Greg Christensen, from the Creative agency The Richards Group, has launched a e-book for those who want to start a career in advertising.

1. HOW TO START YOUR CAREER IN
ADVERTISING a makin’ ads book

2. YOU ARE HERE.
we’re glad If you ask a handful of people who work on the creative side of the advertising
industry how they got there and why they chose advertising, youʼll get some varied
answers. Some might be artists who didnʼt want to be “starving artists.” Others may
have been guided by their love of writing or design. All probably share an
uncontrollable enthusiasm for creative ideas. It can happen in a single moment of
inspiration—being moved by a great commercial. Or seeing a really horrible
commercial and thinking, “I could do better than that.”
Topeka? Wichita?
However you got to this point, weʼre glad you did. Advertising is an exciting career.
We wrote this ebook because we love what we do. Hopefully weʼll answer a few of
your questions and help you decide if advertising is for you. Specifically, if the
creative side of the business is your cup of tea. And, if so, how to get from where you
are now to where you want to be.

3. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN ROCK ʻnʼ ROLL
AND THE CORPORATE BOARDROOM
Some people think of advertising as the rock ʻnʼ roll side of the business world.
You get paid to come up with cool ideas that thousands, maybe millions of
people will see. You donʼt deal with spreadsheets, rarely wear suits (unless you
really want to), and earn your paycheck by sitting around with your feet up on
the desk with interesting, like-minded people, asking, “What if…?”
No wonder people want to be in advertising. And itʼs no wonder that the
competition to get a really good, really rewarding job is pretty intense.

4. ADS ARE COOL
Letʼs start with the broad view: Marketing. Marketing covers everything who makes them?
from the creation of a product, service or an idea, to how itʼs consumed.
Itʼs a pretty big field, and there are a lot of marketing services out there.
Design firms to create everything from business cards to your soda bottle.
Public relations agencies to help companies present a good image in the
news media. Direct mail agencies that specialize in creating what you
probably refer to as “junk mail.” At some point, pretty much everything is
touched by marketing. Advertising is just one part of marketing (but itʼs
maybe the most fun part).
Most advertising that you see was created by an advertising agency. Ad
agencies are companies that specialize in creating commercials, print ads,
billboards, websites and anything else that helps get a message out about
a product or brand.
When a company wants to advertise, theyʼll usually hire one of these
advertising agencies. Some agencies are huge, with offices all over the
world that bill billions of dollars each year. And there are some very small
ones—just a few people housed in a downtown loft.
[idea not to scale]
In advertising, the size of your agency doesnʼt matter. Itʼs all about the size
of your ideas.

5. WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CREATIVE
Most* advertising is pretty bad. Boring. Uninspiring. It speaks to you like youʼre a
moron. “You mean I should act now? Because this sale wonʼt last forever? Could you
repeat the part about 10% off? You only mentioned it four times.”
And then thereʼs the other kind. The kind that speaks to you. It makes you consider
something in a new or interesting way. Makes you laugh, cry or want to dance. It tells
you something you didnʼt know before.
The best creative advertising is surprising. It connects with people in an emotional
way. In short, itʼs the kind of work you want to be doing.
If youʼve ever watched a commercial that was so funny or smart or creative that you
thought, “I wish Iʼd thought of that,” then youʼve taken the first step to becoming an
o hair style advertising creative.
ø cool glasses
ø rubber chicken
o ideas
* By “most,” weʼre talking roughly 97%. Maybe 96% during a good year.

6. WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A CREATIVE
Really, everyoneʼs creative. One of the great things about working in advertising is
that there are a lot of very diverse, very smart people throwing ideas together.
Everyone contributes.
But letʼs break it down a little. In an ad agency, this is how it typically works.
When a company wants to advertise, it finds an ad agency. Inside the agency, they
call that company the “client.” To help manage the client, the ad agency has the
account department. Theyʼre the people who run the business side of advertising.
They talk with the clients every day, relay messages to the rest of the agency and
make sure everything is running smoothly.
The agencyʼs planning department is different from the account department.
Planners develop the outline, called a “brief” of what needs to be communicated in
the ads. Who is the audience for the ads? What do we know about them? What do
we want to say to them?
The brief then goes to the creative department. When you hear someone say they
are “a creative,” that means theyʼre a member of the creative department. A
copywriter, art director or creative director.

7. THE CREATIVE PROCESS
agency style So you have a creative brief. You know what to say. If youʼre a creative, itʼs
your job to come up with how to say it. Whatʼs going to get peopleʼs attention?
Whatʼs going to keep them from changing the channel? Whatʼs going to
connect with the audience and move them?
In the typical creative department, art directors and copywriters work together
as creative teams. Strictly speaking, the copywriter is in charge of the words
and the art director is in charge of the visuals. In reality, though, itʼs much more
fluid. Art directors sometimes write, and copywriters can suggest design ideas.
The big job of the art director/copywriter team is to come up with the creative
idea for the ad. They usually work together for weeks generating stacks of
ideas (although having less than 24 hours to come up with an idea isnʼt
unheard of). Then they take their best ideas to their creative director. The
creative director is usually the senior, more experienced creative voice. He or
she reviews the ideas, makes suggestions or revisions, whittles the many ideas
down to the best few, and in the end gives the stamp of approval for which
ideas will be taken to the client.
[art director] [copywriter] [client]

8. THE CREATIVE PROCESS IS LONG
The agency presents the idea or ideas to the client, and the client either so we continue
buys an idea to produce, asks for revisions, or rejects the ideas altogether
and sends the creative team back to the drawing board. If the client buys its description
an idea, the creative team is responsible for bringing it to life. They work
with producers, directors, photographers, editors, musicians, actors,
here
designers and anyone else to make sure that their creative vision is
realized.
The entire process can be very fun, stressful, frustrating and exciting at
the same time. But in the end, when you have a well-crafted commercial
on television, billboard on the highway or website up and running, itʼs a
great feeling.

