SPOTLIGHT IDEAS

Copywriting is a broad subject, and although people looking for copywriting jobs shouldn’t be choosy, it is well-worth being aware of the different types of jobs available in copywriting, and tweaking your approach and CV to match this. In particular, the sort of places where copywriting takes place. And the different types of copywriting disciplines.  

PLACES WHERE COPYWRITING TAKE PLACE

Copywriter Jobs in Traditional Creative Advertising Agencies

Most people think of copywriting as:
- working in a creative team to come up with a creative concept, a headline and more detailed copy (to expound on the headline) for a campaign across a wide variety of media, above all, TV.
And these types of copywriting jobs are the most sought after. So if you are going to apply for a junior position in a traditional, creative advertising agency, then you will need to ensure that you have the highest credentials possible for a copywriter: able to write in a wide variety of styles, lots of reading and writing experience, strong knowledge of marketing and the advertising industry in general, and a good university degree or HND - also, the more extra curricula activities you can include in your CV, the better: i.e student journalism, travel, the arts, and so on).

So the above is a brief description of the classic copywriter role (and the sort of experiences / qualifications / abilities that all copywriters need to aim for in general).

But there are other ways into copywriting other than just applying for jobs  (or trying to get a foot in the door, in general) in the traditional, creative advertising agencies.

Copywriter Jobs In Traditional Direct Marketing Advertising Agencies

Similar to traditional, creative advertising agencies, although the copywriting is focused more on print and with a more sales-style copywriting approach.

Copywriting Jobs In Companies In-house

Many companies have a copywriter or group of copywriters that focus on content or a method of communication very much suited to the particular company or brand. The sort of work these copywriters might do includes: sales copywriting, writing sales brochures, online PR copywriting, content copywriting, SEO copywriting, blogging, in general, and more.

Copywriting Jobs In Digital Agencies

Copywriting is now a well established discipline in digital agencies and digital work environments in general. The range of copywriting disciplines in digital agencies is broad: web, sales, marketing and more.

Copywriting Jobs In Integrated Agencies

Integrated agencies are advertising agencies that cover both traditional-advertising and digital-advertising-agency work. The scope for different type of copywriting work is, perhaps, biggest in integrated advertising agencies. This makes copywriting more varied (and interesting) but at the same time, demands more flexibility in work practices and a great knowledge of the advertising industry in general.

THE DIFFERENT COPYWRITING DISCIPLINES

The following is an introduction to the different types of disciplines within copywriting (a copywriter might focus on one of these or employ two or more disciplines in his / her day-to-day job).

Marketing Copywriting

Marketing copywriting is a general term for writing copy that creates brand awareness / communicates a brand message to an audience. This is really more of a term than a job title. Marketing copywriting is a basic skill that all copywriters should aim to master. It is found in all areas of advertising / marketing / media agencies in general, as well as in companies in-house.

Sales Copywriting

Sales copywriting is more focused on getting the audience to perform some action after reading the copy (i.e at best, buying a product) than mere brand awareness / brand communication as in marketing copywriting. ‘Sales Copywriter’ is a job title that does crop up. Most jobs in sales copywriting are to be found in direct marketing agencies, companies in-house and digital and integrated advertising agencies. The usual copywriting skills / abilities apply, plus some sort of experience of working in a sales environment.

PR Copywriting

PR copywriting is something that a PR person would normally incorporate with general PR work. People involved in PR copywriting often have a strong background in journalism (or, at least, a background in journalism certainly helps).

Web Copywriting

Web copywriting covers various disciplines:

Creative Copywriting (writing headlines for banners, creative concepts, marketing copy, and so on)
Seo Copywriting (focusing on key words for search engine search)
Content Writing (for general articles, blogging posts and so on)
PR Copywriting (in company news articles, blogging articles and so on)
Website Copywriting (web designer will often write own copy to introduce website to audience and so on)
Blogging (incorporating various aspects of copywriting)

Looking at ‘where copywriting is done’ and the diferent copywriting discplines is a useful way of planning how to get into copywriting as well as planning your copywriting career for the future, in general.
Lastly, people who want to get into copywriting shouldn’t, generally, be choosy about what sort of copywriting discipline they start of doing. A general approach is a good idea. But it is, also, a good idea to build up work experience (through work placements, for example) of the different types of copywriting disciplines (and, in addition to the general appraoch, to focus, a little, perhaps, on one discpline). This will enable you to tweak your CV to the particular company and job role that you are applying for. And increase your chances, overall, of getting into copywriting!

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is the discipline by which information is communicated to audiences (brand audiences) via text (the look of, not just the meaning of, text) imagery and layout.

Broad range of work

Graphic design is used in the design of, for example, of sweet wrappers, wine bottle labels, posters, Internet banners, print ads, music CD covers, book layouts, logos, websites and so on .

Where do graphic designers work?

In advertising agencies (traditional, digital, integrated), media companies in general, design studios, in companies in-house, freelance.

