Abstract
Students in advertising have always been taught about the big four positions of research, media, account management, and creative. However, other positions should be considered as the field evolves. To better understand evolving agency relationships with creative and account service teams, we interviewed 16 advertising professionals about a fifth career option, project management. This article outlines the tasks, knowledge bases, and roles of project managers based on the industry literature and interviews. We offer advertising educators insights into how to discuss the expanded role of project management as a viable option for students’ long-term careers in advertising.
Advertising agencies have long recognized that there needs to be a diverse range of specialists that research, manage, and construct messages that successfully engage the right target, with the right message, in the right medium. Ensuring that a campaign is collectively on-budget, on-schedule, and on-strategy adds additional layers of complexity that requires organization, and management (Murray, 2018).
Before the influx of digital media options, advertising projects were moved through an agency by production managers and traffic. Typically, production managers had the strategic responsibility for the development of traditional print and broadcast projects. They directed and outlined team tasks as well as acted as the liaison between agency teams and outside vendors (Miller, 2020). Most specifically, they were responsible for getting work printed and reviewing press proofs (Sailer, 2019; Tit, 2020). The traffic manager was responsible for workflow management, or the scheduling of all jobs, and moving them through the various stages of development (Lillies, 2012).
Thanks to the growth, volume and faster pace of digital options, overall tighter budgets and shorter deadlines, agency management has gone from the singular management of production to the collective management of an entire project. This project management role sets the overall parameters of the work, helps move the project through the agency more smoothly, keeps all teams on task thus saving time and money, and improves agency communication between teams, the client, and any outside vendors.
It is clear that the project management role is expanding to provide a nexus for collaboration across the “big four functions.” Yet, to date few advertising research articles have explored this important role. More importantly, fewer advertising pedagogical articles have delved into this position to discuss how and if it should be featured in the advertising curriculum. This article seeks to understand how project management, an off-shoot of production management, has evolved from just handling print projects to being in charge of all projects regardless of medium (Tit, 2020). To learn more about this position, we listen to the words of experienced advertising project managers and directors whose agencies feature this role.
This research project may be the first academic article to interview working project managers about their holistic management role and current duties within both large and small agencies across the country. Understanding how the role of project management has evolved will not only help educators have more insights about this relatively new and still evolving role within advertising agencies, but it will also inform what skills need to be taught and to whom, helping to ensure educators that their programs teach skills that make students employable and relevant to evolving industry needs. To better understand the current skills acquired by advertising students, the first section briefly looks at undergraduate education in advertising. It explores the literature on the advertising skills students should learn. The second section of the paper explains the process of interviews with 16 advertising project managers and directors across the United States who shared their experiences regarding the project manager role. The third and fourth sections contextualize the interview findings into broader industry discussions about the project manager position. The article provides suggestions for educators to integrate the skills required for this position within the existing advertising curriculum of core classes and electives.
Literature Review
Skills and Employability in Advertising
Each year, universities across the world graduate students interested in entering the advertising field. These students will come from a variety of majors including advertising, public relations, marketing, integrated marketing communication (IMC), digital and social media, and other majors to join the industry. According to McMillan et al. (2001); Beachboard and Weidman (2013); Koranda and Sheehan (2014); and Grow and Yang (2018), the skill sets required for entry into the field generally fall along the following hard and soft skills: creativity, strong written/oral communication skills, time management, critical thinking, team/relational skills, problem solving, leadership skills, detail oriented, ethics, strategy, social media, research skills, data analytics, computer/software skills, client orientation, curiosity, and business literacy. Class projects, internships, and guest speakers provide real life examples to contextualize these general skills.
