All the leading advertising companies used to be headquartered in The Big Apple, along popular Madison Avenue in the center of Manhattan’s financial district. If you watch the HBO show Mad Men (since picked up by some other network in syndication) you will observe the fictional characters being employed at fictional firms on Madison Avenue, thus the term “Mad” Men. In the 50s and 60s the major advertising agencies were all operated by males and it was a complete boy’s club that women were not allowed to enter, except as assistants or receptionists. These gentlemen chain smoked at their workstations all day long and drank very much every night while wining and dining clients at elegant dining places and pubs.
Those times are gone and many are grateful for that, specifically ladies and minorities who nowadays play a much bigger role in today’s top advertising firms. Things have changed dramatically within the last two decades. Graphic Designers were always treated like technical flunkies and were usually not given the chance to rise above Art Director status. All of the Creative Directors (CDs) came from the copywriting departments and the moment you’re a CD, you could possibly hope to make partner or V.P. with a few years of extremely long hours and hard work below your belt.
Today’s major advertising agencies are ones that have made it in the age of the internet and have modified their services to suit the cyber world’s big demands. Thirty years ago advertising agencies did not even have computers. Typesetting was carried out manually with press on type that you bought at the Art supplies store. Typefaces were restricted and you must be very careful that you didn’t mess up or else you had to start once again. God forbid that the Account Executive or perhaps the customer changed the headline at the very last minute. Deadlines were extremely tight back in the former days and you had to manually crank out fifty to one hundred ads in one day (and all night) for distribution the next morning to the newspapers.
Obviously nowadays all the top advertising companies have got high tech computer systems, mostly Mac but several PCs too. The employed small armies of Graphic Designers who use software like InDesign and Photoshop CS.
Most of the major advertising firms now also carry out online ads and that shows that the artists have to have proficiency in HTML, Flash, Dreamweaver, as well as other site building software. By being so technical several of the artistic side of the craft has surely suffered. But because the airwaves are slammed and stuffed with so many visuals and loud attention hogging banners, the leading advertising agencies have to be a little more imaginative than previously in their attempt to acquire their client’s message through to their target viewers. The majority of advertising campaigns cost a great deal that the ad agencies utilize focus groups to receive responses before spending any money.
Even though techniques and technologies have developed over the years, the goal of major advertising agencies around the globe have stayed the same and that is sell more products for their clients.
Social Media Marketing is definitely an incredible process to increase brand awareness, opportunities and revenue of your business through social media channels as well as by performing visual presentations such as Video Marketing, which induces interest about the organization and its products and services.