General work / niche work

Graphic designers can end up doing very general graphic design work or very niche graphic design work. A small company might need a lot of different graphic design work done by one graphic designer, only.  On the other hand not all small companies require general graphic design skills: a graphic designer could be required to do a very particular piece of work, working as an illustrator, for example, in a small media or design company.

Types of Jobs available in graphic design

Art Director (visualizer / creative in an advertising agency, also, art director in the general sense of the word, overseeing the art work of others ).  
Animator (the animation industry has, in recent years, become an important place of work for graphic designers in animation design).
Layout Artist (is responsible for the general layout of pages in, generally, printed media environments).
Logo Designer (using sketches and computer graphics, generally, to create logos - brand awareness is important for most graphic design jobs, but in particular with logo design)
Flash Designer (flash design being a particular aspect of web design involving a distinct graphical form).
Illustrator (illustrators conceptualize and create drawings / sketches / digital imagery for books, magazines, packaging, and so on  - also includes technical illustration for animation, TV commercials and more).
Photo Editing(using various different kinds of photographic editing software packages, in particular, Photoshop)
Multimedia Designer (multimedia designers work in the film industry, TV, advertising agencies, and more, to create designs for sets, props and costumes etc ..).
Web Designer(graphic designers often find jobs focussing on the visual design side of the website but they will still require overall web design skills in general).

Skills required in graphic design

Good listener. It’s crucial for a graphic designer to know and understand the client’s brief.
Problem solver. The graphic designer must be able to work out the best way of communicating or incorporating the customer’s brand message in the design work.
Creative. The graphic designer’s main job is to ensure that material gets noticed in an interesting way.
Attention to detail. The graphic designer must ensure that information about the client and their brand in the design work is correct.  
Persuasive. The graphic designer must be able to persuade others (client / others in own company) why a particular concept would work.
Time management.  Owing to the nature of the business, graphic design work often comes with tight deadlines. And the graphic designer will often have many different projects to juggle with.
Organized. A typical project can include many different areas of work. Also, the graphic designer may often have many different projects to juggle with at the same time. Being well organized is a core skill.
Flexible. The graphic designer will often have to carry out different types of work, as well as work with people with different types of skills.

Qualifications to become a graphic designer

In order to get the best jobs in graphic design you will generally need a formal qualification in graphic design (BTEC HND, foundation degree, or degree) or in a subject closely related to graphic design (art -focused/ design-focused subject).

What is web design?

Web design involves two main disciplines: visual (look and feel of the site) and technical (how the site functions). People starting off in web design will normally need to be skilled, to a certain degree, in both disciplines. Depending on the type of company a web designer works for or the type of career path a web designer would like to follow, a web designer might well end up focusing on one discipline over the other.

What is a web development?

Web development is about carrying out a web policy / programme for an entire web environment (with various different types of websites, for example). The web developer might have various people working under him / her from web designers to systems architects. You normally need a certain amount of experience working in a web environment (as well as in a business environment, in general) , and, also, a good understanding of a broad range of web technologies to end up working as a web developer.
Since this post is really an introduction to web design so this post will focus on web design rather than web development (but is it is useful to have an idea of the difference between the two).

Why work in web design?

-  Creative. It’s creative - creative in the sense of creating a certain look and feel, as well as creative in the sense of being lateral-minded about how best to put the website together (and what is most appropriate to the customer’s needs).
- Increased opportunities. The web, in general, is becoming, increasingly, more important. This leads to greater opportunities for people who work in web design.
- Diversity. Web design is diverse in the type of business / activities it is involved in from news, information and search, advertising, marketing to e-commerce, general entertainment, interactive media, content building, social networking and so on.
- Exciting challenges. Also, technologies are improving all the time, and web design is becoming more integrated with other forms of media (interactive TV, gaming and so on) - this all leads to greater diversity, in general, and interesting challenges for web designers.

On the other hand, be aware that a lot of work in web design is freelance (but freelance work can have its good points as well - all depends on the individual).

What skills do you need?

Design / Technical Skills. You need to have good foundation design / technical skills for the web (and then be able to focus on one or the other or both).
Quick Leaner. You need to be good at picking up (and picking up on your own, in many cases) various web technologies; web technologies are continuously changing so you need to be able to keep up.
Good Listener. It’s really crucial that you listen to the customer and understand what the customer wants: what their goals are (in general, and in building this site), what their company is like, what their brand is like, what their customers are like, and what their market place, in general, is like. You have to be a good listener so that your work is relevant to what the customer really wants / needs.
Perseverance. Web technologies can be complicated and there can often be compatibility issues, and so on. Being able to stick to it and be a problem-resolver is crucial.
Team Player. Web design often involves (depending on the size of the project / type of company you are carrying out work for) working with a wide variety of people (people in related media, marketing, sales, PR, information systems, customer relationship, research and so on).
Time management / organization. Web designers (especially web designers who work in an agency) will often have various different jobs on the go at the same time so they really need to be good at time management and be well organized.

