Despite the disastrous
state of the marketing services industry (which comprises, for example,
PR, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, customer relationship
marketing and numerous other disciplines) at the moment, there still
remains something of an aura of mystery around advertising agencies.
Doubtless a hangover from the hedonistic 1980s, in which advertising
was king and Maurice and Charles Saatchi were justifiably famous
(as opposed to the here and now, where one of them is primarily
known to the general public for his social activities). And yet
these days, ad agencies are in something of a pickle, with clients
demanding more and more clarity and tangible return on investment:
something it's very difficult to do with traditional mass marketing.
After all, how many of your sales can you confidently say are due
to your latest ad campaign?
This
entry is designed to give some transparency to how an advertisement
is made - a process that manages to be, at one and the same time,
remarkably simple and yet incredibly complex. While an attempt
has been made to explain the various roles within the agency that
make it all possible. Although different agencies may vary their
approach to certain elements of the process, this is the accepted
and acknowledged way of doing things.
