results from their ad campaigns. While ad agencies are full of talented and experienced people it’s important to know how they function and how to work with them to maximise the return on investment.

An advertising agency can be split in to 5 different categories.

-Planning

-Media

-Creative

-Production

-Traffic

Planning

The planner’s job within the agency is primarily market research and strategy. The planner will deal with primary and secondary research. They are experts in there field knowing exactly what questions to ask and to whom, as well as been able to break down and analyse large market reports.

Creative

The creative team work on concepts and development of the ad. They are often under extreme pressure to deliver unique, creative ideas that grab attention, build brands and win customers.

Media

In this category there is both ‘Media Buyers’ and ‘Media Schedulers’. The media buyer’s job is to purchase the media (e.g. posters, TV ad slots), they have the responsibility of negotiating the best possible price for the client. The media schedulers plan when and how the ad campaign will be delivered. Media schedulers can come up with very creative media strategies allowing ads to be delivered to the target audience in new and unusual ways.

Production

The production department take care of producing the advertisements. Many agencies will sub contract production depending on the format being used and the resources they have.

Traffic

Traffic are responsible getting the art work/film to the billboard suppliers, magazine or TV network on time. When a wide range of media is used this can become complex as different media formats will have different lead times for art work to be delivered to them to get it visible in time for the start of the ad campaign.

The larger agencies offer the full list of services mentioned to the left while smaller agencies will specialise in a particular field. There are advantages to both large and smaller ad agencies, the pros and cons can be found on page 2 along with how to 'ensure good agency relationships' & 'analysing an agency'

If you are looking for a rough idea of how much it is likely to cost you to work with an ad agency you’ll be pleased to know that free quotes are available online at cmypitch.

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