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Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of an advertising director. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as an advertising director.

 

Who is an Advertising Director?

Advertising constitutes one of the elements in an organization’s promotional mix and is usually incorporated or integrated into the entire marketing communication program. However, advertising is reported to be the most expensive of all promotional programs; the elements of advertising are vast and must be managed with accountability, caution, and care. Therefore, advertising is defined as a non-personal message by a brand or organization; placed in a paid mass medium and designed to persuade consumers of a product or service beneficiaries to induce them to purchase or order such product or service.

Also, advertising helps to communicate the business values to influence and stir public opinion positively. The process of coordinating and directing advertising is known as advertising management. Advertising management consists of a planned series of managerial processes designed to control and oversee the different advertising activities of a firm. Similarly, advertising management is aimed at communicating with the target audience to influence the customers’ purchase decisions. Invariably, it helps to define the outline of the media campaign and decide the most suitable type of advertising technique for a particular product or service before launching. Being a complex process, some individuals are tasked with making many-layered decisions such as developing advertising strategies, setting advertising objectives, and drafting advertising budgets; these individuals are called advertising directors.

An advertising director determines the target market, develops the message strategy, evaluates the overall effectiveness of the advertising effort, and defines the media strategy of advertising campaigns. They work in various business and work environments and help in designing the advertising structures of organizations. Most advertising directors are employed by marketing and advertising agencies and are entrusted with the responsibility of promoting sales and directing general creative functions. Some advertising directors work for newspapers and magazines and oversee their business-related advertising activities; they also watch over classified advertising staff and revenue. Interestingly, other advertising directors often collaborate with an outside agency to plan and execute advertising campaigns on behalf of the organization. To boost the sales and revenue of the company, some advertising directors organize weekly sales staff incentive contests while performing budget duties and meeting with corporate bodies to deliberate on advertising strategies. The advertising director controls the entire advertising department of the firm including the sales and classified sub-units. They supervise merchandise for sale adverts and handle legal notices as it concerns the department.

If an organization intends to launch a new product or service, the advertising director oversees and directs the entire campaign process. Different employers might mandate advertising directors to perform specific tasks; however, an advertising director generally negotiates advertising contracts, carries out administrative work, manages the department’s budget, and conducts inter-departmental symbiosis and communication. Depending on the size of the company or agency, advertising directors develop the criteria for staff promotion and hire new advertising staff members. They delegate and allocate tasks and resources to each member of the advertising team or department accordingly. In collaboration with the digital media team, the advertising director prepares for upcoming ad campaigns by ensuring all equipment, software, and personnel are in shape and function.

Relatively, an advertising director looks over the scripts and peruses the final projects such as print ads, ad videos, and commercial calligraphies to ensure they meet the customers’ or employer’s specifications and standards. The continuous digital evolution has seen more opportunities for advertising directors in digital media including the internet, mobile, and wireless devices. Many advertising directors start by gaining experience in lower advertising roles before advancing to directors’ positions. This gives them an edge over others especially if they are interviewing in the same organization.

Additionally, an advertising director is an innovator and a strong leader; he/she grows market share in the business’s marketplace, actively seeks for the development of new business for the company, and meets the firm’s advertising goals. To exceed budgeted sales and advertisement targets, advertising directors drive, motivate, coach, and mentor the advertising force to give their all and beyond. In relation, some agencies and enterprises recommend the adoption and incorporation of art directors, financial managers, content writers, and salespeople in the advertising team; the advertising director often works together with these professionals to develop the advertising blueprint of the agency. Apart from communication and collaboration, the advertising director must have first-hand knowledge of the company’s product and customer trends to create interest and curiosity in their products or services. An important quality of advertising directors is time management and attentiveness. They must deliver advertising campaigns in the right channel and within the allocated timeframe. Furthermore, an advertising director interprets market research and use the analysis to lead brainstorming sessions and develop ideas for promotional operations during team brief and training. They conduct departmental staff evaluations and look into customer and staff feedback to increase the firms’ outreach in different areas and territories.

 

Advertising Director Job Description

Below are the advertising director job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write an advertising director job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.