Several researchers have detailed the skills for specific positions in the advertising industry. For example, Morrison et al. (2003) identified the skills needed to prepare account planners. Based on surveys of account planners, Morrison et al. noted a skills gap in the area of research. Account planning positions required additional research skills, such as qualitative research, that were not being taught in advertising programs. Robbs and Lloyd (2016) identified the skills associated with jobs in account management noting that entry level positions require a much higher skill set of understanding revenue and profitability. Beachboard and Weidman (2013) identified the IMC skills required of students entering small agencies noting that these organizations need people with client centered orientations and business acumen.
Lowry and Xie (2008) asked employers what they wanted in entry level applicants and “the findings unambiguously indicate that the significance of good speaking and writing skills in the job market supersede other skills, regardless of the measures” (p. 22). Windels et al. (2013) explored the soft skills needed for success in the advertising industry. As the advertising profession evolves, there will need to be flexibility in advertising education if we want to best prepare our students for entry into a fast changing field. One way to prepare students is to understand the evolution of positions in an agency.
Skills for Emergent Roles in Advertising
Our research interest is in exploring the project management role as it relates to the other “big four functions” in advertising. Most of what we know about project management is from the industry trade journals. The closest existing advertising position to the project manager is the traffic manager position (https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/job-description-traffic-manager/1452673).
There has been diversity in the definitions of what traffic managers do. Traffic managers have traditionally coordinated campaigns, monitored the different stages of work, updated key stakeholders on progress and built effective relationships among key departments and clients (source from review). But according to Hauser (2020), traffic managers are mainly concerned with the creative working within and across the creative department to “touch every project at key points in the project lifecycle, like intake” (para 5).
A project manager is a bit broader and is integrated into a project before it enters the agency. There is a greater client role and the focus is on managing individual projects for their entire lifecycle (Hauser, 2020). This position works with all departments within the agency and any outside freelancers or vendors (Boogaard, 2020; Elliott, 2020; Miller, 2020; Paladin, 2020). Their job is to plan, budget, schedule, and trouble shoot as the project moves through the agency (Alexander, 2019; Henry, 2018; Lillies, 2012; Merla, 2010; Miller, 2017, 2020; Paladin, 2020; Study.com, 2019). They also oversee, coordinate, and balance the day-to-day communication between multiple teams. Huntley (2016) compares project management in advertising [to] traffic controllers. “You must manage what’s coming in as well as what’s going out, and much can be happening with both at the same time” (para 1). There needs to be knowledge of every position and department plus management skills.
The project manager position has mostly been described from industry sources. To date, no academic literature exists that describes the skills needed for employment in the project management position. Are advertising programs preparing students to move into this role? We wanted to learn more about the day-to-day activities and skills needed as well as any opportunities and challenges of the role to better inform advertising curriculum. The next section outlines the research conducted to gain deeper insight into the position.
Research Questions
The research team asked three general research questions:
RQ 1: What is the role of project management in today’s diverse agency culture?
RQ 2: How do project manager’s collaborate with both creative and account management teams?
RQ 3: What are the skills required to be a successful project manager? The answers from the interviews with directors and project managers will provide insights for faculty who teach advertising classes and provide considerations for curriculum enhancements to inform and advise on the position and overall duties of project management. Our goal is to use their answers to further enhance advertising pedagogy.
Method
Study Procedures
Following the recommendation of Reid et al. (1998), the research team used semi-structured, in-depth focused interviews to determine the current skills and responsibilities of project managers and their relationship with account and creative teams. Interviews were conducted with project managers and agency directors who reside in the United States. Participants were recruited by email from lists complied from past research by the authors and industry databases.
A study of how project managers, account managers, and creative teams work together has not previously been undertaken. As a result, we will rely on the use of open-ended questions (Creswell, 1998; Hackley & Kover, 2007; Johar et al., 2001; Koslow et al., 2003; Mcleod et al., 2009) as a proven method for gathering rich and complex qualitative data. Additionally, using in-depth interviews allows for the discovery of diverse perspectives and informant-determined points of view (Kvale, 1996). The targeted sample for the interviews with project managers and directors reflects diverse geographic locations, the diversity of their clientele, and agency size.