What qualifications do you need?

Most web designers have some sort of third level qualification. Their background will often be in something like graphic design or fine arts. A lot of web designers will often learn HTML and other skills on their own. By the time people begin looking for jobs in web design they really need to have acquired a good understanding of computer graphic packages such as Dreamweaver, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and have a certain understanding of Flash, CSS, XML, XHTML, Fireworks, and more, as well as having a basic idea, at least, of how to write for the web and SEO (search engine optimization). But some people might be lucky and find junior web design jobs with less skills than outlined here. Others might need a lot more skills (it all depends on the level / type of web design job you would like: you need to do your research ..).

What is online marketing?

Online marketing (or internet marketing) is about the marketing of products or services on the Internet.

Online marketing is a big subject. It incorporates many different skills / disciplines: technical, design, copywriting / content-building, PR, planning, branding, research, sales, customer service, general marketing, and so on. And it offers a wide range of different services: search engine optimization, pay-per-click, banner ads, e-mail marketing, newsletter marketing, online market research, blog marketing, viral marketing, and more.

Although online marketing can be, on the whole, split up into different areas of activity, it is common for many organizations nowadays - organizations of varying sizes - to be involved in a broad range of online activities. Although these organizations will be involved in similar types of online marketing activities, often there will be a divergence too, depending, to an important degree, on the type of work a particular organization does, and so on.

Online marketing jobs - where?

Large companies will often have a person or group of people who focus entirely, or to an important degree, on online marketing within the more general ‘marketing department’ (or  ‘sales and marketing’). Online marketing people, in such organizations, will work closely with the overall brand manager to ensure brand consistency across the company.
In smaller companies, online specialists tend to focus on a wider ranger of activities (perhaps covering both traditional marketing as well as online marketing).
And then there are the agencies who focus on carrying out online marketing services for their clients:  digital agencies,  integrated advertising agencies, web design agencies and others (with, often a cross-over of work between the different agencies).

Online marketing jobs - what?

People who work in the marketing departments of large to small-sized companies in online marketing will often have titles such as Online Marketing Executive or Marketing Executive.

In digital / integrated advertising / web design agencies, they will have job titles such as:
Brand Planner / Insight Planner (very much about understanding the brand values you want to get across online, in particular in advertising - an important part of this involves understanding your audience).
Brand Planners / Insight Planners will often work closely with Digital Planners. Digital Planners are responsible for selecting the best media with which to advertise (Digital Planners are often to be found in digital agencies, integrated advertising agencies as well as general media companies).
Account Managers (in charge of client’s accounts).
Creatives (Copywriters, Art Directors, Web Designers, Graphic Designers)
Content Writers (often people with a copywriting or a PR background)
Researchers. Researchers can be found in digital and integrated agencies, as well as in dedicated market research agencies, and so on.

Online marketing jobs - qualifications

For general online marketing / branding jobs a degree (or HNDs) in most subjects will do, in particular marketing / business studies.
For planning jobs most degrees (or HNDs) will do, in particular, marketing / psychology / stats.
For copywriting jobs most degrees (or HNDs) will do, in particular, arts subjects / English.
For art director and design jobs, in general, you will need a professional, third level qualification in whichever discipline it is exactly you want to focus on.
For research jobs most degrees will do, in particular, marketing / stats / psychology.
For technical jobs, you will need professional, third level qualifications (it will depend on the particular sort of discipline you want to focus on but typical qualifications include, for example, computer programming, engineering, physics, maths and more).

(Part 3)

Brand Story Core Values (Source and Development)

At the end of the day it is the company director / marketing director who are responsible for deciding what the core brand values of the brand story should be. But brand values can often develop (for good or ill), to a certain degree, on their own (new opportunities arise that you hadn’t envisaged before - i.e. you discover that the Japanese market really likes your product so you develop new interesting relations with the Japanese, someone in your team develops a particular product that turns out to be an unexpected success, and so on).

Be Inspired By Others But Be Different At The Same Time!

Although some brands might have approaches to brand-story strategies that are similar to others, no company should ape the strategy of others. Work out what is best for your company (in terms of the type of brand you have, who your audience is, where your audience is, what your audience is doing, what the strengths of the people in your company are, and what the strengths of your company in general are, and so on).

Just as the writer of a successful story imbues a story with a unique voice so a brand story-teller must do the same (just as branding in general is about creating brands that are unique - and interesting, and more - the brand story just reinforces this) with a brand.
And, finally, the ultimate goal of the brand story is to help increase audience interest in the brand so that the audience talk about the brand without you having to pay to get your audience to do that. Free publicity / free attention –>  increased brand value.

(Part 2)

Depending on the size of your business / company, here are a few ideas / approaches to think about (and the best stories are those that incorporate different ideas / approaches - knitted closely together).

