An advertising manager is one of the key officers in an advertising agency. Let us see what his duties and functions involve.
Rujuta Borkar
Any company will have several departments that handle different aspects of that company. That is why a single company will have departments for research and development, marketing, advertising, promotions, human resource and the like.
The advertising department of any company is one of the most important departments. To make sure that the department functions smoothly, an advertising manager is required. He is, in a way, responsible for the success of the product. The following sections will discuss the important duties of this manager.
Job Description of Advertising Manager
The main duty of an advertising manager is to publicize the goods and services of a company.
For this, he has to have a thorough knowledge of the company setup and the ins and outs of the product.
He has to associate with all the departments of the company in order to devise a plan for the perfect way to advertise a product or launch it.
He mainly works with the marketing director in order to understand the company's style of marketing (since it directly affects the success or failure of the product being advertised).
He also identifies the company's target audience and their goals.
He has to devise a suitable budget for the ad campaigns that will follow. This he does by coordinating with the finance department.
An important part of the advertising manager's job is to handle the entire advertising department in a company. (If the company is large enough to have its own department)
He has to gather all the knowledge required for creating an ad for the product.
He has to see to it that this information is made available to all the officers and creative heads who will be working on the campaign.
But before disseminating the information and raw material, he has to handle the hiring and training (or at least the supervising of training) of potential employees.
If it is a small agency, where there are no clear demarcations made of the different duties and aspects, then the advertising manager has to handle the copy, art, visualization, and placement of the product by himself.
He needs to have an in-depth knowledge of the different medias that are available and take a decision regarding the one that would be most suitable for the product in hand.
He has to buy those particular medias to be able to place the ads there. This would involve him negotiating with them for the price and space as well.
After the ad has been placed, he has to make sure that the production and placement of ads is being carried out in the most efficient manner.
If the company has hired an advertising agency to handle a product, the advertising manager has to coordinate with the ad agency's account executive to develop the best ad campaign.
He might also be needed to be a part of the creative and visualization team that comes up with the ads.
He acts as the middleman between an advertising agency and the company. Taking all the important decisions, like which ad agency to hire (after extensive research), then explaining everything about the product; and once the discussions start, he needs to inform the company of the developments that happen.
He also needs to negotiate and seek approval of the business and decisions that are being taken with the clients.
He has to see to it that the product is generating the required results. If not, he has to change the way of promotions and advertising tactics of the campaign.
Other than handling accounts, he also needs to be well informed about the change and developments in the advertising trends and habits.
An advertising manager is required to be patient and exhibit good communication skills.
All in all, an advertising manager's job makes him responsible for devising the best possible ways in which to disseminate information to the audience so that it reaches them in the most effective manner and is easily understood by them.