Account Management

The account management (also known as account services) department is the ad agency’s primary contact with the client. It acts as a middleman of sorts, communicating the client’s concerns to the various agency departments and the agency’s thoughts and concerns to the client. In addition, the account team manages the execution of ads by coordinating the agency’s resources to get ads made “on time, on budget, on strategy, and in a way that meets the client’s needs,” as an insider puts it. This might involve making sure the agency has received legal clearance to use the images and music in an ad or ensuring that ads in production are moving from department to department and then out the door. While account management is a primarily administrative function at some agencies, most have a number of higher-level jobs in the department. For instance, the account team may be intimately involved in developing strategy for the client by using its understanding of the client’s business, the consumer marketplace, and the agency’s various capabilities to advise the client on strategy issues. Specifically, the account team might work with the account planning department and the creative department to develop a communication or creative strategy for what the client wants the marketplace to think and feel about it or its products, and with the media department to develop a media strategy for where the ads will be placed. The account team might assist the creative department in developing the concept for an ad or a campaign and also be responsible for selling the client on the creative department’s work. (One insider says, “If you hate sales, don’t go into account management.”) The client reviews the agency’s ideas, and the account team should have a deep understanding of the ads the creative department is proposing, so it can explain how the ads address the client’s strategy. With the rise of account planning in American advertising, some agencies’ account management departments are ceding control of account strategy to account planning. An insider says, “Strategic planners [account planners] have taken on a lot of the strategic development that account management people used to do.” Job seekers looking for account management jobs would be wise to find out the departments’ level of involvement at the companies they are interested in.

At some agencies, being an administrative assistant is the only entry-level path into account management. At others, account coordinator is the entry-level position. Still other agencies start new employees in the assistant account executive position. After that, the career path looks like this: account executive, account manager, account supervisor, management supervisor, vice president, and director. At the entry level, most positions in account management will be at least in part glorified secretarial jobs, in which you make sure ads move smoothly through the execution process. Depending on the agency and the manager, you may have some competitive-analysis responsibility or be invited along to client meetings or ad shoots. But as an insider says, “The lower you are on the account totem pole, the more it’s about execution. The higher you are, the more it’s about strategy.” Skill set. People entering account management must have strong people skills, since a good chunk of their job involves managing people. As one insider says, “As you move up in account management, one of your responsibilities becomes managing the people below you. But even at the lower levels, you’re managing people in other departments.” People with their sights set on account management should also be organized and good at multitasking, because they’ll be working on a variety of things simultaneously. In addition, account management candidates should have a good understanding of marketing and selling, since the job is about helping clients sell their goods and selling the agency to the clients. They should also be able to think like both business people and creatives, since they have to deal with both camps. According to an insider, “In terms of personality, creatives and clients are often diametrically opposed... And the better direction you give the creatives, the better ads you get.” Finally, it helps to have an eye for good creative work to make sure the agency’s best creative work makes it into the final ads..