Advertising Agencies

These specialized agencies provide companies a variety of services in direct mar

keting (one of the fastest growing areas of IMC), where companies communicate wi
th customers/consumers through telemarketing, direct mail and other forms of dir
ect-response advertising.
Services include: database development & management, direct mail, research, info
mercial production, media services and creative & production services.
DEFINING ADVERTISNG AGENCIES:
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating,
planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for i
ts clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside
point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services. An age
ncy can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotio
ns for its clients.
HISTORY:
Volney B. Palmer opened the first American advertising agency, in Philadelphia i
n 1850. This agency placed ads produced by its clients in various newspapers
In 1856 Mathew Brady created the first modern advertisement when he placed an ad
in the New York Herald paper offering to produce "photographs, ambrotypes and d
aguerreotypes. His ads were the first whose typeface and fonts were distinct fro
m the text of the publication and from that of other advertisements. At that tim
e all newspaper ads were set in agate and only agate. His use of larger distinct
ive fonts caused a sensation. Later that same year Robert Bonner ran the first f
ull-page ad in a newspaper.
In 1864, William James Carlton began selling advertising space in religious maga
zines. James Walter Thompson joined this firm in 1868. Thompson rapidly became t
heir best salesman, purchasing the company in 1877 and renaming it the James Wal
ter Thompson Company, which today is the oldest American advertising agency. Rea
lizing that he could sell more space if the company provided the service of deve
loping content for advertisers, Thompson hired writers and artists to form the f
irst known Creative Department in an advertising agency. He is credited as the "
father of modern magazine advertising" in the US.
EXPLANTION:
Advertising agencies are outside companies that provide for the marketing and ad
vertising needs of other businesses and organizations. Advertising agencies offe
r a full range of advertising services and advice based on market studies, popul
ar culture and advanced sales techniques. Because they are independent from the
client company, they can be objective about a client's promotional needs.
Advertising agencies are in fact full-service businesses which can manage every
aspect of an advertising campaign. They vary widely in terms of size and scope a
nd cater to different kinds of businesses. Some agencies have only one or two ma
jor clients whose accounts they manage. Others have hundreds of clients spread t
hroughout the country or the world, as well as many field offices from which to
service them. In general, an advertising agency will be able to manage an accoun
t, provide creative services, and purchase media access for a client.
Advertising agencies produce logos, creating effective and attractive color sche
mes to draw the consumer's attention to their clients' ads. They also prepare sl
ogans and brochures, and write descriptive copy for sales materials. They may pr
oduce public service announcements for charitable organizations and social progr
ams as well, and issue press releases for new programs, events, and products. Ad
vertising agencies also plan events, provide booths at conventions, and give awa
y promotional items.
The way advertising agencies work is by getting to know their clients' product o
r service well and determining which demographic provides the best audience for
promotion. If a company sells designer handbags, an ad agency would likely try t
o position the company's TV commercials during women's programming or on a chann
el geared toward women. The look and tone of an ad campaign is also dependent up
on demographics. If the company's target audience is mature adults, design eleme
nts should be more traditional than if the target were a younger generation.
CLIENTS of ADVERTISING AGENCIES:
Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organi
zations and government agencies. Agencies may be hired to proadvertising campaig
n.

STRUCTURE OF ADVERTISING AGENCIES:

An agency, depending on its size, will likely have different departments which w
ork on the separate aspects of an account. An account manager or the account pla
nning department will coordinate the work of these departments to insure that al
l the client's needs are met. An advertising agency has a very different structu
re from that of a regular organization. On a general front, an advertising agenc
y contains five departments namely the account management department, the accoun
t planning or research department, the creative department, the media-planning d
epartment and the internal services department. These departments are explained
below on basis of the services they perform.
â ¢ Account planning department
â ¢ Research
â ¢ Account management department
â ¢ Account Services
â ¢ Creative department
â ¢ Internal services department
â ¢ HRM & Traffic Services
â ¢ Media-planning department
â ¢ Media Services

RESEARCH:
The research department will be able to provide clients with some details about
the prospective audience of the final advertising campaign, as well as informati
on about the market for the product being advertised. This should include specif
ic market research which leads to a much focused ad campaign, with advertising d
irected to the ideal target audience. For example, a perfume manufacturer might
want to know:
Do consumers like this new fragrance?
Which package is more appealing?
Is the main message of this commercial coming through?
What is the market share of this competitor?