Chapter 1. Exploring Careers in the Business of Mass Media Industries: Advertising and Public Relations

Introduction

Exploring Careers in the Business of Mass Media Industries
brightgreen
true
true
You must read each slide, and complete any questions on the slide, in sequence.

Activity Objective

Students will explore and learn more about career paths in the business of mass media industries.

Use the previous and next links to navigate through the slides. You may also use the Outline menu to skip directly to a slide. Students must complete the slides in order.

Featured Jobs

The jobs highlighted below show just a small sample of the many opportunities available in the advertising and public relations (PR) industries. The job descriptions below are just examples. Use career search sites or company job opportunity pages to search for current listings in these fields.

Advertising Account Executive:

Major responsibilities include understanding the local market to successfully integrate brand; assisting in creation of marketing promotions; making follow-up calls with prospects on campaigns to confirm receipt, answer questions, and close the sale of the campaign; creating quality prospect lists; generating revenue to achieve assigned goals; calling on prospective customers to obtain and manage their business; and tracking and reporting sales activity.

“High performing advertising sales professional responsible for managing and developing revenue across print, digital and other advanced advertising platforms. Focused on in person sales calls to utilize products to drive overall growth in client investment and Palm Beach Florida Weekly though and existing and new client base.”

Media Buyer:

Major responsibilities include buying digital media; owning all steps of the ad operations process; completing performance reporting and post-campaign insight reports; monitoring ad landing page performance; proactively optimizing purchased media; providing recommendations to distribution team; and working with front-end development to make sure landing pages are optimized for campaign performance function.

“The Junior/Senior Media Buyer will lead our media buying team while also creating and managing partnerships with key platforms to buy digital media, develop and drive media strategies, and execute business critical user acquisition campaigns.”

International PR/Junior Publicist:

Major responsibilities include creating and maintaining various team documents; developing and maintaining contact database; establishing and building relationships with international press, channel partners, and distribution clients; contributing creative ideas; tracking and compiling international press breaks; distributing PR clips; providing logistical support; and arranging international travel.

“One of the most important and yet challenging parts of this position is being able to multi-task and to work with partners around the world as well as senior management to drive international communications objectives. Candidate must also be able to interface with talent and their representatives. The job also requires quick responsiveness to both internal groups and external groups operating in different time zones and during international business travel. Must have excellent follow-through skills and be able to interact with all levels of management, and different personalities in order to resolve any issues that arise.”

PR Coordinator:

Major responsibilities include managing marketplace programs; assisting in tracking outreach activities; assisting in managing collateral for outreach team; assisting in preparing media kits; maintaining media tracking and media contact lists; assisting in researching media talking points; managing calendars; assisting in managing social media accounts; and updating and maintaining the content and video library.

“We are looking for a dynamic individual to support our outreach and communications team in a role that handles administrative duties with room to grow and plenty of potential to be creative. Ideal applicants will be detail-oriented and motivated by assisting others, and will also be familiar with the basics of public relations, writing, and social media.”

Tips from Industry Professionals

The business of mass media industries of advertising and PR are fantastic places to embark on a career in the media. Here are some tips from professionals working in advertising and PR:

On Social Media

  • Advertising: “If you want to work in the online space, you’ll want to have an online footprint to match. Start a blog, polish up your social profiles, and make sure who Google says you are is who you say you are.” —Paul Ten Haken, President and Chief Online Strategist, Click Rain, Inc.
  • PR: “The most important platforms for PR pros in the future will be the ones more targeted for their clients. Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook are ‘fun’; getting nitty-gritty into community sites that are industry specific are less ‘fun’ because PR pros have to really understand clients’ technologies, business models, services, and more. Really, it’s more about PR pros becoming better PR pros and understanding their clients’ businesses, as well as what their clients do. . . . Social media is not a one-size-fits-all solution.” —Cara Stewart, Founder and Principal, Remarx Media
  • PR: “When I first began my career in PR more than a decade ago, we would e-mail or fax (gasp!) the full press release text to the press. What we see now is new methods of distributing the info, driven by social media. Rather than e-mailing a press release, PR people are sending journalists to custom landing pages created just for that specific announcement, contacting them via Twitter with a BudURL link to the release, or even directing them to a YouTube video message from the CEO making the announcement.” —Lindsay Groepper, Vice President, Blastmedia

