The Advertising Agency Account Executive is key to maintaining the relationship between the agency and the client.
Primary Objectives:
- The Advertising Agency Account Executive (AE) works as the liaison between the client and the creative team to ensure the client’s needs and goals are met.
- The Account Executive manages the pitch to the client, the client’s ad budget and generally handles around four non-competing client accounts at a time.
- The Account Executive must have the ability to communicate clearly both verbally and in writing.
- The Advertising Agency Account Executive must be a well-organized person.
The Advertising Agency Account Executives must be capable of working long hours in order to meet tight deadlines. They of course must display a professional looking personal appearance and persona. The Account Executive often travels to where the client is located in order to handle the account. Since the client maybe very busy with other functions in their business they are not always able to go forward into the Advertising Agency to check out proofs or select materials. The Advertising Agency Account Executive creates and displays any dynamic materials so that the client can see them. That is why the Account Executive must travel to the client. The Account Executive must have excellent people skills and the ability to work with a wide range of people. When there is a deadline involved and a client who is hard to please the Account Executive must be able to handle pressure well.
The Advertising Agency Account Executive is commonly confused as members of the creative team. The Advertising Agency Account Executive is the one who manages the client’s budget and pitches the sales of the creative team’s ideas. The Account Executive is actually part of the marketing section of the agency helping to get the ideas across to the client, keeping the client happy, and helping to find new clients. Many students like to be able to do their internship in the Advertising Agency that they can become a part of after graduation.
The Advertising Agency Account Executives must be able to handle more than one client at a time. It is essential that they have a booking of multiple clients in order to keep business within the skills. The Advertising Agency Account Executives must check the status of each client’s job (s) in the creative department. They must verify the jobs will be completed on time. The Advertising Agency Account Executives realize that completing the job on time is vital to the client. That is why they must insure that the creative department is finishing each project as directed, present it to the client for approval, and then set the project in motion. The Advertising Agency Account Executives usually contacts each one of their clients once a day to discuss current and upcoming projects. In this manner the Account Executive can initiate new jobs for the client which insures that the agency has good business. The main thing for the Account Executive is to make sure that each project is keeping the client within the budget. If the Account Executive goes over budget for the client the agency suffers and so does the client.
The Advertising Agency Account Executive duties require them to review and present concepts, layouts, and copies to the client for approval. When the client feels that some of the work is not exactly what they want then the Account Executive must communicate the client’s feedback to the creative department. The Account Executive often works with the creative department in changing their creations to conform to what the client is trying to find. The Account Executive sometimes has to convince the client that what the creative department has created for them saves them money in comparison to what they believe that they want. The client might want a change that goes way over the budget and it is the Account Executive duty to help the client recognize this factor. The Account Executive often has to work as the liaison between the two making sure that the creative department can create closely to what the client wants and needs while staying within the client’s budget. In the meantime the Account Executive must also be able to work with the client convincing them to stay within budget.