Ad agency vs. PR

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  • payton

    How does Design/Art Direction differ between the two? (i.e. project briefs, timelines, scope of work, creative responsibility, portfolio potential)

  • qTime0

    Ad agencies - you'd be working with a whole team geared up to just advertising and working with other art directors. The design / creative will be everything.

    PR - would be much more like working in-house. The design / creative will be just one part of the business and thus I find they don't see it to be as important.

    • how can public relations be compared to an ad agency anyway? aren't they completely different?monospaced
    • Yeah, its a bit like trying work out the difference between a helicopter pilot and a jockey.Horp
    • well that was the questionqTime
  • monospaced0

    I have to assume that the Ad agency has better everything — project briefs (actual projects), an actual scope of work (ads), creative responsibility (creating ads), and a potential (ads again) — than a PR agency.

  • Horp0

    Ad agency: you'll be doing glamourous ad campaigns, or possibly just shitty below the line leaflets and classified ads for a range of easy access baths for pensioners.

    PR: You'll be creating award winning large scale design for glamourous events, or possibly just doing some collapsible exhibition stands for a fat bald bloke who's hired your your agency to help spread the word about his amazing new penis sheath for men of a certain age with a leaky faucet.

  • payton0

    ahhh ok that helps a bit, especially the Helicopter pilot vs. jockey metaphor. Although both very different, but both have creative processes and work. Just trying to figure out if its a waste of time for a creative to spend time at a PR firm

    • Personally, I'd say yes it is. It wont do much for your portfolio, although some PR companies do create sme amazing stimulus to be fair.Horp
    • be fair, but those agencies are few and far between. The vast majority do as little as possible for their money.Horp
  • vaxorcist0

    you may learn quite a bit at the PR firm.... like how to form an "aura of being the best" around your firm.... this may come in very handy if you ever start your own agency.... as agencies that pay too little attention to their public reputation often end up getting clients who see them more as vendors than partners....

    I worked as a temp for a week at a PR firm once, and at an agency that was across the hall from a small PR firm.... the PR people were strange but I learned quite a bit by taking them out to lunch a few times...

    but... I'd probably not want to work for a long time at a large PR firm... it's more about the message than the design by far...

    • Yep, I'd say they wouldn't realyl respect the design that much. Just another department...qTime
  • vaxorcist0

    get a feel for the culture.... being at one PR agency made me feel like I was in a high school lunch room, sitting with the loud popular kids when I wanted to be with the art kids somewhere else....