Analysis
The analysis of the answers of the advertising professionals was guided by Corbin and Strauss (1990) qualitative data analysis procedures. Every interview was recorded and transcribed. The transcripts of the interviews were reviewed by both members of the research team. Independently we broke down the answers into conceptual units to provide insights into each of the three research questions. Next, the team further examined the conceptual units looking for distinct subcategories reflecting themes. Third, the researchers created thematically representative categories to answer the research questions. At least one illustrative quote from the interviewees was selected to represent each theme.
Results
Descriptives
A total of 16 advertising project managers and other agency leaders participated in phone interviews ranging from 30 minutes to 1 hour. Of the 16 participants, nine were female and seven were male. Their position titles ranged from program manager (n = 1), project manager (n = 4), production manager (n = 2), creative operations (1), senior level manager (6), and director (n = 2). Interviewees had an average of 13 direct reports with a range of 6–20 supervisees. Interviewees represented all regions of the United States with interviewees working in the major advertising hubs of New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas as well as small boutique agencies in regional hubs such as Nashville and Portland. Annual revenue ranged from 1.5 million to 300 million. The interviewees represented a wide range of firm sizes with the smallest employing six people and the largest employing 2500 people across all advertising functions.
Findings
Interviewee answers suggest the project management function has two main roles: as the virtual hub that keeps the agency moving forward to completion and as the function that manages people, processes, and sometimes clients.
Project Managers as the Virtual Hub Ensuring Project Completion and Profitability
A project manager is the string that helps tie the different stages of a project, and the people who work on them, together. Usually held by senior people, this position is responsible for planning, organizing, scheduling, managing, and executing projects from start to finish. To succeed, they must be multitalented across many areas to manage all the moving parts associated with any project.
The interviewees recognized the high level role of project management. They see the role as a hub or glue that holds the teams together and ensures the job gets done. “We are the glue internally within the agency to ensure that everyone is aware that the project is moving in a timely fashion, all the deliverables are being met, and that everyone has the proper assets and things that are needed to get the job done.” Portland “A project manager, is an evolution of traffic and production management, in that, they are the hub of every project, they make sure the projects open, the right team is on that work, [and] you have a schedule of when things are due.” Memphis
There is a coaching aspect to the role: “We are like the coach in a way, we’re there to assist and help everyone achieve what they need to achieve, and do what they need to do to make sure the project gets accomplished.” Chicago
Because of their seniority and familiarity with the entire advertising process, they also interact with clients, sometimes coming in to temper expectations. As one project manager in Atlanta told us, “project managers are advocates for the agency and for essentially our profitability, and then also communicating that out to ensure that the goals of the agency is clear to the client.”
Their role is different from creative and account teams that are more singularly focused on the business behind the visual/verbal solution to a client’s advertising problem. They have to be able to sequence different steps and in some cases, for several clients at once. As one manager from Portland noted, “jobs don't just line up, and you don't just work on a project until it’s finished to the exclusion of everything else. You’re multitasking constantly, and you're working on more than just one project. At least in a smaller agency, a mid-size to small agency, you have to work on multiple clients at the same time and multiple tactics for clients, so anything from a logo design to an email, to a website, to digital graphics, [and any] social media stuff. You’ve got projects that are both really simple revisions and very in-depth, you’re constantly defining and conceptualizing the beginning of a campaign and everything in between.”
Manage, Manage, and Manage
Project managers work with account managers, creatives, and production, and occasionally, they work with the media. They will field client requests, manage any outside manpower such as freelancers, or print and digital vendors. They may have to quickly adjust to any changing deadlines or budget issues, manage communication between all factions inside and outside the agency, referee any friction that might arise between teams and build and work from a comprehensive plan to ensure everyone involved in the project can deliver a quality project that fits snuggly within the predetermined guidelines (Wilson, 2020).