The advertising director develops and creates a brand image for customers’ and employers’ products and services to direct, raise, and enhance brand awareness and recognition among customers. Although the typical workday or week of an advertising director may vary across employers, they spend much of their time in an office. Described below are the main responsibilities of an adverting director;

• Perform market analysis to monitor relevant business markets: Due to the constantly changing economic environment, an advertising director performs a market analysis to monitor and discover relevant product and services market trends and adjust his/her advertising strategy thereafter. An excellent advertising director uses accurate data and statistics to ramp up advertising techniques and procedures to channel ad sales efforts accordingly.
• Draft budgets and contrasts: Advertising directors prepare annual, quarterly, and monthly budgets for the department. Budget planning is a mundane yet essential phase of an advertising director’s duties. When planning a budget for the department, the advertising director considers the business’s actual and projected advertising revenue and subsequently adjusts expenses budgets. At the same time, they establish advertising rate schedules and negotiate and draft contracts with stakeholders and clients.
• Accompany sales executives on appointments: Periodically, advertising managers accompany sales reps and executives on customer appointments. If a salesperson is unable to get a customer to commit to terms despite repeated efforts, an advertising director can escort such an individual to the next meeting to buttress the importance of the product or service to the client and thus, boost sales and revenue.
• Offer special customer service perks and attractive advertising rates: In some organizations, the advertising director is authorized, permitted, and allowed to offer interesting and enticing service perks to customers such as personal delivery of advertising proofs and tearsheets. This is aimed at attracting and convincing customers to patronize the brand. Concurrently, the advertising director offers eye-catching and striking advertising rates to customers.
• Lead and supervise the advertising team and department: Sometimes, the advertising team might constitute staff members from within and outside the advertising department. The advertising director provides robust leadership, supervision, and guidance to this team to ensure exceptional service delivery. Perhaps, this is the most prominent and protuberant responsibility of an advertising director. They oversee the hiring of new staff and motivate existing personnel to execute their duties efficiently. Also, the advertising director encourages departmental staff to surpass theirs and the firms’ goals and expectations. He/she fosters and creates a result-based, high-performance, and customer-centered advertising approach and culture.
• Mentor junior advertising staff and team members: In-house mentorship is paramount in the advertising sector. Thus, the advertising director mentors and grooms entry-level, assistants, and other advertising personnel to promote efficacy. They offer direct assistance in the execution of tasks when needed and ensure consistent professional growth in the unit. This prepares and readies the advertising team members to assume duties in an emergency.
• Develop advertising strategy including sales quotas: Advertising directors develop strategies and approaches that support the sales brand and attract new customers. Also, these strategies help maintain current subscribers and stimulate the spending rate of the consumers. Relatively, they create sales quotas around which advertising strategies, initiatives, and solutions are built within the department. The sales quota can be annual, quarterly, monthly, or weekly depending on the firm.
• Collaborate with other executives and stakeholders: Often, an advertising director works closely and collaborates with heads of the marketing department, sales executives, and IT managers to prospect and align sales, marketing, and advertising targets. Collaboration helps minimize conflicts of interest and creates a unified front aimed at achieving the set goals. Advertising directors also collaborate with script or content writers, customer support, and graphic designers to align priorities with the general business strategies.
• Gather feedback and ideas from the field to formulate more effective advertisement solutions: Importantly, an advertising director receives ideas and feedback from customers, stakeholders, and team members and analyses them to develop better advertisement solutions and initiatives for the agency. They rely on data insights, relevant industry-based publications, and attend conferences and seminars to gather current best practices that can give the organization an edge over competitors.
• Employ Knowledge to navigate market shifts: Finally, the advertising director employs knowledge and tact to navigate competitive challenges and market shifts to grow the business. They identify emerging sales opportunities and establish vital business relationships.

 

Qualifications

An advertising manager completes creative, leadership, and planning duties to ensure the firm’s advertising efforts are sustainable and effective. To enter the profession, an individual must ace and present some qualifications accustomed to the advertising industry. These qualifications enable advertising directors to navigate, oversee and manage personnel such as public relations specialists, IT technicians, and mass media experts. Therefore, an advertising director needs the qualifications below to be productive and considered by organizations;

