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An advertising or promotions manager creates an advertising plan to create as much interest as possible for a product or service. They also determine the best method to delivery the information to their intended demographic, whether that be through tv commercials, online advertisements, billboards, or other mediums. Advertising and promotions managers would work with or lead the creative professionals developing the advertising materials.
Watch the video to learn more about what an advertising manager does:
How to Become an Advertising Manager
Most often, employers are looking for candidates that hold a bachelor’s degree in a related field, such as marketing, advertising, journalism, or even communications. Being that this is a management positions, any business courses would also be beneficial as you would be working with budgets as well as leading teams and projects. According to O*Net Online, some of these managers do hold associates degrees. However, the majority of those in this position do hold a bachelor’s degree.
Job Description of a Advertising Manager
Advertising managers may often find themselves leading brainstorm sessions with other creative professionals to generate ideas that would catch the public’s attention. They may also test their ideas with focus groups prior to launch. They would also manage the budget, timeline, and quality of the project to ensure that they meet the projects requirements.
Sometimes, these managers outsource the development of advertising campaigns and manage the work done by third-party companies. Other times, these managers work for large advertising agencies who complete all work in house. In which case, they may oversee a large team of people. Either way, they would also review the work done by the advertising agency to ensure that quality standards are met.
Free Marketing Course
Babson College offers a free Customer-Centric Marketing for Entrepreneurs course on EdX.org (opens in a new tab) with the option to pay a small fee to receive a verified certificate upon completion of the course.
By taking this course, you’ll learn:
- How to use customer discovery tools to identify market needs, problems and opportunities.
- Create customer profiles and personas that help you identify the right marketing channels to reach your customers.
- Respond to evolving customer needs using personal, digital, social and mobile spheres.
- Develop content and messaging that directly addresses consumer needs and drives brand excitement.
- Develop key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics and milestones to measure the success of your campaign.
Career Video Transcript
To be successful, businesses must sell their products and services. That’s why advertising and promotions managers are so important. It’s their job to come up with ways to boost sales. Advertising managers develop a strategy, called an advertising campaign, to reach potential customers. They often work with a media planning team to determine how to best reach that audience, whether to advertise on TV and radio, in newspapers and magazines, on the web, or even on the sides of city buses.
The manager engages a creative team to develop the ad’s artwork and language. They also may advise clients on technical aspects of ad campaigns. Promotions managers share the same goals, but focus on combining advertising with purchase incentives in order to increase sales. Promotions may take the form of discount coupons, giveaways, rebates, or contests. In addition to creativity, strong leadership ability and excellent communication skills are important qualities for these managers.
Advertising and promotions managers work for ad agencies and in the advertising department of a business in almost any industry, from manufacturing to scientific innovation, finance to insurance. Employers look for a bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, or journalism. The hours can be long and dealing with deadlines can be stressful. But many managers say they never tire of the thrill of seeing their ideas come to life.
Article Citations
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers.
- National Center for O*NET Development. 11-2011.00. O*NET OnLine.