The second theme that emerged was around the topic of continuous management of people and processes. “So you’re managing people, you’re managing time, you’re managing budget, you’re managing projects. It’s a lot of people management, sometimes you are part therapy, part therapist. You are leading a project, why you’re leading everyone along with the process.” New York “It’s my job to make everybody else’s job easier in the agency, whether it’s the creative people, whether it’s a creative director, an art director, a designer, a production artist, an account person, a community manager, an accounting person even, I’m facilitating everything and I need to be able to anticipate what roadblocks may be coming up that would slow the project down or make the budget go over. It’s my job to make everybody else’s job easier.” New York
The challenge for all project managers is to ensure every project’s overall objectives can be translated into a visual and verbal solution that connects and satisfies all stakeholders: client, creative, and account management (Merla, 2010).
Relationships with Account and Creative Teams
To solidify the parameters of their role, project managers talked about their relationship with account teams and creatives. To ensure any projects’ success, project managers must understand their teams in order to extract the best possible outcomes (Muslihat, 2018). Project managers work closely with both account management and creative to ensure the project meets the client’s needs and is both on-strategy and on-budget.
In their role as manager of all agency projects and personnel, they need to outline and organize and be the watchdog over the daily roles and responsibilities of both the creative team (creative directors, art directors, copywriters, and production) and account management team. They need to ensure creatives have the time needed to “sit around and do nothing” (Miller, 2020, para 10), when needed to brainstorm and strategize. Project managers’ relationships with the account team span risk assessment, collaboration and sometimes dealing with account teams that seek to circumvent the project manager role. “I mainly am a pain in the side to account people because they notoriously try to circumvent the project managers and go straight to creative people, and I had to go to their boss and say, “Listen, you need to have a meeting with all of the account people and say, “It may make sense, I just [have] a quick question for so-and-so,” but they have to understand that there’s 70 account people that might be going to the same person and they’re not going to get any work done if you don’t filter your questions through your PM, and that’s my biggest pet peeve, so I’m constantly spanking account people for circumventing me, because I try to keep the creative people’s schedules with the least amount of interruptions so that they can focus on what they do.” New York
The project managers also have to work closely with the creative team and manage the creative process. “I keep the creative department, every level of the creative department moving forward [I am] that intermediary between account service and creative.” Atlanta “The creative team kind of looks to you as their barrier between account and them. But in my experience, the creative team usually feels like the account team is working more for the client than they are for the internal team.” New York
As the “middle person” between teams and the client, it is the project manager’s job to take into account the interest of all players that touch or interact with any project. By creating an open-forum environment that continually solicits feedback, project managers can help ensure all voices are heard and measured without creating additional pressure. Whereas some project managers noted that they spend more energy working with either creative or account services, most interviewees acknowledged that you have to balance relationships with all teams to be successful. “Your job is to be able to work with everyone. And even if there are frictions within, because creatives will always blame account [service], account [service] will always blame creatives and then there’s production. So your job is, you’re literally mediating everyone constantly. And it is the project manager’s job to know how to communicate to each different department, on the same issue to make sure that there’s no friction, and everyone understands what needs to happen.” Memphis
Know the Business and the Big Picture
Successful project managers need to have the “big picture” skills that understand the business of advertising including soft skills like empathy, listening and negotiation. Interviewees described the role requirements as driven by the personality of the project manager, their tenacity, as well as their in-depth knowledge of the roles of each of the agency departments and the brands that they work on. It is critical they understand the big picture.
