Advertising, marketing and PR: Overview

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The industry in a nutshell

The advertising, marketing and public relations (PR) industry involves market research, product/brand development, promotion, media relations, reputation management, public affairs, direct marketing, and sponsorship.

Advertising is a creative and fast-paced industry that uses paid-for space in various media outlets to motivate people to buy products and services or change their attitudes.

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Marketing is broadly concerned with promoting and selling products and services as well as changing people’s attitudes. Direct marketing is a sub-discipline of marketing which aims to establish a personalised relationship with consumers via direct mail, telemarketing or personalised e-marketing.

PR involves the management of reputation, with the objective of earning understanding and support, as well as influencing opinion and behaviour. The work often includes generating third-party endorsement of opinion formers such as politicians and celebrities.

In all three industries, graduates need to be excellent communicators, with strong organisational skills and a creative flair.

Currently, the industry is recording budget cuts at a slower rate than in 2008 and showing possible early signs of recovery from the recession with over 30% of marketing companies - including advertising and PR - reporting improved financial performance in the second quarter of 2009 (Q2 2009 Bellwether Report, 2009).

What kind of work can I do?

Advertising

Professionals are often employed in agencies. These agencies can either be specialist (e.g. media buying or digital/online) or full-service agencies. The industry trend is towards full-service agencies which bring specialists from different disciplines (e.g. advertising, digital, design, branding, direct marketing and PR) together. The work often includes:

• creating and managing integrated advertising campaigns;
• client and supplier liaison;
• planning, research and evaluation;
• new business development.

Marketing

Many roles are ‘in-house’ and will, therefore, exclusively deal with one organisation’s marketing - usually incorporating advertising and sometimes PR. The work includes:

• planning;
• promotion;
• media relations;
• product development;
• sponsorship;
• market research.

PR

Opportunities exist ‘in-house’ or in consultancies/agencies. Some consultancies specialise in one sector (e.g. healthcare, IT, consumer). Work activities include:

• interacting with the media;
• writing and editing;
• planning, research and evaluation;
• event management.

Public affairs and lobbying is also within the PR sector, and involves persuading policy makers and/or conveying particular viewpoints to influential people such as MPs.

What’s it like working in this industry?

• This sector is fast, exciting, innovative, highly creative and varied but can be stressful when having to meet tight deadlines under pressure.
• Salaries vary considerably, depending on the specialism, level of experience and geographical location.
• For junior roles, salaries tend to be higher in the professional services, financial sector and business sector compared with those in the not-for-profit/public sector or small, independent companies.
• Senior positions within agencies can command a high salary.
• Working hours can be long and irregular, with some in-house PR roles attracting an ‘out-of-hours’ supplement.
• Networking and socialising with clients in order to build and maintain relationships is important in agency roles.
• It is estimated that the gender split in advertising agencies is 51.9% male and 48.1% female employees. However, at senior management level (chair, managing director, CEO), this shifts to 83.8% male and 16.2% female employees (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) , 2008).
• Generally, more women are employed within marketing and PR than men, but there are fewer women in senior management roles. However, this is changing.
• Advertising is a young industry, with nearly half of employees aged under 30 (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), 2008).
• In advertising, the workforce is predominantly white (91.6%). This is an issue the IPA is trying to address and is slowly making progress on (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), 2008).

How big is the sector?

• There are 20,131 people employed at 272 IPA member agencies, with 170 of these based in London (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), 2008).
• It is estimated that there are now approximately 48,000 people working in PR roles in the UK (Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), 2009).
• The total number of professionals working in marketing in the UK is estimated to be 600,000 (Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Body (MSSSB), 2009).

Where can I work?

• Many large advertising, direct marketing and full-service agencies and PR consultancies are based in and around London, as are many in-house marketing and PR roles.
• However, opportunities exist throughout the whole of the UK, particularly in larger cities such as Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester.
• Few opportunities exist in rural areas.
• pLarge agencies and PR consultancies are increasingly international in scope. Many are part of a larger media and communications group whose parent company may be based in another country. This can provide opportunities abroad.