Here are several hard skills basics adapted from a media planner, Veronica Engelberts from Vector Media.
Media Knowledge: Whether a media generalist or a mobile media wizard – the planner and buyer needs to be very knowledgeable about all media channels. At minimum, this requires constant monitoring of relevant and credible business and advertising / media publications, blogs, and bookmarking sites.
Consumer Behaviour: Advertising is a critical element of the marketing ecosystem that revolves around the customer. Media strategists need to understand more than just audience consumption data or web analytics. They need to have a deep understanding of target audience media trends, behaviours and preferences. This information is often gained through proprietary research and in-depth investigation and requires the ability to slice and dice significant amounts of data (see analytical skills).
Business and Marketing Knowledge: A media plan is an extension of the marketing plan and a brand’s positioning. Media planners should be knowledgeable in marketing fundamentals, with specific knowledge of the theory and application of positioning strategy, as well as current thinking and practices in brand building, related consumer buying, brand engagement and behaviour models.
Math Skills: not only the basic addition, subtraction, etc. but the ability to do fundamental statistics, use spreadsheets, understand the measurement of change, and statistical significance.
Analytical Skills: With the increase in data available from on-line and off-line publishers, media planners must have an understanding of traditional media analytics such as market and brand development indices, media weight analysis, post-buy analyses, etc. If you are planning multi-channel and / or digital campaigns, you need a detailed understanding of web metrics and related analytical tools. This will allow you to assess, manipulate and extract meaning from data (Engelberts, V 2011).
Focus on clients, customers, audiences and participants
• Ability to communicate
• Central importance of creativity for business success
These are the skills that the creative industries need to keep strong and fresh and they are instrumental to competitiveness in the current climate. You need to work to develop your technical and specialist skills in your creative area while also being aware that other skills are vital to successfully finding and keeping work.
From an article providing expert tips and advice for graduates entering the communications and advertising industry by Professor Paul Springer from Buckinghamshire New University, I have managed to learn some skills needed to work in the desired industry. Advertising agencies, PR and marketing companies have to be creative about how they pitch themselves to prospective clients, so they expect to see the same ingenuity and spark of originality in applicants. In creative communications employers are more often looking for point of difference; fresh ‘thinking’ on the creative challenges they have to crack. In a recent survey of graduates from communications courses linked to Edcoms (the European Institute of Commercial Communications education), 24% of graduates identified Google as an employer they would most like to work for. Google operate a flexible recruitment scheme and are always looking to recruit new talent (Springer, P 2014).
“They want to see evidence that graduates are passionate about their discipline. Therefore unique evidence of people-skills and points of difference are crucial” (Spinger, P 2014). Majority of workforces require people skills as without this skill you tend not to have good communication skills, and deal with challenging situations and team work, so this is important in any environment I believe.
In small agencies you will be multitasking more and will be exposed to the cutting edge of producing commercial work. Your output is more likely to go live, but there may be few opportunities to develop your career within the company.
Whereas In larger comms networks you can join graduate training schemes to get experience before you are unleashed on large projects. For instance WPP, a multinational communications network with over 3,000 advertising, marketing and PR firms operating in 110 countries, run a graduate WPP Fellowship programme.
To read more of this article please visit: http://www.graduates.co.uk/skills-need-enter-communications-advertising-industry/