One of the most consistent findings is that the project manager is both professionally and personally qualified to balance relationships among the teams and client. They are very senior and take a high level view of the different teams’ contributions. “The biggest skillset for a project manager is being able to see big picture and understand things holistically because to me, like I work on a lot of big accounts that have a lot of different parts. And I’m the only one that knows everything that’s happening in the entire account. Because I am the only project manager across one account that has four brands under it.” Dallas
Project managers are also responsible for the “integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risk procurement and stakeholder management” (Alexander, 2019, para 5). Their actions and responsibilities determine the success or failure of any project (Alexander, 2019). In addition to the high level view, they also have to be effective communicators. “I think it’s really important to have people skills and to be empathetic. And I think it’s really important to be able to neutral[ize] and juggle like when you have account service yelling at you that we need to get things done, how can you push back and negotiate with them to get the time that you need to get your creatives what they need.” Dallas
Being Detailed, Organized, and Strategic
Having all tasks outlined and correctly assigned to the right person or team allows the detail oriented project manager to stay focused and ensure all tasks are completed on time and within budget (Kukhnavets, 2018, par. 2). The interviewees described a role where attention to detail and an ability to follow strategy matters a great deal. They need to be able to manage client’s requests and stop scope creep. “Oh, definitely detailed-oriented. It’s going to be a fast-paced environment, some of the less known that you touch is finance and budgeting, as well as the need to watch out for scope creep. Scope creep would be the definition of the project; what we’re charging would be the scope. Then when the client starts asking for more than what we’ve detailed out in the price we say, hey, we didn’t really allow for that, that’s the creep. Additionally, you have to really be a good organizer and a good listener to avoid making costly mistakes.” Atlanta “There’s a lot of things where we are the safeguard and the safety net of catching the things that people may overlook, whether it’s thinking ahead and knowing we’re going to need extra resources on this project, or the timing of this is a little too tight, we may not be able to accomplish what we need to accomplish, and just flagging those things.” New York “I think a good project manager has to understand the job from a very high level, from the strategy and the goals, but they also must be able to hone in on the smallest details, and that’s where we always get bitten in the … that’s what can cost an account. That’s the hard part.” New York
Our interviewees agree that project managers need to have a “birds eye” view of the project as well as sticking to the details of budget and strategy to keep all parts moving.
Discussion: Translating the Project Manager Role into the Curriculum Preparing the Next Generation of Project Managers
RQ 1 asked about the role of project management in today’s diverse agency culture. Our interviewees told us that it is a very broad role. A typical project manager will have a bachelor’s degree in communications, advertising or business, and have knowledge of, and be competent in, the following hard and soft skills: strong written and verbal communication, budgeting, scheduling, be adept at personnel management, be a leader, motivator, organizer, and multi-tasker, be able to prioritize multiple tasks, have excellent problem-solving abilities, be a good listener, be able to work in a fast paced environment, be willing to work long hours, be flexible, be a critical thinker, be adaptable, and able to manage stress both for themselves and others. They must also have knowledge of project management processes, workflows and terminology. Although junior level positions exist, this is not an entry level position and requires mentoring before working solo.
RQ 2 asked how project managers collaborate with both creative and account management teams. Many advertising project managers begin their career in another role within the agency such as account management, creative or production, or come from other disciplines (Merla, 2010; Paladin, 2020) such as health care, aviation, technology, software development, engineering, construction, real estate, publishing, and financial. They balance relationships with the two teams and at different times advocate for each of the functions. As one project manager from Portland noted, I have to know “every facet of the agency and actually can communicate with account and creative and then take this ragtag body of executors and pull them together. So a project manager is somebody who can do the two, the account [management] and creative, as well as to have conversations with the client on any number of topics.”
RQ 3 inquired into the skills required to be a successful project manager. The findings support the employability literature in advertising from scholars such as McMillan et al. (2001): Beachboard and Weidman (2013); Koranda and Sheehan (2014) and Grow and Yang (2018). Yet, there are additional technical or hard skills that are part of this position that could be reflected in the curriculum. For example, project managers need knowledge of both creative and account management processes. They need to fully understand the business of creative. They must know more than a basic knowledge of print, broadcast and digital creation and production (Miller, 2020). Students that “invest in developing these capabilities [should consider it] an investment in [their] career that will never stop paying dividends” (Sailer, 2019, para 9).