Brand Story Generators

PR

PR is at the heart of brand-story telling.
What do I mean by PR / what kind of PR? I don’t mean crisis management PR here (that is about containing stories / damage limitation) but:

• The way in which PR can be used to communicate interesting news items that are taking place in (or associated with the) brand at the moment (or that are going to happen in the future). You could employ a professional PR person to communicate this to various people in the media. But that can be expensive. You could, also, do it yourself, for example, through local newspapers, holding a publicity event, or communicating it to others via a blog or via a networking site. This kind of PR relies, to an important degree on journalistic skills (as well as general marketing, branding and copywriting skills).
• The way in which PR can be used to communicate the story of your brand in general. Again, similar methods (as in above) would be used to achieve this. This kind of PR relies, to an important degree on branding skills (as well as general marketing and copywriting skills).

The second example of PR is, in essence, branding. Where as the first example is, in essence, about publicity (although, of course, publicity has an impact on branding).

The key to PR is the ability to highlight aspects of your company that your audience would find interesting, as well as to give some overall shape to your brand (that your brand is on a journey). Like all stories you want to fill your brand story with people  (employers / affiliates / customers), how challenges were overcome (this is not about revealing weaknesses in your brand, but about, for example, how you rose to, and succeeded in, a challenge outside your control), how the story (the brand) has developed (to meet the needs of customers), where the brand story has taken place, challenges for the future, and so on.
And, above all, keeping in mind who your audience are, and how your story is relevant to them!

Publicity / Sponsorship / Affiliation

Here are a few examaples of publicity / sponsorship / affiliation that might generate some ideas for your brand story:

• A brand can be associated with an interesting / big event, for example, IBM - Wimbledon tennis.
  On a smaller scale / on the Internet, this could involve hosting an online forum or a competition.
• A brand can also be associated with the development of some organization, for example, a hospital or some other type of public service.
  On a smaller scale / on the Internet, this could involve writing an article on your website / weblog about the organization
• A brand can be associated with (affiliated with or endorsed by) another brand, for example BT and Yahoo joining together to offer Internet services.
  On a smaller scale / on the Internet, this could involve exchanging link-embedded company icons (to be placed on a website to increase traffic to the other site).
• A brand that proactively helps to protect the environment (i.e. Kettle Chips using used chip oil to run some of their vehicles).
• A brand that does something useful i.e the toilet manufacturer, Charmin, who provided free toilets to passers-by in Time Square over the Christmas period.
  On a smaller scale this could involve offering your customer a useful widget on your website / weblog, for example.

The point about publicity is that it reflects something interesting about the brand, and also, that the publicity is as unique / original (as possible).
Publicity requires the following sorts of skills: PR in particular, as well as, branding, marketing and more.

Blogging / Social Networking

Blogging can be a great way of telling a story. The weblog platform, itself, is a type of diary / journal. You can, also, communicate information to your audience via the blog that that would be more difficult to communicate via an ad or, even, a newspaper or magazine, article. Social networking sites can assist in reinforcing the particular brand-story slant on your  blog as well as your brand story in general.
Blogging requires the following sorts of skills: copywriting and PR, in particular, as well as, branding, marketing and more.

Advertising

Advertising can, also, play a role in adding to, as well as, communicating a brand story (advertising, however, is really more to do with communicating brand values in general as well as brand personality).
Advertising people (if you can afford them) can help to fine-tune your brand story - making it more relevant and interesting to your market place, to the times and place in which your brand exists - ultimately, making it relevant and interesting to your audience.

Guinness is one brand that stands out to me as a brand that has done well out of advertising from a brand-story perspective. Not only have their ads contributed to their brand story in that they remind us - to a certain but subtle degree (let’s be clear here - Guinness ads are first and foremost about communicating brand values in general / communicating brand personality) - that Guinness is from Ireland / Dublin (the interesting side of  Ireland / Dublin). Plus they have almost created a distinctive entertainment industry / genre with their ads over the years (Guinness-ad enthusiasts are plentiful).

End of Part 2. For Part 3: here.

Fundamentals of The Brand Story

Do you have something interesting to say about your brand?

By interesting I don’t mean that my product is better (for example, twice as powerful / finer fragrance) than yours. This on its own isn’t that interesting, although it might useful to know. It could be interesting, though, if the reason behind the brand’s superiority is something along the lines of, for example, the product is better because of some important new invention behind it, or is more fragrant because of the use of some wild flower gathered in the uplands of Venezuela. You have the fragments of a story here.  An interesting story.

Of course, some people might not be very interested in inventions or wild flowers. You need more fragments to make a brand story. A brand story has to be holistic in approach, not dependent on one-offs. How was the brand founded - did the founder of the brand, for example, start off by selling the product, in person (i.e Ben and Jerry’s)? Did the brand have to take on a much bigger competitor in a David-and-Goliath-like confrontation (i.e Richard Branson of Virgin versus Lord King of BA). Is the brand connected with a particular place in an interesting way (i.e Guinness in the heart of Dublin)? That kind of thing.

