Advertising Manager

Advertising managers are individuals who plan, develop, implement and manage advertising campaigns for a business or an organization in order to create awareness and trigger interest in a product or services. They oversee the operations of the sales and creative team, from the brainstorming stage to the advertising strategy execution stage.They conduct market research, in order to ascertain which advert strategy is suitable for a particular campaign.  Through the strategy development process, advertising managers, make edits to the advertisement layout, give direction to the creative team and stay in constant contact with the clients in order to update them with the progress of the creative output and also guide them in making budgeting decisions.

What does it take to become an advertising manager?

Educational Qualification

Advertising managers generally possess a bachelor’s degree in mass communication, advertising, marketing communication or any other related field. Advertising managers can take courses in strategy development, consumer behavior, and copywriting. Since it is a management role, advertising managers are required to have several years of working experience. To progress professionally, you can enroll for a master’s program in creative strategy, advertising planning or ad design. Some of the institutions that offer advertising programs in Nigeria include University of Ilorin, University of Jos and University of Nigeria Nsukka.

Skills

Skills needed by advertising managers include interpersonal communication skills, in order to relate with a wide range of specialist within and outside the organization, creativity for developing advert campaigns that can persuade the target audience, marketing skills used to determine the right strategy with which to approach the market. Advertising managers must possess project management skills for allocating and monitoring budget spend in order to achieve advertising objectives. Advert managers are also required to have media and marketing skills, problem solving skills, decision making, time management, and listening skills.

Job Responsibilities

Advertising managers are responsible for gathering and organizing information needed for planning and developing advertising campaigns, negotiating advertising contracts, meeting with clients in order to provide technical advice. Their duties also include developing pricing strategies for products, inspecting the advertising layout and making the necessary adjustments, negotiation of advertising contracts and budget setting. They also identify potential market opportunities, which they relay to clients, and also act as a link between the agency and the client. Considering their role in the creative process, advert mangers are tasked with creating relevant sales presentations in order to achieve the objectives of clients and also increase market share. Their duties extend to the approval of agency advertising plans, overseeing media buy, measuring ad effectiveness and optimizing ad to perform better.

Employers

Advertising managers generally work with full service advertising agencies and digital marketing agencies. They also work in companies that have their own in-house advertising agency as senior communications managers, working closely with top management personnel to formulate marketing communication messages for the company’s product and services. Advertising managers can work in agencies like DDB, Anakle and Intense Digital.