Advertising agencies are varied from small organizations to large and well established firms that employ hundreds of workers. Hence, it is important to note that the structure of such agencies also range from simple to complex systems depending on the size and activities of the business enterprise.
Advertising agencies have six key departments namely production, media buying, finance and accounts, creative, account planning and account service. For large agencies, departments such as traffic, web development and human resource & facilities may be separated to ease operations (Blakeman, 2011).
These departments work together by coordinating their duties through effective communication. In addition, each of the separate departments plays the role of meeting the goals of a firm. For instance, the research department works towards innovating new skills and competences.
In summing up, the structure of agencies largely depends on their sizes. It is the same kind of structure that guides when setting up departments.
To begin with, it is vital to note that any form of advertising is meant to be appealing and attractive to the targeted audience. Hence, the message being passed on should be precise, simple to understand and appealing. It is against this backdrop that creativity in advertising comes in handy.
Creativity in adverting ahs always been an essential part of marketing campaigns. Therefore, it entails generating campaign messages that are mutually exclusive and can drive positive marketing results. Creative advertising has the ability to build brands, change the behavior of consumers and also great in terms of ideas (Blakeman, 2011).
It is without doubt that any other advertising campaigns should be nurtured towards creativity. A campaign strategy that lacks creativity cannot lead to measurable results.
To recap it all, it is vital to reiterate that creativity in advertising cannot be ignored at all if positive results are needed when carrying out marketing of particular brands.
It is obvious that consumers often have the knowledge of certain brands in their minds. In other words, the brands can be made or broken by consumers. Hence, it is worth to assess some of the parameters that consumers use to assess to endorse particular products or services before accepting them as reputable brands in the market.
The figure below shows how brand can be assessed. The parameters include visibility, benchmarking, parent company, market share/sales capture and advertising likeability (Callen, 2010).
A recent campaign by Unilever Company led to the production of the latest margarine brand called ‘Flora’ into the market. This has positively transformed the brand positioning of the margarine product for two reasons:
- Consumers have a wide choice between BlueBand and Flora margarines
- The competitive edge of margarines has been boosted with the launch of the new product.
This section needs to define success or effectiveness in terms of marketing campaigns and in particular advertising of products in a firm.
While it may not be an easy task to measure or define success within a short period of time, it is imperative to mention that the wellbeing of an organization is largely dependent on the set goals and objectives (Callen, 2010).
A firm or business organization that operated without stipulated goals and objectives cannot define or agree on success parameters. Hence, goals and objectives are two vital measurements that can be put in place in order to gauge the performance of an organization. Such measurements can also help in assessing the profitability of firms.
To sum up, the definition of success or effectiveness when assessing the operations of an organization can only be attained by reviewing the earlier set goals and objectives.
Successful marketing campaign can be visualized through measurable results after the campaign has been rolled out. Apart from the element of creativity, successful campaigns should have the following characteristics. Multiple events-successful campaigns should be focused when declaring the intended messages.
Such campaigns should also be multiple. For instance, the use of concerts, festivals, educational seminars and parties can be incorporated in such campaigns (Callen, 2010). Moreover, partner organizations can be used to spread the campaign messages so that the largest audience is reached.
Branded products- various products such as articles and T-shirts can be used to promote successful campaigns. Thereafter, partner orgasisations can then receive the sale of products that have been branded for campaigns.
Consumers will often feel to be taken care of when they are included in the campaigns such as through T-shirts and headgears that they put on.
Charity benefits-a cause marketing campaign can also be enhanced by channeling some funds to charity.
Media planning entails the choice of the type and cost of media to use for driving adverting campaigns. There are several factors to be put into account when planning media. This type of planning is instrumental when launching any form of advertising campaigns.
To begin with, the cost of the campaigns is a vital factor to put into consideration. While the cost of the media to be used may also be proportional to the effectiveness of the campaign, campaign agencies should put that into consideration (Callen, 2010).
Geographical coverage of the advertising media is also part and parcel of media planning. The choice of media should also be based on the number of potential clients that can be reached at any given period.
The type of product to be advertised and the target audience of the campaigns should also be borne in mind during media planning.
Therefore, successful media planning is as important as the advertisement campaign itself.
The choice of media is influenced by the budget of the campaigns as well as the number of target audience to be reached. At this point, it is imperative to observe that each type of product has its own target audience and therefore the choice of media will also vary according to the product being advertised.
Media choice is equally depicted by the earlier set objectives of the media planning. Any marketing campaign has its own objectives that eventually determine the most suitable type of media to use.
References
Blakeman, R. (2011). Advertising Campaign Design: Just the Essentials. New York: M.E Sharpe Inc.
Callen, B. (2010). Managers Guide to Marketing, Advertising, and Publicity. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.
D&AD (2010). The Social Media Landscape. Web.
IPA (n.d). Assumptions about the ‘changing media landscape’ could be totally false. Web.