Advertising is a glamorous, exciting, and creative field. I know, because I’m the president and Chief Operating Officer of the UniWorld Group, the largest independent ethnic advertising agency in America, and my company has created ads for all of those companies. For me, advertising has been an exhilarating field continually packed with new ventures and new skill-building experiences. I began my career more than 20 years ago at D’Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles (DMB&B), a general market agency, where I progressed up the ladder from Assistant Account Executive to Accounts Supervisor and Vice President. In the mid-1980’s, I was UniWorld’s vice president and Group Advertising director, where I supervised Eastman Kodak, AT&T and Walt Disney Co. accounts, which focused on the African-American and Hispanic consumer. From UniWorld, I was recruited to a position at Kodak, where I rose through the ranks to become general manager, Marketing Communications and Support Services for Kodak’s U.S. and Canada Consumer Imaging Division. At Kodak, my responsibilities expanded beyond advertising and promotion to include direct marketing, sponsorships, public relations, and trade shows. Through each project and position, I was not only given the opportunity to market products to millions of consumers, but I also received a new learning experience to utilize in my future ventures.

Here are some of the exciting attributes of advertising and why I find it to be so rewarding:

• Dynamic- Advertising is an ever-evolving, constantly growing industry.
• Multi-faceted- It provides a variety of jobs and career opportunities.
• Results-oriented- Business performance is measured and rewarded and allows for advancement professionally and financially.
• National- Advertising agencies are located across the country and internationally. Major firms are in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles but virtually every major city has sizable advertising agencies.
• Diverse- From an ethnic standpoint, some agencies are dedicated to addressing specific ethnic audiences, therefore allowing you to work in a culturally relevant context.

The fundamental role of advertising is the selling of goods and services and the creation of brands and corporate images through media. The role of an advertising agency is to: create these messages and images; purchase and use media

that communicate the product message; and brand the story and corporate image. It’s building a brand image for a product, such as Ford cars and trucks; Colgate toothpaste; Kraft food products and so on. It sounds simple, right?

However, the process of developing advertisements and branding a product is fairly complex and sophisticated. It includes a variety of disciplines, such as:

• strategy development
• consumer research
• marketing
• creative development (copy writing, art direction)
• print and broadcast production
• media, planning and buying
• traffic

Ron Campbell, senior vice president of Strategic Planning at The Chisholm- Mingo Group, a major New York-based African-American agency, has spent over 25 years in the field. He’s operated in management positions at both ethnic agencies, such as UniWorld, and general market firms like Foote, Cone and Belding. Campbell strategically plans the big picture for the campaign. "My responsibilities are to basically capture insights into consumer’s thoughts and attitudes that really mold their behavior patterns," he explains. "And, I attempt to identify new emerging trends within the various consumer segments that we have in America. I turn that information into an actionable strategy that can be executed." Using that strategy, the stage is set for a creative plan, which spills into print ads, television commercials, and radio spots.

Many agencies also utilize additional disciplines, including:

• promotion
• public relations
• direct marketing
• Internet marketing
• event marketing

For 10 years, Lynne Scott Jackson headed public relations for the UniWorld Group. Prior to joining UniWorld, she had been a public relations accounts manager at Hill and Knowlton and a newspaper reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. At UniWorld, she created events, publicity campaigns, and programs for clients like Burger King, Kraft Foods, Pillsbury, Scholastic Books, Walt Disney Company, Colgate’s Bright Smiles, Bright Futures youth dental health program, and many more. Today, after 20 years in media, she is the president of Millynneum Inc., a

New York-based corporate communications and lifestyle marketing firm. The Howard University journalism graduate continues to consult for Colgate and has added DreamWorks’s film The Prince of Egypt, Pepsi-Cola, Bank of America, Harlem United Show House interior design, and others to her client list. "Teamwork is key. That’s what makes for great public relations. A combination of publicity, marketing, special events or whatever, to make the dream a reality. Clients want value for their dollar. They want results. You must quantify your public relations campaigns," she observed. "With the advent of the Internet and interactive technologies, there are new ways to create and communicate. Look at the Blair Witch project and its success with limited marketing dollars. It’s a new day."

Advertising provides a very broad array of disciplines and career opportunities for bright, energetic, creative and industrious people. Still, things have changed from when I graduated from college and it’s very important to plan ahead. As marketing has become increasingly sophisticated, most agencies are interested in people who have some education or experience that is relevant to the industry.

Degrees in marketing, design, research and business are highly desirable. In the more strategic and marketing-oriented functions, including account management and consumer research, advanced degrees such as MBAs

are increasingly preferred. I have a B.A. in political science from Miami University in Ohio and I’m a graduate of the Executive Development Program in Business Management at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Ron Campbell holds a B.S. in art education from New York University and a master's in advertising communications from the University of Illinois.

While there are hundreds of advertising agencies, many agencies do not actively recruit on college campuses. Therefore, it is often preferable for students to investigate agencies on their own and make known their interest in working in the industry. Particularly helpful is making contact with industry associations to develop leads and contacts for job opportunities. These organizations can make you aware of internship opportunities, which are ideal for giving you experience and exposure into the industry.

For individuals interested in the creative side of advertising, having a portfolio of work that reflects your creative thinking ability is a must. While in school, begin to develop sample ads, scripts, visual images, selling ideas and writing samples, which are prerequisites for consideration in creative development positions.

How Do I know if Advertising is Right for Me?

There’s no doubt. Advertising is not for everybody. It is a fast-paced, high intensity, demanding industry and the people in it work very hard. As a result, it requires people who are energetic, good communicators, strategic thinkers, diligent, bright, decisive, perceptive, and who enjoy working with people.

From an ethnic perspective, advertising can be a very fulfilling industry in so far as it can engage the creative use of your ethnicity to generate meaningful and powerful images of our people and our culture. As an industry, advertising is very interested in bringing more minorities into the business. Organizations such as the American Association of Advertising Agencies (called the 4 As) have a dedicated internship program to facilitate greater exposure to the opportunities in the industry.

Moreover, the industry benefits from having ethnic-specific companies who do dedicated work toward multicultural audiences, including African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. UniWorld Group, Inc., for which I work, is one of those agencies. Although advertising offers a broad range of opportunities, it is a very competitive business and therefore job opportunities get filled fairly quickly, especially entry-level positions. So, be persistent and vigilant in identifying and exploring job opportunities.

Here are a few more tips for breaking into the field.

• While in school, get involved. Join the advertising or marketing club or a writing group. This will help to give you an idea about what to expect and will lead you to relevant experience in the area.
• If you aren’t in business studies, talk to a professor in the business department that specializes in marketing and communication so that you can find out more and meet more contacts in the industry.
• Look for mentoring opportunities to talk to advertising executives in your community. Seek out mentors and take advantage of their guidance and support.
• Subscribe to trade publications or pick them up in the library. Publications such as Advertising Age (www.adage.com), Brand Week and Ad Week (www.adweek.com) are the bibles of the industry. Get used to reading them.

Advertising is an industry that is fun to work in if you enjoy working in the realm of ideas. It can also be a very rewarding industry financially. Entry-level positions average at $25,000; however salaries and bonuses for top executives can reach into the mid and high six-figure range. Advancement can be very quick for individuals who demonstrate the talent and ability to do the job.

Gregory T. Walker is the president and Chief Operating Officer of the UniWorld Group, Inc., New York, NY.