Advertising Agency Jobs: Titles, Roles & Responsibilities

Advertising, Marketing, and Design serve as a bridge between consumers and the company’s products/services. These are fast-paced industries. Advertising agencies are a hub for talent, but advertising agency jobs are hard to pin down.

While these agencies might have a clear division into separate departments – creative, management, business development, media, technology, strategy, and operations – the specific roles can vary a lot across different ones.

Advertising agencies are creative hotspots and are also known for coining quirky titles to replace the traditional ones. Hence, you might have a ‘Director of Innovation’ instead of a Creative Director.

Therefore, irrespective of the title, these roles’ actual obligations continue to be quite the same. No matter what it’s called, an account manager is still the person responsible for dealing with customers and their requirements.

We will briefly explain the roles and responsibilities of the following professionals:

1. Account Director / Manager
2. Marketing Manager / Director
3. Traffic Manager / Production Manager
4. Brand Strategist
5. Digital Strategist
6. Media Planner / Buyer
7. Creative Director
8. Art Director
9. Graphic Designer
10. Digital Illustrator
11. Image Retoucher
12. UX + UI Designer
13. Web Developer
14. Web Designer
15. Application Developer
16. Content Producer
17. Copywriter
18. Social Media Manager

But First, let’s explain the advertising agency’s peculiarities.

What is an Advertising Agency?

An advertising agency is an organization that sells services related to planning, creating, and executing creative marketing campaigns, ads, and promotions for companies. In general, the advertising agency is hired by a client to perform the beforementioned services. In some companies, the advertising agency can be inside the organization, as an independent department, working the same way as an outsourced firm.

Advertising agencies are crucial for brand development and sales performance. They develop creative work in writing copies, graphic artworks, jingles, sales ads, logos, tv campaigns, digital campaigns, etc. They work with traditional and digital media and help companies plan budgets to utilize those types of media.

How Does An Advertising Agency Work?

Advertising agencies work closely with the company’s marketing departments to get the briefings and pitch campaign concepts and ideas. If the client selects the agency, the process follows with the media buy and creative tasks to come up with the campaign distribution, message, and artwork.

The advertising agency project team working in the company’s campaign depends on the project’s needs and the companies goals, budget, and audience.

Most agencies have four functions. The functions are: Account Planning, Client Servicing, Media Buy, and Creativity

Agencies have different areas that work on individual parts of the company’s job. They usually charge clients by the hour, by task, or by projects.

Here is a simple breakdown of the various advertising agency jobs and their responsibilities.

What Are The Advertising Agency Jobs Titles, Roles & Responsibilities?

Account Director / Manager

Advertising agency jobs can be both creative and analytical. Such agencies also need managers to accomplish tasks, like in any other case.

An Account Director is generally a person who establishes a link between the client and the creative team.

In addition to this, Account Managers take responsibility for:

• Working with both internal teams and customers to ensure clear communication.
• Delivering creative work that meets the clients’ needs
• Addressing any issues that may arise.
• Building a long-term relationship with clients to maintain a high retention rate.

Maintaining accurate progress reports and analyzing how customers use their products is also a part of their job.

Skills required: Analytical, problem-solving approach, concise and clear communication, leadership, people-oriented.

Marketing Manager / Director

The marketing director makes sure that the marketing process is consistent and flawless across different advertising campaigns, and they also ensure the client’s brand is recognizable and appealing.

Hence, their key responsibilities are:

• Analyzing both brand positioning and consumer insights.
• Working jointly with the client’s team to achieve brand-creative alignment.
• Determining performance specifications.
• Establishing cost parameters and sales estimates.

The Marketing Manager is one of those main advertising agency jobs wherein the person helps align the agency with the general inclination of clients’ brands.

Skills required: Communication, analytical, awareness of market trends, research, copywriting, eye for detail.

Traffic Manager / Production Manager

Traffic Managers connect account managers with relevant departments and personnel within the agency.

They are also responsible for:

• Handling logistics.
• Coordinating and ensuring the orderly flow.
• Assuring that tracking, reporting, and billing are functioning optimally.

