Get Going In Advertising
Getting your first break in advertising may well be one of the more difficult tasks you face in your professional life. It's a small, tight industry with exacting standards. Sure, most of the ads you see everyday are utter crap. But you can't look there for inspiration. You must seek out the very best, absorb it, understand why it's good from a critical perspective, and then be able to apply this knowledge when it's your turn to face the blank page.
Thankfully, there are steps you can take to prepare yourself. First of all ask. Ask for informational interviews with people in the field. Ask them what they see and do not see in your portfolio. Also, you must be prepared to listen and take the criticism offered. In other words, grow a thick skin yesterday if you intend to make it in this business.
One of the big hurdles people face when attempting to enter the business is purely mental. Yet, it's a real hurdle, just the same. Artists and writers must stop being artists and writers and start to become Ad People. What does this mean? It means Advertising with a capital "A" is not about pretty pictures and clever phrases. Not at all. Advertising is about solving marketing problems, plain and simple. How well one does this is all that counts. Your job as a creative, or account service professional, will be to solve these marketing problems for the client in a manner that always benefits the brand.
If you are not now reading Adweek, Ad Age, or Communication Arts, you may want to consider doing so on a regular basis.
Then, there are the professional schools to consider attending. These are not classic academic institutions. These are industry schools where you learn from working professionals. You don't go for the degree. But you do get a great portfolio and quite possibly your dream job.
Here are a handful of the best portfolio programs in the country, all worth a closer look:
Portfolio Center, Atlanta
Creative Circus, Atlanta
Miami Ad School in Miami and other select cities
VCU Ad Center in Richmond
Brainco--Minneapolis School of Advertising, Minneapolis
The Chicago Portfolio School, Chicago
School of Visual Arts, NYC
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
If you desire even more resources, and I hope you do, a visit to UT's Advertising World is in order.
Enjoy the ride!
This piece was originally written in January 2002 for Meet the Pros, an annual industry event held in Omaha, Nebraska. The following books may also be helpful on your quest.
The Book of Gossage
by Howard Gossage with an intro from Jeff Goodby
Under the Radar: Talking to Today's Cynical Consumer
by Kirshenbaum & Bond
Where the Suckers Moon
an advertising tale by Randall Rothenberg
Truth, Lies, and Advertising
an account planning how-to by Jon Steel
Hey Whipple Squeeze This
an advertising how-to by Luke Sullivan
Absolute Book
by Richard Lewis
Advertising Today
by Warren Berger
It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be.
by Paul Arden
Bobos in Paradise
demographic satire by David Brooks
A Big Life (in advertising)
by Mary Wells Lawrence
Up The Agency
by Peter Mayle
Spray The Bear: Reminiscences from the Golden Age of Advertising
by Walter W. Bregman
Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
by Thomas Frank
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
by Howard Rheingold
Next: The Future Just Happened
by Michael Lewis
The Cluetrain Manifesto
by Rick Levne, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger
Small Pieces Loosely Joined
an explanation of the Web by David Weinberger
The Rise of the Creative Class
geo-cultural analysis by Richard Florida, Ph.D.
Digital Aboriginal: The Direction of Business Now--Instinctive, Nomadic, and Ever-Changing
by Mikela and Phillip Tarlow
Growing A Business
by Paul Hawken
Rules for Revolutionaries
by Guy Kawasaki
Just For Fun: The Story of An Accidental Revolutionary
by Linus Torvalds + David Diamond
The Peaceable Kingdom
a corporate biography by Stan Richards with David Culp
The Nudist on the Late Shift
by Po Bronson
New Rules for the New Econmoy:10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World
by Kevin Kelley
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
by Marshall McLuhan
No Logo
industry criticism by Naomi Klein
Burn Rate
the story of an Internet startup by Michael Wolff
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
by Al Ries and Jack Trout
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Adcult USA : The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture
cultural history by James B. Twitchell
Crossing The Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers
by Geoffrey A. Moore
Inside the Tornado
by Geoffrey A. Moore
Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends, and Friends into Customers
by Seth Godin
Unleashing The Ideavirus
by Seth Godin
The Bootstrapper's Bible
an e-Book by Seth Godin
Within the Context of No Context
media criticism by George W. S. Trow
Nobrow
cultural commentary by John Seabrook
And to ensure you keep your sense of humor, make this film part of your collection:
How To Get Ahead In Advertising
directed by Bruce Robinson