Ben and Jerry’s, Virgin and Guinness all have big stories to tell.  Although most of us cannot match their stories, we can certainly learn something from them.

As soon as we start up the business / create the brand we already have some story to tell (for example, ‘I am passionate about sailing, but had to sell my boat to raise money for the business’, ‘I based the design of this product on a local, traditional vase that I saw in a market in Vietnam’).

Before embarking on a focused story-telling programme / initiative, we have to ensure, firstly, that our product / service will do justice to the sort of attention we would like our brand to receive.

Building A Brand Story On Solid Foundations

The people we should be focused on all times are the brand’s audience (or anyone who could have an impact / influence on how the brand’s audience perceive the brand). And we should focus on the following sorts of activities / areas of the business / brand (that could affect the judgement of the audience). For example:

• Does the product do what that brand story suggests it should?
• Does the customer receive quality customer service?
• Is the company involved in any damage to the environment (the sort of damage that could be quite easily resolved financially / logisticaly).
• Are employees treated well (salary, benefits, flexible hours etc ..)

In all the above cases customers will get to hear from other customers (or from people within the company via family and friends) what is really going on.

• Does the company employ the best people for the job (because this will impact on the quality of the product, customer service and so on).

Ensure that your company’s performance matches the sort of sort of company you present it to be in the brand story.

The brand story must be authentic. You could fabricate a story and fool some people. But eventually people would find out the truth and your fabrication would back-fire. Be authentic. Base your story, as you would base your brand, on authenticity.

End of Part 1. For Part 2 of 3: here

Traditionally copywriting is the method by which written messages are communicated to brand audiences in order to precipiate direct-sales responses or create general, brand awareness. The written messages appear mainly in the form of straplines (or slogans as some call them) as well as in more detailed and lengthy forms of copy that, usually, provide the audience with general product information. And copywriting is, also, used in direct mail marketing, in creating lyrics for radio ads, and increasingly (and now becoming very important), in PR and general, Internet content (where the focus of the content-building might not just be about creating brand values but could also be about improving search engine rankings), and more.
Copywriting isn’t just about words. It is, also, about concepts - creating creative concepts. Traditionally copywriters and art directors are the ones in creative agencies who create the creative concept (as opposed to the marketing idea) behind a campaign. Both the copywriter and the art director work jointly, as equals, in coming up with the concept. With the radical developments in new media and digital, and the important changes that have taken place in advertising and media (advertising is now more holistic in approach: employing various tools and techniques to create brand awareness - i.e brand utility, brand sponsorship, publicity, social networking and so on - not just traditional advertising ones), recently, in general, art directors are now having to work with a host of different people in order to meet the new demands.
And being a good copywriter has always required, to a certain degree, understanding the brand you are working on,  as well as the brand’s audience, market and competition.
Finally copywriting is, ultimately, a craft not an art form (even though copywriting is often derived from art forms). Copywriting is about being able to capture something in a few words (a strapline) that is relevant to the product, that attracts people’s attention and is memorbale - and, closely, related to this is the ability to conceptualize creative ideas. It is about writing good, clean copy that is easy to follow and invites engagement from the audience. The copywriter must be able to write in a variety of different sytles, as well as be good at being able to understand the zeitgeist in which he / she lives and, in particular, the way the zeitgeist affects the way people communicate with each other in general.

BBC’s The Apprentice is back on our screens, again, with all the shenanigans, personality clashes, adrenalin rushes, and so on that we are accustomed to (and enjoy) as well as, of course, the street-wise, jabbing Sir Alan Sugar (”Never ever try to underestimate me because you will be making a fatal, fatal error. I don’t like liars, I don’t like cheats. I don’t like bull*******s, I don’t like schmoozers, I don’t like a**e-lickers” - for more Sir Alan Sugar Apprentice quotes).
Of course, The Apprentice is ultimately about entertainment. And it’s a great entertainment format: reality show where the tasks are actually quite interesting / fun / different: selling lobsters, making chocolate, running an advertising campaign and so on - often in interesting locations - with contrasting personalities - Sir Alan Sugar - and all the drama that results from these different ingredients.
But how useful is it? Is there anything to learn at all from The Apprentice ? I think there is. You could write a dry, academic book on how to be an entrepreneur / how to be a good marketeer and so on. But much more appealing would be a book based on the lives of real people (recently, I have got much more out of, for example, Sir Richard Branson’s autobiography ‘Screw It, Let’s Do It’ than lots of academic-like books on business / marketing - well, I just don’t have the time, patience or interest for too many academic-like books right now - same for many people, I am sure, too).

Anyway, so what can one learn from The Apprentice? What did some of the candidates learn?