9. THE FRONT DOOR WITH A GOOD BOOK
When youʼre applying for a job as an art director or copywriter in an ad
agency, no one will ever, ever, ever ask to see your GPA. They probably
wonʼt look at your resume. They wonʼt care whether you have a BS, an
MS, a PhD or a police badge.
To get a job as a creative in advertising, youʼre going to need one thing: A
portfolio. A portfolio, often called your “book,” is a collection of ads youʼve
come up with that proves you can think and execute creatively.
Forever ago, there were many doors into an agency. English majors,
journalists, and stand-up comics might be hired by an agency based on an
interview. Or someone might take a job as a receptionist just to be around
the creative director, with the hope of some day writing copy. It used to be
that agencies would train and mentor these fledgling creatives. But those
days are unfortunately gone. There are always exceptions, but the best
way in is through the front door with a good book.

10. WHY YOUR BOOK MATTERS
and nothing You need a portfolio to get a job in advertising, but you need a job in advertising to
develop your portfolio. Catch-22 right? Not necessarily.
else does
Fortunately, creative directors donʼt care if the ads in your book never ran in a
magazine. In fact, they expect that ads in your book arenʼt “real.” What theyʼre
looking for are big ideas, well executed. They want to see that you can think
strategically and creatively, and that you can design, write, or do whatever it takes to
bring your ideas to life.
and then we see a
battalion of rapping
ninja-monkeys
riding unicycles

11. ANNUALS AND AWARD SHOWS
Advertising is a business that loves award shows. And there are a ton of and why they’re
important
them.
Every year in late spring, the One Club for Art and Copy holds its award
show (the One Show) where a board of judges selects the very best work
from around the world. All that work is bound into a huge bible of a book
called The One Show, which is usually published at the end of the year.
Other global award shows worth checking out are Cannes and D&AD.
Communication Arts publishes its Advertising Annual each December,
and Luerzerʼs Archive and Creativity are a couple other publications that
feature great creative.
These publications and annuals can be expensive ($24 - $60 each), but
most of them also have websites that feature the award winners. And if
you want to do great work, youʼre going to have to see what great work
really is. These books are as close as youʼll come to finding a creative
textbook.

12. PORTFOLIO SCHOOLS
Putting your book together and slugging it around from agency to agency
is one way to get a job in advertising. But working by yourself is a hard,
usually inefficient road. Thereʼs a lot of competition, and often youʼre going
to need all the help you can get.
A number of schools in the United States specialize in helping students put
together a solid portfolio and get a job in advertising. Usually called
portfolio schools, theyʼre advertisingʼs equivalent of medical school. A few undergraduate schools, like the University of Texas, consistently
turn out respected portfolios, and there are also a few art schools with
The benefit of going to a portfolio school is that you learn from people advertising programs as well. Some schools are more expensive than
whoʼve been in the business a long time. And youʼre in an environment full others, but if youʼre sure advertising is your destiny, donʼt skimp on your
of creative energy, where you can partner up with other creatives and education. Itʼll pay off in the long run.
mimic the kind of atmosphere youʼd find in an agency.
One way to get an idea of which schools are doing well is, again, to look at
Each school has its own advantages. The VCU Brandcenter is the only the award show annuals. Most have a student section that features the
one associated with an accredited university, and you leave with a Masters best work from the various portfolio schools. Thereʼs also CMYK, a
degree. Miami Ad School has branches all over the world, from San quarterly review of the best student advertising work. Checking out which
Francisco to Amsterdam. The Chicago Portfolio School is just a one- schools consistently place work in these publications and shows can help
year program (most of the others are two years). you decide which school is right for you before you apply.

13. TRADITIONAL AD AGENCIES
and where we’re Itʼs hard to say how much longer any of this content will continue to be
valid. Technology, the changing economy, and consumer trends force
going from here advertising agencies to constantly adapt. For years, people have predicted
the death of the 30-second commercial because of DVRs. And while many
people are still getting paid to write and produce commercials, more and
more agencies are incorporating digital and guerilla (or non-traditional)
advertising into their repertoire.
How we reach people changes, but some things will always stay the same.
Advertising is about coming up with creative ways to captivate, surprise,
entertain and ultimately connect with people.
what’s a There will always be a need for ideas that do this. And there will always be
twitter? a need for people who can communicate in unique and interesting ways.
Whether itʼs on a shopping website or the label of an energy drink, the
advertising industry will always value big, creative ideas. Hopefully, youʼll
be one of the people whoʼre coming up with them.

14. I READ YOUR E-BOOK.
1.
Get a copy of a recent Communication Arts Advertising Annual or now what?
One Show Annual and flip through it to see if thatʼs the kind of
work you want to do. Or visit creativity-online.com and check out
what creative agencies have been doing this week.
2.
Email or call some portfolio schools and ask them to send you
information on their programs.
3.
Call a local advertising agency and ask if they have any internships
in their creative department. (But donʼt just look ADVERTISING up
in the Yellow Pages and start calling. Youʼll be crushed under the
weight of mediocrity.)
4.
Highly-recommended reading:
Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan
The Houdini Solution by Ernie Schenck
Cutting Edge Advertising by Jim Aitchison
Pick Me: Breaking Into Advertising and Staying There
by Nancy Vonk and Janet Kestin

15. Please visit
makinads.com
A blog for students of advertising, portfolio school hopefuls and anyone else putting their book together.
This book written and created by Makin’ Ads. It was Illustrated by Copywriters.