On Preparing for the Interview

  • Advertising: “Do your homework. Research the hell out of the place you want to work. Learn the history and facts about the people you’re meeting with. Take it further. Come with questions. A lot of them. This is a great way to start a dialogue with someone you’re interviewing with. And it proves you really want the job. If people don’t know anything about my company, it’s generally an immediate pass.” —Winstong Binch, Partner/Chief Digital Officer, Deutsch LA

On Being Good

  • Advertising: “I think, for me, the best advice I’ve been given, and what I try to do, is really be good to the people around you—people you’re competing against [and] your clients. Because the people that you see who you may think are your enemies could be your friends the next day. So be good to everybody. I try to tell that particularly to the younger folks coming in. They think you can be so competitive that you cut people off. You’ve got to be really, really good to the people around you.” —Nadja Bellan-White, Senior Partner and Managing Director, Ogilvy & Mather

Business of Mass Media Resources

Reading about industries that interest you is a great way to learn more and to help narrow your career goals. The resources and event sites for the advertising and PR industries listed below are a good place to start your research.

Advertising

American Advertising Federation (AAF): aaf.org

“Headquartered in Washington, DC, we are the ‘Unifying Voice for Advertising.’ The AAF has more than 200 local clubs across the U.S. representing nearly 40,000 advertising professionals, connecting and leading the industry. We’re excited to help more than 5,000 college chapter members kickstart their careers with a 200+ college chapter network and an array of student programs. We have nearly 100 corporate members who are loyal and supportive of our ongoing efforts.”

International Advertising Association (IAA): iaaglobal.org

“The International Advertising Association (IAA), headquartered in New York, was founded in 1938 to champion responsible marketing. The IAA, with members in over 40 countries, is a one-of-a-kind global partnership comprising advertisers, media, advertising and public relations agencies, media companies, and academics. The IAA is a platform for industry issues and is dedicated to protecting and advancing freedom of commercial speech, responsible advertising, consumer choice, and the education of marketing professionals.”

PR

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA): prsa.org

“The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the nation’s largest professional organization serving the communications community with a mission to ‘make communications professionals smarter, better prepared and more connected through all stages of their career.’ Our membership collectively represents more than 30,000 members comprised of communications professionals spanning every industry sector nationwide and college and university students who encompass the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA).”

PR Jobs-PR Week: prweekus.com

“In the transparent world epitomized by social media, corporate reputation is crucial. Executives need timely, authoritative, insightful content to navigate this landscape - that's where PRWeek comes in. Breaking news, analysis, and opinion fuels PRWeek.com and is distributed through the Breakfast Briefing, Weekly Online edition, Twitter, and Facebook. PRWeek monthly in print highlights senior communications executives as cover stars and analyzes issues in depth, supplemented by special reports and surveys. The brand extends into the iconic PRWeek Awards, PRWeek Conference roundtables, webcasts, and virtual forums.”

A Closer Look: How the Digital World Has Upended Madison Avenue

Watch the video, then use the text boxes below to answer the following questions.

Source: ©2018 The Economist Newspaper Limited via Bloomberg/BoClips

Question 1

Question

d3YbPXSCdvEoYG4ECZWmN09lgMYqJOu7rfpTxHD5Sm4hck8yBeCUugeTtMOWlhMeoqlvFDn5JMIDne1x4cZY5d+wQQ4zh8EWjjUCp0TbAaif49DNdz7/lrumlw7EkAdNKqy3eNnPpaOvtzT3cUxvd0fAFQLqgYda+qLbVyD9C2xdIFc0PIu4YB9BOnKpvlQ7xXng7PNqtFUM8Kfz0K+JMRakUqnuMTnsd82dFaj8wDQyA0YhYv6MEC5kYHx4QVAdecaNq+Hg78c1VNuiYWzN9Fy4HZKeP+VPpvJp5PcDTSzPeq+pib+nWO4AzBEyevK7+np9RE7As89nghrn
Your response has been provisionally accepted and will be graded by your instructor.
answer question 1

Question 2

Question

cUxkxSx8cQ8jaOab/xiPrgEGSXBiCbZyW7am1Et9fXnhM1aLY+o6TXtvxRsNqLKkarWSuYwyZ6XOBRJjpZuKwKKChc6O5h7FGyA4rEllqX93DDaXIY0t+EiXv/nPN+3XNZusmgQChAINipYzU1kkI+3CBpWL7l1o10qffnk+tOVneFjHPkkZUPSypNETOkQ0sLHYk7nXkToRBfQKNhu09r8DTHOka+/QHHlpUw==
Your response has been provisionally accepted and will be graded by your instructor.
answer question 2