Advertising agency: what are its activities and how does it work?

Working closely with the company to promote a brand or product, the advertising agency designs and controls an advertisement. This agency must be versatile, as it must take care of many details. She can also collaborate with other professionals such as the web designer or the graphic design agency.

The missions of an advertising agency are divided into two different, but independent, branches. The first is the strategic part. This is carried out by the strategic team, which is usually headed by the advertising manager. This strategic service is responsible for defining the advertising strategy adapted to the client company’s communication campaign. The latter must consolidate its agreement with the advertising agency during this strategic phase. It is also up to the agency’s strategic team to send the communication campaign to the media for distribution.

The creative part in the advertising agency business

After defining the communication strategy to be adopted for the advertising campaign, the strategic team informs the creative department of the advertising agency so that the creative team can, in turn, design the advertising itself. This creative team is often led by the copywriter or artistic director, the latter acts on the recommendations of the Creative Director. This second team creates the communication campaign according to the strategy previously defined by the strategy team. Once the campaign is designed, the team sends the creation to the strategic team so that they can analyse the content and recommend changes, if necessary. Note that the advertising agency works closely with a graphic design agency during the campaign design phase.

Clients of an advertising agency

In general, companies, especially commercial ones, are the main customers of an advertising agency. Public institutions can also engage a communication agency to deliver messages to the people or a target audience. Artists may also request the services of an advertising agency for the announcement of a special event. Associations, museums, cultural institutions are also clients of an advertising agency.