Naomi (from last series) said: ‘I learnt that I need the courage of my convictions more. I didn’t make decisions quickly enough. I learnt that self-worth and dignity are my values. I won’t get involved in bickering.’
Lohit (from last series): ‘It didn’t teach me anything about business, but it reaffirmed my skills. It showed me that I’m strong and confident, and that I’m a nice guy. Also it confirmed for me that I’m very, very adaptable. My cultural background and my parents’ way of bringing me up all helped in making me the adaptable person I am.”
- certainly being able to get on with things (in tasks) / and being strong (in tasks / leadership skills / in the boardroom) are probably some of the most important things that most people would take away from The Apprentice.

From my particular experience / background: advertising / marketing, some of the glaring mistakes I have noticed people make are the following:

- lack of research
It doesn’t take that much time, money or effort to do some research (enough to lay down the foundations for a project). Research is crucial (without time or money, then this would be qualitative research, only, as opposed to quantitative and qualitative research). It gives you an idea very quickly about the sort of market and audience that you are dealing with. Research can be the difference between walking into a dark room with, or without, a torch.

- lack of creative thinking
Firstly, set out a time frame for creative-thinking (for the brainstorming stage, as well as the critical stage of creative thinking when you try and develop / give shape to ideas). Remember that poor ideas can develop into great ideas. Just as good ideas can turn out to be not so good (so don’t fall in love with the first good idea that you come across - it might be a good or a even great idea, but, first, question it) . Question everything. Let everyone have a go. Don’t apply critical thinking until the agreed brain-storming period is over, and then you begin to develop / cull ideas.

- lack of strategic thinking
Once you have agreed on your marketing idea, you will then need to set aside some time for working out how to implement that. Use the time allotted and then go onto the next stage (implementing the marketing idea).

Lastly, something that everyone should do whether they are in marketing / advertising or not, is to understand exactly what the task is. So often in The Apprentice, I have seen candidates failing to do even this. And, lastly, and can’t emphasize enough: where fuzzy-thinking is involved (and this is crucial) people must be strict about time-keeping. So they must work out a time-frame for 1. research 2. creative-thinking 3. strategic-thinking, and 4. implementing the marketing idea - and keep to it.

As I have been suggesting throughout many of my posts, jobs in advertising and media are getting ever more integrated. The boundaries between who-does-what are getting, increasingly, more thin. For those who want to get on and do well, it is now as important as ever, to learn as many different skills as one can. To get used to handling various different job roles at the same time. Yes, to be an expert in certain things, but, also, to focus on learning as much as you can about your industry in general. To learn as much about the work that others do (even people from different departments). And to be always alert to the new ways of doing things / the new ways of thinking about what you do in general).
O.k. well just to give a little bit of meat to all of this, I have just been reading Three Internet Careers That Soon Won’t Existby Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion. His argument is that since the web has now become the dominant marketing and media platform so it has become the “new normal” - the platform which most people will have to understand in order to do well in their work. He highlights three different types of jobs, in particular, that will decline (Social Media Consultant / Social Media Manager, Internet Advertising Sales / Online Advertising Sales, and Digital Talent Agents).
And ‘The new normal’ - this is something worth reflecting on - that we are not just in the early days of web. Web is now part of every day life. And it will continue to play an even big part in most people’s lives - as will digital / new media in general.
Things worth reflecting on (including people looking for jobs in advertising / media).

I am only going to offer a sketch of the types of jobs available in digital / new media as this is such a broad subject (for a blog post). Some companies focus on digital / new media; and others on digital / new media combined with traditional media. Some of the jobs in this sector focus on digital / new media; and others on digital / new media combined with traditional media, just as, again, some jobs in this sector cover a broad range of disciplines, where as others focus on a specific discipline.

Different sorts of Sectors

Internet
The internet provides the greatest opportunity for jobs in the digital and new media sector. Jobs in online marketing, PR, content writing, search engine optimization, digital and audio, web design and more.

Online Marketing
Online marketing covers a wide range of activities from both a traditional, branding perspective (how your brand appears overall / how the brand message is communicated / interesting brand story / is the brand useful or interesting or both / is the brand easy to use / is the brand interactive - ultimately, are people going to talk about it: word of mouth) to more internet-focused activities such as search engine optimization, link exchanges, email marketing, and so on.

Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization or SEO is about choosing relevant keyword phrases for a site and fine-tuning that site so that those keyword phrases will rank as highly as possible in the search engines. SEO was particularly important in the early days of the Internet. And it is still important. But the quality of the website’s content, as well as the general brand values of the site, are now much more important than they used to be.
Although there is a future, to one degree or another, in SEO, there is a lot to be said for branching into other areas of online marketing / gaining other sorts of skills in the world of digital / new media, as opposed to relying on pure SEO skills or experience.

Mobile / Wireless / Telecommunications
This covers an important and growing sector of the digital / new media industry, involving technologies such as mobile phone services, cable /satellite / digital TV (providers), broadband, ADSL, wirless lans, GPS, and so on.

Digital Audio / Digital Video
Everything from the recording and manipulation to the production and distribution of digital sound and visuals.