• Microsoft Office and software proficiency: The suitable and ideal candidate must have high proficiency in using Ms. Excel, PowerPoint, Keynote, Outlook, Ms. Word, and WebEx. These software and packages are essential for creating verbal and visually engaging presentations and reports. Also, materials and resources for stakeholders, management, and collaborating personnel can be generated with this software. Additionally, an apt candidate must show excellence in the workings of JavaScript, XML, and HTML.
• Experience: Relevant work experience is vital for this role. Hence the preferred candidate must have had a minimum of 7 years of work experience in a management or director position in advertising. However, some employers accept years of experience in managerial and directorial positions in a related field.  Most organizations often prioritize candidates who have managed and worked as head of advertising technology, head of marketing, or head of advertising sales. Such experience must be accompanied by proof of managing an advertising team from the conceptualization of a campaign to the achievement of its objectives.
• Education: The minimum educational requirement for an advertising director is a master’s degree in sales, advertising, and marketing. Preferably, the applicant should have a Ph.D. in advertising or other related fields.
• Technological savvy: Technology forms part of most daily activities at work. The prospective advertising director must be technologically savvy and be able to adopt modern technological appliances and communication tools. Also, an advertising director should be adept technologically to reach the target audience more effectively.

 

Essential Skills

Advertising directors need several skills to succeed. Leadership, teamwork, and patience are essential for overseeing an advertising department. Project management, inter-departmental communication, and determination are equally important in advertising management. Hence, an advertising director must possess the following additional skills;

• Advertising skills: Arguably, this is the most important of all skills for an advertising director. Advertising directors must harness and refine their knowledge of the advertising industry while in school and lower advertising roles.
• Marketing skills: Since advertising remains an integral element of marketing, the individual must develop skills to understand the marketing strategies and objectives of the employer or agency. Marketing skills are crucial for determining the goals and strategies of an advertising campaign.
• Stress management and negotiation skills: Individuals with superb stress management abilities often succeed as advertising directors. Stress management enables the advertising director to work under pressure and thrive under strict deadlines. Concurrently, being a savvy negotiator enables the advertising director to reach audiences and achieve great pricing for the company or employer.
• Analytical skills: With a choice of the press, digital, television, radio, and outdoor media, an advertising director needs strong analytical skills to review and assess the audience statistics and available research from media owners. This enables them to make the most effective use of the advertising budget and select the appropriate media that will provide the most cost-effective coverage of the advertising campaign.
• Exceptional planning skills: The advertising director must be well-organized. This is especially useful when an individual is working within a timeframe. Similarly, planning skills are crucial for preparing ad campaigns.

                                         

How to Become an Advertising Director

Step 1: Earn a minimum of a bachelor’s degree:

According to labor and employment statistics in most countries, an individual must obtain at least a bachelor’s degree to get into advertising. Relevant fields include advertising, sales, marketing, and communication. This will get you entry-level and other junior-level advertising positions.

 

Step 2: Research advertising director roles to discover qualification requirements

After earning a bachelor’s degree, research employers and firms that hire advertising directors to decipher the qualification requirements attached to the role. These may include experience, higher education, skills, and/or proficiencies.

Step 3: Enroll for a master’s and/or a PhD

A Ph.D. is an added advantage; however, a master’s degree in the relevant field can suffice.

Step 4: Get a job in advertising to gain work experience and build your skills

You might apply for an entry-level position such as a copywriter, market research analyst, or advertising sales agent. Also, you can start as a media or advertising associate, account coordinator, junior advertising team member, or advertising assistant to build on-the-job experience.

Step 5: Join professional organizations

Although not compulsory, joining a professional organization in the industry can show employers and customers that you have high levels of dedication and competency. An example of such professional bodies is the International Association of Advertising Agencies.

Step 6: Apply for an advanced-level position

After working your way up the ranks, apply for advertising director roles or other advanced-level positions as they come.

 

Employers of Advertising Directors

An advertising director works in advertising agencies, media agencies, and public relations firms. Also, they plan, execute, and oversee advertising campaigns for insurance companies, construction, and manufacturing firms. Similarly, an advertising director serves as a liaison between clients and employers in the healthcare, retail, and insurance sectors. In fact, advertising directors are employed in almost all sectors including private businesses, non-governmental organizations, government, and educational institutions amongst others.

 

Advertising Director Salary Scale

The average salary for an advertising director is estimated to be $68,496. Depending on the size of the company, geographical location, and other metrics, the lowest and highest percentiles are $35,056 and $112,000 respectively. In addition, most advertising directors enjoy benefits such as health insurance, paid time off, tuition reimbursement, professional development assistance, and cell phone reimbursement.

Advertising, Arts, Media and Entertainment

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