What I do...

People ask me a lot what I do. My answer, I work at an advertising firm.
I get mixed responses- "Oh that must be so glamorous", "Do you, like, make the tv commercials?", "What exactly do you do there?", "What have you done that I've seen?"

So, I thought I would share a little bit about my job that I love so much.
I'm the account coordinator and my role is to work with our clients and with the agency's creative departments to make (as I say) "everything happen on time, on budget and on strategy" ...oh, and keep everybody happy, too!
For fun, I Googled what a formal definition or job description of this position would say. Here's a bit of what I found:

Account Executive (def)
the link between the agency and its clients. They sell the agency's services to the client. They utilize the agency's various departments—including copywriting, design, interactive, and production—to create effective advertising campaigns for their clients.
Account services professionals manage the relationship between the agency and the client. They are the first line of contact with the client - and the first line of defense. Essentially, they are the project managers for advertising accounts. Account services people are marketing and communications consultants; they must know as much about the brand as the client, and more about how to advertise it.
Working Conditions:
Advertising account executives work under a great deal of pressure in a highly competitive environment. They put in long hours and are ultimately responsible for seeing that artists and copywriters meet their schedules.

Well, that's pretty accurate! I chuckled at the "great deal of pressure" line, because that couldn't be more true most weeks! Sometimes, we (AE's) feel like everything is due yesterday, there's no way you can get the team to crank out that much creativity in one afternoon, and you don't always agree with your client's requested changes. BUT- I LOVE it! It is so much fun (despite a dash of craziness here and there) to be in a creative environment, and it's so rewarding to see a project through and, more importantly, help the client achieve results and success for their business. It's a team effort between both parties and you develop great relationships internally and externally.

How did I get into this? By luck! I was a communication major in college and only had a few classes that even covered advertising. So, I was pretty-much clueless about the 'real' marketing world. After school, I landed a summer internship at Stone Ward in Little Rock. I must have been a good intern, because I got a job with the agency after the 6 week term. I worked there for one year and I loved the people, the projects, and the experiences. I quickly learned that the skills needed for anyone in account service are not learned in a classroom but rather by experience and instinct. You need excellent organization skills, be able to communicate really well with others, manage time frames and deadlines, prioritize, and LISTEN. We have to listen to our clients to fully understand their business. Oh, and it is also important to ALWAYS BE LEARNING! The ad industry is always changing, and it's crucial to stay on top of trends and competitors' work.

When Keith and I moved to Memphis, I was really blessed to get a job right away with cs2 advertising. It turned out to be a perfect fit for me. I think things worked out pretty well for the agency, too! The account manager, Anne, that I assist had a baby 5 days after I started! So, for 3 long months, little ol' me was in charge of keeping it all together. Talk about crazy. But, it was one of the best things to have happened to me, professionally. I learned what I was capable of and how to face situations head on. I came out of it much stronger and with a lot more confidence. Now, over 7 months later, I still LOVE going to work there every day and I have a blast with my co-worker friends (click on Claire's blog to learn more about some of these cool peeps). It's a great job and I can see myself here for a long time :)


Images courtesy of Lisa (stole from her blog).


So, have you seen any of the projects I've worked on? Well, maybe. My primary client is Embassy Suites Hotels and other departments within the Hilton Family of Hotels. We do a lot of things for them. I have grown to be a huge fan of their brand and I've learned tons about their hotels! We do quite a bit of internal communications, employee engagement, sales pieces, etc. It keeps our team busy and it's pretty enjoyable.

There you have it: my work in a not-so-brief nutshell! Now you know!