Traffic managers are also usually outgoing people who excel at problem-solving. They take care of the project’s deadlines and project task distribution among creative teams.

Skills required: Project management, time management, organization, and customer service.

Brand Strategist

A brand strategist renders guidance, especially on the direction a brand, product/service should take.

Therefore, they are responsible for:

• Analyzing current market research data and trends.
• Advising on and developing practical solutions for marketing plans.
• Defining the brand elements and tone.

Thus, a brand strategist aims to ensure a compelling brand message to the right target audience. This is done through research and analysis of market data trends.

Besides, a brand strategist works on content marketing, SEO, e-commerce development, etc.

Skills required: Communication, personable, creative, marketing, strategy, analytical, awareness of market trends, research, teamwork, writing, and presenting.

Digital Strategist

A digital strategist plays a significant role in the successful planning and implementation of digital marketing strategies, taking into consideration offline marketing efforts as well.

Hence, titleholders of such advertising agency jobs are responsible for:

• Creating innovative ideas that hold together web, social, mobile, email, and conventional advertising together.
• Providing solutions based on consumer insight and data.
• Managing the web presence structure for brands.

Skills required: Knowledge of existing and emerging digital technologies, research, communication, strategic mindset.

Media Planner / Buyer

A media planner/buyer’s function is to classify the most suitable media platforms to market a brand, product/service. Also, they place developed advertising in different media channels to create faster ROI for the campaign.

A media buyer ensures that campaigns reach the highest number of people

For instance, if a particular Ad isn’t doing well in a specific magazine, the media buyer will link it to the intended audience to optimize the dollar value. The person will do so via the best-suited media to make the ad effective.

Advertisement placements are basically digital channels (social networks, ad networks, search engines, email marketing), radio, television, magazines, and newspapers (those remaining physical ones).

Besides placements, media buyers also negotiate the price for all advertisements.

Therefore the key responsibilities are:

• Developing, executing, and monitoring media plans for clients within specified budgets
• Negotiating rates with media outlets
• Conducting post-buy media analysis

Furthermore, a media planner analyzes the audience, content, and ratings of a wide range of media platforms.

Skills required: Financial acumen, analytical mindset, communication, knowledge of media platforms, and negotiation.

Creative Director

They are the final decision-makers regarding copy/design. Furthermore, they also approve essential projects before they can be shown to the client.

Hence, their responsibilities include:

• Leading a creative team of art directors, designers, copywriters.
• Engaging with the sales teams and marketers to create the concept for the product.
• Formulating development strategies for the design campaign.
• Guiding the creative team.

Creative directors also create a vision for the products sold. Of all advertising agency jobs, this is a reasonably open-ended position indeed.

Skills required: Leadership, emphatic, strategy, marketing awareness, interest in social and cultural trends, understanding of latest creative techniques.

Art Director

An art director is responsible for outlining a product’s, a service campaign’s, or a brand’s visual characteristics. An art director also keeps up with the latest social and cultural trends.

The difference between the art and the creative director is that the art director is responsible for the visuals, aesthetics, and artistic aspects of the project, while the creative director is in charge of the whole creative campaign, which besides the aesthetics, also includes the message, audience target, execution, and strategy of the campaign.

Thus, they are responsible for :

• Creating the overall design.
• Directing others to develop the layouts of the artworks required.
• Overseeing the styling of graphics before it reaches the clients.

Skills required: Creative, understanding of photography, typography, and printing techniques, expertise in relevant software.

Graphic Designer

A Graphic Designer is one of those advertising agency jobs whose work covers a vast spectrum by bringing ideas to reality, thus creating visual concepts on the art directors’ design direction.

They are therefore required to:

• Determine the most productive solutions to convey information across media.
• Develop a rough layout of art and production design for various applications.

Skills required: Visual ideation, creative problem solving, software knowledge, layout, print design, and time management.

Digital Illustrator

Illustrators must create 2-D drawings that can be used in advertisements, books, magazines, packaging, greetings cards, newspapers, and more.

