So you want to get into marketing? You’ve fallen in love with the Don Draper lifestyle- the cocktails, the suits, the ladies. You saw the Old Spice commercials and thought to yourself, “I can do that.” You’ve spent the last 12 semesters cultivating ad knowledge and perfecting your creative thinking and writing skills. You think you can come up with bigger, better ways to use Facebook, twitter, mobile media and technology to reach consumers. Good. The big ideas are the ones clients are looking for. Confidence in your work is key.
As a recent grad and a self proclaimed Ad Geek, I’m going to give you five tips on how to make it as a noob in the industry.
- Be a social butterfly. In this industry, it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know. If you haven’t already, join a club. The people in your upper level marketing management class will be your colleagues, partners and competition as soon as you have your diploma in your hand. This industry is tight knit. If you want your campaigns to be successful you had better know the right people.
- Experience: the most brutal of teachers. Employers in this field care less about what vocabulary terms you learned in Advertising 101 than the actually life experiences you applied those terms to. Take and internship… in fact take several. Let’s face it, no one likes unpaid work. But the truth is, the experience you gain working a semester proof reading pitch decks, sitting in on client calls and meetings, brainstorming the big idea, and yes getting the occasional cup of coffee has more value than you will ever get from your overpriced text book or falling asleep in the back row of a lecture hall.
- The more you read the more you’ll know. The more you know, the more places you’ll go. Dr. Seuss said it best. Reading is the best way to stay up to date on the latest technologies, current events, exciting promotions, and completing agencies. Log onto AdAge, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, or The Times at least once a day. The more you familiarize yourself with campaigns, technologies, and agencies, the more able you are to apply those same technologies or ideas to bigger and better promotions. The best part is, many of these blogs, forums, and newsletters are free to subscibe!
- Time is what we want most, but what we use worst. Time management is vital in this industry. My junior and senior year of college I had a part time job, an internship, a full class schedule, and I was on two executive boards for school organizations. Time management was the only way I got through it… successfully. Two years of juggling and too full schedule and over achieving taught me to be organized and prioritize everything in my life. Now, when I get assigned a prize fulfillment, a DVD release, a retail strategic partnership promotion, a digital sweepstakes, and a year long campaign, I have no problem meeting deadlines, putting forth my best work, and still managing to have a social life.
- To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. Life is a series of trials and errors. If you’re afraid to make a mistake, voice your opinion, or take a chance, you’ll never progress in this industry. If you have an idea, say it out loud! If you’re too shy at the moment, invest in a journal and write your ideas down; someday they will come in handy. If David Ogilvy never took a risk, countless creative campaigns would never have seen the light of day. Take the leap; you may have the Big Idea.
