The Structure and Role of the Advertising Agency
November 18, 2025
She started with some ads, in the production of which she had played a major role, and emphasized that in all three ads, as in every single ad that we watch, the ad addresses some kind of need and some kind of emotions. If the emotion was to highlight the need, then it was a good ad. What is advertising? A combination of psychology, story-telling, commerce and a bagful of chaos.
She then laid out the constituent parts of an advertising agency. The Account Manager was the diplomat, the first line of defense, the agency’s man or woman placed with the client, or even seen as the client’s rep placed with the agency! The Strategist was the intelligence unit who scouts the terrain and finds the target’s weak spots. It was him or her who breaks down the Brief for the rest of the agency. The Creative was the warrior, the recognition-mark of the agency, who creates ideas, develops mood-boards etc. The Art Director joins later, ensures the logo size is correct, the design-work is done and so on. And finally, there is Finance.
Then there is the process whereby the Agency and the Client interact with one another. The Agency is called in and given a Brief. The Account Manager takes the brief and the Strategy team gets cracking on the insights. Strategy passes the baton onto the Creative who generates the campaign idea. Then the Presentation rounds start, which can be as few as a couple or as many as 14 or more. If you are a Nestle or a Unilever, you may ask for the storyboard or the mood board to be created and sent for preview or link testing. The final script is locked and sent to production houses for bids and at least 2-3 directors are selected for bids and treatment notes.
Both the Client and the Agency can have different formats for making the Brief. The essential questions are for the client to explain their brand, the need they have and the challenge they face, who they are trying to influence, what do they want that person to think and do, who their competitors are, etc.
In response to a question she noted that agencies can be full service agency, digital agency, media agency, PR agency and activation agency, and she explained everyone of these.
She also discussed the growing role of AI in advertising, its benefits but also its limitations.
The session with the undergraduates, located in the context of OB, revolved around careers in advertising, whereas the session for the MBAs was more technical in nature. Both sessions were of a very high quality and generated a lot of response from the students. We are thankful to her for these wonderful sessions.
Labels: Guest Speaker, Winter 2025
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11/18/2025 03:57:00 PM,
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