A company’s advertising campaigns, budget, and staff are typically under the control of an advertising director. He or she will typically assist in the creation and execution of advertising campaigns and marketing initiatives, and will frequently be involved in advertising both directly and through the supervision of others’ efforts. Working with copywriters, graphic designers and artists, and other advertising professionals is common, as is supervising the efforts of one or more teams at the same time. An advertising director will almost always have to report to and take orders from managers or officers in a company higher up the corporate ladder.
One of an advertising director’s main responsibilities is to plan, oversee, and analyze the success of a company’s advertising and marketing campaigns. While advertising professionals are often directly involved in the creation and execution of an ad campaign, a director is usually in charge of overseeing the efforts of multiple teams at the same time. An advertising director usually has a degree in advertising and has at least five years of experience in the industry, with a number of successful campaigns to show for it. He or she will also be responsible for developing budgets for a planned campaign and ensuring that they are not exceeded.
An advertising director with an overall sense of how the campaign should be run usually devises and establishes a company’s advertising campaign. He or she will then enlist the help of other advertising professionals to carry out the campaign, typically overseeing it to ensure that it runs smoothly and dealing with any major issues that may arise. This frequently entails the ability to manage both time and people, as well as an understanding of how others can be incorporated into a project and work to further the campaign’s overall goal and vision.
An advertising director usually works at the top of a company and has a number of other professionals reporting to him or her, such as writers and artists. He or she will, however, report to those in charge of him or her, and these bosses are frequently company owners or corporate officers with a direct stake in the success of an ad campaign. This means that an advertising director must not only be able to direct and lead others, but must also be able to accept direction and feedback in a professional manner. He or she may be hired a company to run its advertising division, or he or she may work for another agency that produces advertising campaigns for companies.