Web Design
Involves a wide range of jobs from design to technical - about the look, feel and functionality, and so on, of websites - from large e-commerce sites, to highly interactive, entertainment / gaming sites, and so on.

Different sorts of Jobs

The above sectors include the following sorts of job roles (differing depending on the sector / some of the job roles below covering various sectors).

Media Planner (and media buyer) and Account Planner
Media Planner is traditionally the person responsible for deciding which media to use for advertising campaigns and so on. 
Account Planner is traditionally the person in the advertising agency responsible for coming up with the big marketing idea of ideas behind a campaign.
Media planners and account planners are now often known as digital / strategic planners.

Account Handler / Account Executive
Account handlers / account executives are responsible for being the face of the digital agency to the client. They, also, take ownership of campaign projects, as well as, in some cases, contribute marketing ideas to campaigns / work projects.

Marketing Executive
‘Marketing executive’ is a more general term that could include account planner / strategic planner work as well as more focused areas of work such as E-commerce, E-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, Pay Per Click, social network expert, and so on.

Copywriters, Art Directors, Designers, Programmers, Producers
The people responsible for the creative and finished creative digital product. Copywriters and art directors are names we normally associate with traditional, creative ad agencies but certainly they are playing an increasinly important role in digital advertising.
You could, also, include bloggers / content writers in this list as quality content / promoting brand through a blog is becoming increasingly important.

Public Relations
PR is becoming more and more important in digital media, not just for traditional reasons (i.e in the case of brand crisis-management) but, also, in helping to build up brands through brand storytelling and so on.

And there are lots of other types of jobs too (sales, operation, HR and so on).

* The below is just an overview. You need to check all the websites for updates for latest details on job offerings, job advice as well as work experience and graduate recruitment opportunities in general.  

I recently posted an article on the leading 25 London advertising agencies. Here is another article focused on the most useful articles I could find on these websites about how to get into advertising. It is a good idea to browse through the leading advertising agencies’ websites not just because they post jobs, have useful articles about how to get into advertising, but, also because you are able to get a good idea about what is going on in the world of advertising at the moment in general from these companies’ sites (and even more so from their blog sites).

AMV BBDO. Has an interesting bit on what it is like to work as an Account Executive (and other related jobs) from the point-of-view of recent graduates.

BBH. Has a really useful section under Graduates (covering a detailed look at the different types of jobs available in advertising, as well as useful web address, and other useful hints and tips).

DDB London. Has an interesting Recruitment section worth looking at.

DLKW. Is currently advertising for their summer school under Graduate Recruitment where they are offering someone (it is not clear how many) the opportunity for someone to do some account handling work for a month (in August 2008). Applications close 4th April 2008.

DRAFTFCB. Should you submit your CVs to advertising agencies (without any definite job offer / work experience offer)? Many of the ad agencies invite graduates to do so. DRAFTFCB devote a section to it: Submit A Resume (so they obviously think it is important). But when submitting CV remember (this isn’t necessarily their advice, but mine: make sure the CV stands out, that it tells them something interesting about you as well as why your skills and abilities would be relevant to them).

United London has a ‘Jobs’ section including work experience opportunities (it’s not clear whether the opportunities are for 2008 - guess so - but you would have to check).

Ogivly & Mather has Ogilvy Recruitment for people looking for jobs in Ogilvy & Mather, and another - much better section called ‘Homemade Product - A Slice Of Working Life’ which gives an overview of working in advertising in general and Ogilvy, in particular, as well as including information about the Ogivly Fellowship Scheme).

Wieden & Kennedy has a useful ‘jobs’ section: working with us and WK Side. WK Side looks particularly interesting: an opportunity to work for Wieden & Kennedy for 3 months doing various different roles. I guess this is an interesting way of recruiting people, as well as being a useful way of getting fresh ideas from people from outside Wieden & Kennedy. Very much a forward looking way of doing things, I think.

New media has changed quite radically the way advertising organizations carry out their work. In the old days an account planner would approach the creative team (copywriter and art director) with a big marketing idea around which the creative team would create a creative concept. This would then get communicated to consumers, mainly via, TV, radio and print.
But things are quite different now. The big marketing idea, still exists in one shape or another. But much more important now is to think about a myriad of marketing ideas making up an overall marketing impression. Marketeers now have to employ a variety of techniques to communicate brand messages to audiences, for example, PR, publicity, brand utility (brand usefulness, i.e if you are a toilet roll manufacturer you might consider setting up free street loos for customers to use during the Christmas shopping period etc ..), brand sponsorship, and so on - and now, most importantly, digital media (digital signage - electronic screens -, mobile technology, but above, all the internet). As a result of all of this, there are many more different types of creative advertising jobs available than before. Many of the old jobs still exist. But many of them have merged into new types of roles - focused not just on traditional advertising techniques but, also, on digital advertising ones, and anything in between. Some creative advertising roles are in agencies that focus on advertising only, and others are in agencies that do both advertising and non-advertising work. Some of these roles are freelance. Others, permanent.

