3 Things Advertising Students Must Know To Succeed

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Some of the idols we adore in the advertising industry, the likes of Leo Burnett, William Bernbach, Rosser Reeves, William Paley and host of others are on AdAge as top 100 Advertising people. It is no doubt that we as Advertising Students aspires
to be one of them and if peradventure we could also be inducted into the noble profession hall of fame, it wouldn't sound as no bad Idea to us at all. As a matter of fact, I think we want to be greater than them.

Viola! Yes. Yes. Yes. I believe you can too.

However, I don't know what kind of news to news to call it - Good or Bad?  You are gonna be the judge here.

It goes beyond: "Yea, I want to be an advertising Practitioner, therefore, I am offering only advertising courses". It isn't also a matter of "Soft work, I bagged distinction all my advertising course.

As an advertising Student myself, I have taken my time to understand the salient features that stood out in our legendary advertising icons.

It was in my little research that I discovered that this business is a very interesting one. Another thing I learnt is that this business is not like the conventional business we use to know. it is business unusual. Unless we get these three integral things that I want us to keep in our mind, we MIGHT not reach where we want to be in the advertising arena.

They are:

1) Persuasion Skills -  One of the reasons why brands drop millions into the marketing account is not because they are rich and don't know what to use the money for.  The essence of the heavy budgets is to convince their target audience not to only buy what they sell once but also to maintain their loyalty to that particular brand. As an advertising student, I think you should know that you will not only need to persuade the company's target audience, you will as well need to convince the advertisers (Company) that you are capable to provide strategies that match the stated objective in the brief they present. This you will achieve through a process called "Pitching".

This demands that you are articulate in reasoning and presentation. You must be able to present the onions you know about a subject in a manner that will appeal to them (Your audience) to demand for that product instantly.

Don't worry man. Those things are learnable if you fall under the category of the second point.

2) Research
Without you been told I think you should know that you persuade your audience with a lie. if you sure get away with one, you won't get another. It therefore a call on advertising students to sharpen their skill in research. Those facts and figures go a long way in getting a nod.

3) Creativity 

Respect to the Champion of Advertising Creativity, Bill Bernbach. Bernbach strictly noted that Advertising is not science at all. He labelled Advertising an "Art". Everything you do should not be confined to a formula. In fact 'regular' is a taboo in the industry. You need to be able to see things from an angle where no one has seen it before. The industry is a creative industry, anybody that seeks  to excel must do everything possible to keep the fire of creativity blazing.

In conclusion: a Quote of Bill Bernbach of DDB caps it all-- ""The truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know what you're saying, and they can't know what you're saying if they don't listen to you, and they won't listen to you if you're not interesting, and you won't be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly."