r/advertising

Former advertiser, now in house for a brand. Ive been with the company for 4 years and have gone from a very understaffed team of just me, to a team of 3 in the past year. Two of them are 2 months in. We have new C Suite and have high demands, which Im happy about as it’s been really pushing me to work harder and smarter.

I am the senior lead on my team, and am taking my first few days of PTO this year and I hate the feeling of being disconnected. I understand this is bad and I’m micromanaging. I think a lot of this comes from me being so passionate about the work.

I made a PTO Document for my team to handle while I’m away from work and I just have this feeling of dread/anxiety that things are going to be done wrong. I’m 4 days into vacation and I am struggling.

At this point I’d rather work to calm my nerves.

What can I do to better about this so I can fully log off and be a better manager?

No idea what im doing. Its for a window cleaning business:

FRONT

[Image of a high-end home]

Your home deserves to look it's best.

We're cleaning windows in your neighborhood this month.

Local, owner-operated. Fully insured. Reliable.

Call for your 2 minute quote: 867-5309.

BACK

Why homeowners call us:

• Owner-Operated
• Local to Anywheretown
• Fully Insured
• Interior/Exterior Window Cleaning
• Screens & Tracks

See Our 5-Star Reviews

Scan The QR Code Below:

[QR CODE]

I'm told that the purpose of advertising isn't to sell products(even though nearly all ads are for a specific product), it's to leave a subconscious impression in your brain which then activates years down the line like a sleeper cell.

I am very skeptical of that and think it sounds like woo. All the evidence I could find was anecdotal.

But I will change my views in a millisecond if I found out we've isolated the exact neural pathways responsible.

Offer came through in a paid media role, I know they’re going through changes but generally speaking what is the vibe? Raises? Morale? leadership? Anything?

Why are consumers getting bombarded with ads like never before when such an aggressive strategy doesn’t significantly improve sales? In fact, consumers have reported that they are tired of all the pointless ads of products and services that they have absolutely no interest in. Even when the ads are targeting the right audience, the approach tends to be aggressive.

If you or anyone you know work at a major media outlet, please forward this and the entire story to them. If this was said by a leader at Goldman Sachs, a movie studio, any business but advertising they would be fired. The context that it was said in Cannes on a company all expense paid trip to the most expensive region of the world for a week, while employees suffer stripped back prescription drug benefits, the near-end of 401(k) matching, and work harder and harder for less than less, whole this company had the most massive layoffs in the history of advertising this year, and the Omnicom CEO earned over $70 million needs to be front page news in business publications. This executive needs to be held accountable for what she said what she meant and the effect on all of us who work at this global organization. Please forward to anybody you can find at those publications

I started a business in March and had really great luck using local neighborhood groups to spread the word and get some solid initial business and experience.

I've since built my own website and Instagram account and am slowly (I mean really slowly) gaining local followers to my account. I also have a Google business account that I worked on with AI to optimize. I currently have four client reviews.

I'm seeking input on what direction to explore next. My business is local to chicago.

I've boosted Instagram posts and that brings me some new followers but not actual bookings. Is fb ads the right next step? I'm open to any/all resources for teaching myself this part of the business. My clientele is women ages 25 to 65.

Thank you

Anyone here transition from a creative marketing role (copywriting, social media, content, creative strategy, design, etc.) into something more stable like

Brand Management,
Growth Marketing,
Product Marketing,
Marketing Analytics, or Performance Marketing?

What made you switch? Was it worth it?

Considering making the move myself because i think on the longer run being creative gets subjective over time and i cant stay on average pay all the time,

would love to hear your experiences.

ps: I worked as creative associate for 1 year

For context, i'm based in San Juan Puerto Rico and i'm just looking to get off the island and move to the states.

I've been at one of the top independent agencies for two years as a Digital Creative doing mostly social strategy and concepts but I feel i'm very underpaid for the talent and work I bring. I've handled big accounts in the restaurant, automotive and other industries. I've worked and directed top influencers in PR, won client challenges competing in LATAM/USA the first two months in the role, gained a national award in my previous agency, developed an influencer activation strategy recognized as the most succesful in all the international brands for a big QSR.

When I tried to speak to my superiors about compensation, they said a private agency does not need to give compensation and raises each year and additionally, when I tried to ask for a promotion to Sr. They also said I still needed to improve on my deck design skills. After they said that I felt stabbed in the back and underappreciated, also I knew it was BS because there are other senior digital creatives who do way less work than me. I've gained the respect of all the creative, account and media people in the agency. But I feel the CD is kinda outdated and the Digital Director lacks any real strategy, those are my superiors.

Now I feel stuck because I know I do more work than Seniors, I know i'm the only one in the agency who knows how to develop and strategize ideas for certain accounts, i am completely bilingual and can give presentations in either spanish or english.

I'm under 30 but I've been more than 5 years in my career, I can adapt quickly, I have a killer resume and portfolio but I just don't know where to start and which agencies or companies offer relocation assistance or if they even offer them?

So I am trying out meta business suites and am not having the best luck. Are the seos that people call and talk about worth it? I have a landscaping business so word of mouth is huge for me so I do the typical flyers and yard signs, but need something to have a bigger impact. I post on Facebook and do what I can for my Google business page as well. I’m thinking of running a special of 50% first grass cuttings or 20% off other jobs, but just want to see people’s opinions and advice.

Iv never advertised before and im setting up my freelancing business of website designing and I have no clue how to properly create an ad

Most people here can run a campaign in their sleep. Meta ads, Google ads, full funnels it works, it scales, no argument there.

But this is the part that gets me. We'll pay for every single click without blinking, and completely ignore the one place on Facebook that still hands out real organic reach for free: groups.

Your Page gets maybe 2% reach now. Facebook choked it on purpose so you'd boost everyone knows that by now. What nobody says out loud is that group reach never died the same way. A post in an active, relevant group still lands in front of 20–40% of the members. For nothing. And it's not a replacement for paid, it stacks on top of it.

So why does everyone skip it? Because it's not sexy. No dashboard, no clean ROAS, you can't put "posted in 40 groups" on a client report. It feels manual and a little beneath us. So the channel just sits there wide open while people way less "sophisticated" than us realtors, recruiters, random ecom sellers quietly pull free leads out of it all day.

And the "too manual" excuse barely holds anymore. There are Chrome extensions now that post to your groups for you with built-in delays so you don't get flagged. The grind's basically gone. Which leaves ego as the only real reason left to skip it.

Genuinely asking is anyone here running group posting next to their paid, or is it still beneath a "real" marketer?

How have you media buyers been using AI in your daily roles? Media plan development, strategy development, etc? If any? Curious to know what are others thoughts.

This is a hell headache for me right now. I’m curious how other teams handle the boring operational part of campaign creative: getting the right client assets, references, past edits, logos, usage notes, and approved versions into one place before anyone starts writing, designing, or editing.

In most I’ve seen, the designed process sounds clean, but the actual process is a mix of Drive folders, Slack threads, old decks, random exports, client emails, and “ask the person who worked on this last time.” It works until volume goes up, people switch accounts, or the client asks for a fast refresh using footage or claims from an older campaign.

For you, where does this usually break first?

• Intake from the client
• Finding reusable past work
• Knowing what is approved vs outdated
• Keeping creative/version history clear
• Briefing freelancers or editors
• Getting feedback back into the same place

I’m less interested in tool lists and more interested in the actual workflow. What do you do today that works better than it sounds, and what still wastes the most time?

Can we figure out a way to streamline the numerous posts that come up every week with people asking about working conditions at holding companies? Or at the least, require specific sets of information for the post to stay up?

There are tens of thousands of people working across dozens of companies and hundreds if not thousands of teams. There is very little useful information that can be provided when such a broad question is asked. It is so dependent on team/client/agency.

On another day of a job search that's on week seven since getting laid off and just need to vent. I guess. I've been a cipywriter for six years, started my first job literally the weke after Covid shut everything down in 2020 so pretty much from the start, nothing was like what I imagined it would be.

And I'm not gonna sit here and act like I was some future Don Draper being held back by opportunity. I've been aggressively okay...underachieved at my first agency experience because pandemic-related account shuffling left me miserable and dogging it.

Landed at Havas in 2022 and worked there for 4 years again, just being solid. I've always had this lingering feeling I just didn't *get* advertising enough to be anything but a guy that takes banners, emails and social posts off everybody's hands and watched script after script almost make it but get tossed aside, and felt like I was unable to figure out that final hook; just another writer turning to advertising for a steady paycheck because he's too lazy to pursue his real creative aspirations. The closest I got to actually spearheading a campaign wound up getting ruined by the credit card we were working on getting completely in flux after the client's deal with their distributor fell apart and then right afterwards Havas' VP of Business left the agency and stole the piece of the account that campaign had been for so we couldnt even give it another shot. Like, I just couldn't catch a break, and when I got a break I just couldn't do enough to make the most of it.

And on top of that I'm as introverted as they come and never really made the effort to ingratiate myself into any teams or develop a strong presence in the agency besides the 4 or 5 people I clicked with...most of whom would get laid off through the years anyway lol. I knew my inability to connect with folks was a hindrance but just found myself in this loop of anxiety and resentment I guess.

It all came to head the last 10 months or so. Again, just being solid​ and unspectacular on and account that wanted nothing more than solid and unspectacular. Wound up on a pitch with an ECD just helping on the side that finally, FINALLY gave me that true motivstion and drive I've been looking for, and our campaign and the manfiesto that I wrote and led wound up not only winning the pitch​, but being the campaign they'd run with. I'm thinking this is the moment I finally get on that senior copywriter path and then...crickets. Neither me, my art director or the ECD that helped us out got put on the account, and we found out later another team was working on the shit we made.

Resourcing manager said it was just an allocation thing...but the whole reason I even had time to be on the pitch was because the main account I was on was in a flux I suspect was really the client starting to outsource things to AI. 6 months of none of the copywriters on the account having nothing going on.

After constantly hounding that same resource manager I got on an account they'd recently won, just knocking out emails and it was going okay, a bit of a clusterfuck, and then the most incompetent account manager I've ever encountered gets on the account, turns everything into a mess from briefs to deliverables, and now I'm finding myself having to juggle 20 email asks a day that are being thrown at me in Microsoft Teams chats with no briefings, no content direction besides "Uhhh look at their website I guess" with a deliverables system thag put the onus on me to do shit that in my previous 6 years had only ever been handled by PMs. The inattentive creative director comes in and apparently wasn't digging my work and yet I was the last to know because I never get any feedback.

I thought maybe it was just me, but designers were venting to me on the side about what a mess everything was, and I found out later even former coworkers had people at the agency venting to them about how awful this account person was lmao. But long story short, I end up getting frustrated and just asked why everything was such a mess and got taken off the account shortly after. Resourcing manager even shared my frustrations with the situation and vented to me about how CDs at the agency seemingly can't be bothered to give actual feedback until it's too late. I pretty much realized this was my last shot; just got the vibe from how much out CCO I championing AI and my position as a guy that's seemingly just okay on an account where not much was happening. Was told I wasn't working to the level of a mid-level copywriters and that was that. The same ECD I worked with on the pitch has been helping me land on my feet and that's been the one sliver of confidence I'm clinging to but...Just not much going on right now. I feel so powerless, like I'm just at the mercy of whoever feels like responding while working with a book that probably isn't commanding attention. Had an interview a couple weeks ago, haven't heard back.

So now I find myself as guy who already struggled with my confidence, just looking back at my experience and thinking about everything I've done wrong that's left me on a countdown to when my savings runs out. I could've done more. I could've done proactive work to keep my name out there when things were quiet - but even then, because I closed myself off so much, I would've been riding solo without an art director anyway. I could've just done better and stopped leaving so much on the cutting room floor. Or shit, just done something I actually like instead of advertising.

I just feel like I bot only can't find work, but with each passing day I'm just resenting the entire industry as more people surrender to AI and the machine of capitalism enshittifies everything with the ad industry functioning as its right hand. Even if I eventually do land somewhere, will it be better? Is my inability to find a place in anyway because I'm subconsciously weary of all this? I really, dont fucking know. I just know that I feel absolutely defeated and have no answer.

Excuse my incoherent venting session. I'm just at a loss right now in an industry I'm not sure was ever for me.

28 year old writer here. Spent a year doing misc. e-commerce social work for peanuts, then transitioned to pharma agency work, where I’ve been for four years.

I’ve never been a part of a real pitch, outside of brand planning. I’ve only really just started to lead pieces. I’ve been relegated to anno work and supporting other writers for the bulk of my career. I’ve become a pillar of each team I’m on and a reliable keeper of content, but never given the chance to do anything shiny.

To be clear: I’m not really looking to be a hero. I don’t need or even really want to rise to CD levels, given that my current CD works 10-11 hours a day plus weekends. In full honesty, I just need to A) make more money, and B) ensure I’m employable when this gig inevitably ends, as they all do. That second one is the main concern — my portfolio has a few assets like websites and campaign pitches for major pharma brands, but outside of that, my reliability as a details guy has kept me insanely busy with distinctly unsexy work for a long time.

All of that said, I feel like the gap between my role and even just “senior copywriter” is farther than desired.

Am I far behind where I should be? If so, what am I doing wrong? It’s worth noting that this is far from my passion and, while I routinely work over 40 hour weeks and always deliver with strength on any ask, I’m really not looking to spend an extra ten hours a week working on ad lobs nobody asked for or doing Miami ad school. If that’s the bare minimum it takes to keep pace in this field, I’d welcome that knowledge and politely start tweaking my resume to look applicable to PR or some other junk.

Help me understand plz. Explain like I’m 5

I left 10 years ago. Now working for an NGO, haven't thought about the industry much other than being grateful I dont have to be involved. So I'm very out of touch

My question is how has it changed over the last two years now that AI is used in everyday work? I'm not talking about award winning work, I'm curious about the everyday work? The grind. The medium money stuff. How is it different for creatives? How is it for Ceative directors being pitched AI slop? Or are you getting pitched better wokr? Client expectations? Are you guys actually getting complete briefs now?

I assume it's more about curation than creation now that it's easy to knock out more TVC scripts in an hour than a team used to do in days. Language models are so good at taking direction and working within constraints. Image generation at concept stage is piss easy nowadays. I know final production you still find that there is a gap (rapidly closing gap).

What's it like for the makers and thinkers nowadays? Would love to hear!

considering applying but hearing horror stories, any ideas?