We recognize that adding new content to the advertising curriculum may be challenging. For instance, in the United States, advertising programs that are located in schools or colleges of mass communication are accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) which is the agency responsible for the evaluation of professional journalism and mass communications programs in colleges and universities.
Accreditation provides common expectations of student learning outcomes and prescribes major and elective credit hours, internships requirements, and coursework. Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications accreditation stipulates that students must complete certain requirements such as ethics and enroll in liberal arts electives or complete double majors to broaden students’ scope and knowledge base: Credit Hours Outside Journalism and Mass Communications: ACEJMC requires that students take a minimum of 72 semester credit hours (104 quarter hours) outside of the unit. At least 95 percent of the graduating classes in the two years preceding the site visit must meet this requirement. Programs should monitor their majors’ compliance with this rule every year and keep their records of compliance up-to-date. (http://www.acejmc.org/resources/preparation-for-accreditation)
This rule has implications for curriculum design at accredited institutions. The curriculum is limited by the number of internal hours in each major and there is little flexibility for adding new courses. Instead, when there needs to be new skills or concepts added to the curriculum, they will be added to existing classes or offered as electives.
Integrating the Project Manger Role into Select Core and Elective Courses.
As Table 1 shows, there are ample opportunities to place the discussion of the project manager role in the existing curriculum. The Introduction to Advertising classes are the first place most students not only learn about what advertising is all about, but the varied roles found within an agency. Classes covering strategy are excellent places to discuss their role with the brief, budgeting, and the management and organizational skills needed to route projects through the agency and between teams. Introductory and advanced design classes can cover not only their roles as advocates, but how they ensure creative has everything they need to complete a job, that deadlines are clear and that account teams do not directly and constantly bombard them with questions and concerns. This would also be the time to talk about their role in working with outside vendors for both traditional and digital as well as freelancers.
Research classes could cover their involvement in obtaining and organizing primary and secondary research needs for both teams. Students can learn how to plan and monitor focus groups to learn more from the consumer about current preferences to assist with concept development for a new campaign and/or learning why a current ad campaign is/is not working from the consumer perspective. Project managers are responsible for forecasting budget items such as labor associated with research costs so students in the research class can learn how to budget for data collection.
Campaign courses can take a comprehensive final look at their detailed management role for each developmental stage of a campaign. Boogaard (2020) identified a variety of software and dashboard programs to organize projects by consolidating all communication within a single software management program, viewable by all teams and the client. Diverse software and dashboard options include Function Point, Pro Profs Project, Runrun.it, Trello, Asana, Monday.com, Workamajig, and Wrike, Hootsuite, Workfront, and Basecamp (Boogaard, 2020; Cohen, 2018).
As for electives, account management and/or planning classes can discuss the specific differences in job descriptions between account management and project managers, how they are in charge of tracking the movement of a project through the agency, and client management, as well as how they are responsible for directly handling any creative needs and concerns. Social media classes can discuss how project managers lead the fast paced work to ensure all posts are out on time and use the correct formatting in addition to managing content creation needs and social media assets to be utilized on various platforms. Students can gain familiarity with social media dashboards and metrics.
Conclusion
A project manager takes an active leadership role for every job that comes into an agency and closely follows it through to completion, ensuring the correct people are in place so there are no excessive bumps or surprises along the way. They must be strategic thinkers, they need to understand the role of a creative brief and be able to ensure the teams follow it, understand media and its role within the creative process, and understand the brand and brand category as well as the account team (Elliott, 2020; Huntley, 2016; Miller, 2017; Wilson, 2020).
Advertising educators should consider adding discussions of the project manager role across the curriculum. Such discussions will help students see how different functions work together to complete advertising campaigns. By looking ahead to the role of project management, students can see how all functions in an agency fit together and then can begin working on the skills needed to enter into the project manager position as their career progresses.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