Skills required: Hand and computer drawing, creativity, eye for detail, understanding of print and digital media production, communication.

Image Retoucher

Image retouchers are responsible for enhancing the appearance of a picture to suit a project’s specifications. Also, they are in charge of combining images, consolidating or eliminating backgrounds, playing with colors, and anything that creates an entirely new copy.

Skills required: High creativity quotient and an eye for detail.

UX + UI Designer

With the world being swept away by a wave of technology, a brand’s digital presence is more than necessary.

A User Experience (UX) designer is usually responsible for:

• Creating how a product will function.
• Mapping out the functionality of every screen that a user will interact with.
• Optimizing user interest to facilitate the website or app navigation.

Whereas a User Interface (UI) designer is responsible for:

• Creating the look and feel of a product, and
• Taking the charted out user experience and then designing the visual factors.

A UI/UX designer has to be empathetic. And they must also be well versed in interaction designing, coding, and visual communication.

Web Developer

A web developer is required to create programs and applications for the Internet. A web developer can generally develop a website from scratch with layouts, features, and functions.

In addition to innovation, advertising agency jobs like web development also require a technical approach.

Currently, it is common to see these types of jobs being outsourced to specialized web development companies, but having it in-house can make a difference in project speed and quality.

Skills required: Programming languages (HTML, CSS, SQL, Phyton, PHP, Ruby, etc.), wireframing, PSD, and other creative software.

Web Designer

Unlike a web developer, the web designer’s work is not as in-depth. But a designer is required to possess both creative and technical skills to redesign websites.

Besides, a web designer is needed to focus on making websites more aesthetically appealing and easy to use.

The web designer will be asked to create a website design based on wireframes and documentation, or sometimes created from scratch. Hence, the professional in this position needs to be very connected with the trends and online consumer preferences that usually change quickly.

Skills required: Creative, visual design, HTML and CSS coding, design software, and optimization.

Application Developer

Due to an upsurge in smartphone users, an app developer must test and create applications for electronic devices, such as tablets and mobile phones.

Skills required: Cross-platform development, UX/UI design, wireframing, knowledge of modern programming languages, awareness of existing and future technologies and products.

Content Producer

Advertising agency jobs demand high creativity, and a content producer is essential to create this creativity. He must be original to develop written and visual content for print or digital applications.

Images, eBooks, blog posts, videos, catalogs, advertising materials, and infographics are a few examples.

Skills required: Writing, editing, research, vlogging, communication, and an eye for detail.

Copywriter

A copywriter develops concepts and ideas for advertising campaigns. They also write the text used in promotional campaigns. As a result, the copy usually focuses on sales.

When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative.’ I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product. –David Ogilvy

Copywriters can write for a wide variety of communication platforms. A copywriter has to focus on writing compelling copies.

Skills required: Creative writing, editing, communication, research, investigative, and an eye for detail.

Social Media Manager

Now it is crucial to get the word out on the digital platforms. Various social media platforms have different marketing campaigns running across them. Hence, advertising agency jobs include the position of a Social Media Manager.

They are responsible for:

• Monitor competitors’ social media channels.
• Selecting the proper social media channels for a business.
• Managing social media posts across different social media channels.
• Managing advertising campaigns over various platforms.
• Engaging the audience by creating and monitoring the published content.

In addition to managing social media, it is imperative for a social media manager to be productive and show positive results. Consequently, the manager will think on his feet.

Skills required: Knowledge of digital marketing trends, understanding how online media works, community management and engagement, proactive SEO, and optimizing content.

Wrapping Up

Advertising agency jobs can be highly fragmented in the case of a bigger group. On the other hand, it can even require one man to handle many different jobs if the set-up is small.

Depending on the size, focus, and type, advertising agency jobs can vary. Every firm has its own goal to fulfill and has different priorities.

Based on that, some out-of-focus jobs can be outsourced to other agencies or companies with this type of expertise. Thus, advertising agency jobs differ when it comes to responsibilities.

To work in a branding agency, you will have to have a creative niche and enjoy your work. Advertising agency jobs are exciting and should be taken up if you have the skill set.