Business organisation set up to provide a service to clients ranging across booking advertising space, designing advertisements and producing them, devising media schedules, commissioning research, providing consultancy, and any associated marketing service. Origin was as agent of a publisher by whom a commission was payable. This system of remuneration still survives in the case of most advertising agencies. All the work an advertising agency does for a client (the ,account’) is managed by an Account Management Group, which consists of an account director (a senior manager who may supervise several accounts) and an Account Manager. This team will draw on all the agency’s departments to design and execute an advertising campaign.
The research department will provide marketing research. The planning department provides marketing advice for account managers. In -a few agencies ,research and planning are integrated into the account management group in the person of the Account Planner. Many advertising ideas are born in the creative department. Often it is this department that gives an agency its distinctive competence. The media department is responsible for planning advertising schedules and buying media space. Television, cinema, and radio commercials and all material for print media are the job of the production department. Though some work may be subcontracted, all modern agencies have the capability of producing their own material.
The traffic department, sometimes called the control department, sees that each stage of the production process is completed on schedule, the deadlines being dictated by transmission or press dates. The accounts (or finance) department, similar to accounting departments in most commercial firms, is responsible for billing clients and paying for media purchases, production subcontractors and freelancers (artists, photographers).