Anyone interested in working in creative advertising must really spend even more time than before planning what they would like to and what college course they would like to enroll in, and so on. Most visualizer / designer jobs require specific qualifications. You don’t necessarily have to have a specific degree to become a copywriter. But a single post - here - is not enough to do justice regarding the subject of qualifictions. This post is really just intended to give an idea about what sort of creative advertising jobs are available. The best advice to give - within the space of a short post - is: try and get to know as many people who work in creative advertising as you can. Find out from them (as well as from career advisers) what you need to do (and they will be able to give you specific advice as well as useful hints and tips from their own personal experience - as well as be useful people to know once you eventually begin to look for jobs in advertising). And whatever part of creative advertising you end up working in, it is more important than ever now to know what others do - both creative as well as marketing people - and to have a good understanding of the advertising industry in general, as well as to be able to work, closely, with a broad range of different people.

Traditional Creative - Creative Team
The traditional creative advertising agencies (i.e the Ogilvy & Mathers, the JWTs and so on) traditionally comprise of creative teams made up of a copywriter and an art director. Both are equals. The copywriter’s job is to focus on straplines and detailed copy. And the art director, on the visual look of the campaign. Both must work together to create an overall creative concept. And, often, one will venture into the other’s territory. The art director will often just work out the general visual look and then get art workers to finish it off.
Many now attack traditional creative advertising, claiming that advertising - now that we have useful technology - should be more about making brands useful than merely entertaining or interesting. But traditional creative concepts are still proving popular (just think of Cadbury’s Gorilla viral). It looks like that traditional creatives will still be doing a lot of what they have always done before. But now more than ever they must work closely with digital creatives to create creative concepts that have broad appeal across both traditional, and new, media, as well as work with digital creatives to work out ways of making brands more useful rather than just about being entertaining.

Traditional Creative - Others
Copywriters and art directors normally have a host of creatives working under them. Some of these may work alongside copywriters and art directors. Others may work in specialist agencies or work as freelances. Some of these creative jobs include: Promotional Literature Designer, Design Specialist, Graphic Designer, Photographer, Typographer, Illustrator, Retoucher, and more.

Branding / Designer
A lot of creative advertising jobs involve various design work: Exhibition Designer, Automotive Designer, Product Designer, Packaging Designer, Packaging Art Worker, Industrial Designer, Branding Designer, DTP (Desktop Publishing Designer), and so on

TV Commercials
Mainly Directors and writers.

Digital Advertising
There are a host of different creative digital advertising jobs. This is just a brief outline: Video Editor, IT Technician, Web Programmer, Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Computer Programmer, Video Assistant, and more.

I was taking part, recently, in a discussion on Drew’s Marketing Minute blog about Steve Jobs versus Richard Branson (in terms of what their brands represent / how they differ as entrepreneurs / marketers - and what we can learn from all of this) recently, and thought I would re-hash some of my ideas on this subject here.

For starters, my knowledge of Steve Jobs is not as in depth as that of Richard Branson, so if you would like to put me straight / add your own ideas on anything, please do so.

Steve Jobs comes across as more cerebral, more technically-minded and more of a detailed thinker than Richard Branson. Working with IT suits the sort of man Jobs is. Just as working in the airline business suits the sort of man that Branson is (although there are important cross-overs between the two: music and entertainment have been important in the professional careers of both entrepeneurs).

The important thing to understand, here, is that there is a lot to be said for going after brands (to work with) that we are most comfortable with / like the most (and this is something you hear said, a lot,  in the world of advertising as well). Yes, we should all be able to get on with whatever crosses our path. I am sure Steve Jobs could do well running his own, for example, Ben and Jerry’s-like ice-cream company, or Richard Branson running, for example,  a software company. But much it’s much better to do, surely, what you are interested in and good at.

In  Apple, Jobs is able to use a variety of abilities, in combination, to great advantage. He is technically-minded; he is a designer - Jobs and Apple go hand-in-hand together. Branson, on the other, hand is a big, bold thinker; he is an expert at publicity, and so on - Branson and Virgin go hand-in-hand together. You couldn’t really imagine Branson doing Apple, or Jobs doing Virgin. Although brand values derive from many different sources, certainly, brand values derive to an important degree from the natural interests / traits of the architects behind the brands. Yes, Jobs and Branson hire marketing, branding and advertising people, in general, to find tune their brands. But at the end of the day, the Apple  and Virgin brands exist because of the sort of men that Steve Jobs and Richard Branson are.

We should try and work with the sort of brands that we like. And if we want to set up our own brand, then, again, we should think about going after some product or service that we are interested in. If you are interested in the brand that you are working with, then you will make your brand a lot more interesting to others than if you were not interested in the brand, but were only working only it because you had to. And if there is one thing that a brand should be, it should be interesting!