Hall County Schools Career Technical Education program features a highlighted career each month within all CTE classrooms to provide interactive resources to students via Virtual Job Shadowing and Career Cluster Exploration. VirtualJobShadow.com offers engaging career exploration resources and tools all on one user-friendly website.

Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers plan programs to generate interest in products or services. They work with art directors, sales agents, and financial staff members.

Advertising managers create interest among potential buyers of a product or service. They do this for a department, for an entire organization, or on a project basis (referred to as an account). Advertising managers work in advertising agencies that put together advertising campaigns for clients, in media firms that sell advertising space or time, and in organizations that advertise heavily.

Promotions managers direct programs that combine advertising with purchasing incentives to increase sales. Often, the programs use direct mail, inserts in newspapers, Internet advertisements, in-store displays, product endorsements, or special events to target customers. Purchasing incentives may include discounts, samples, gifts, rebates, coupons, sweepstakes, or contests.

Marketing managers estimate the demand for products and services that an organization and its competitors offer. They identify potential markets for the organization's products.

Advertising, promotions, and marketing managers typically do the following:

• Work with department heads or staff to discuss topics such as budgets and contracts, marketing plans, and the selection of advertising media
• Plan promotional campaigns such as contests, coupons, or giveaways
• Plan advertising campaigns, including which media to advertise in, such as radio, television, print, online media, and billboards
• Negotiate advertising contracts
• Evaluate the look and feel of websites used in campaigns or layouts, which are sketches or plans for an advertisement
• Initiate market research studies and analyze their findings to understand customer and market opportunities for businesses
• Develop pricing strategies for products or services marketed to the target customers of a firm
• Meet with clients to provide marketing or technical advice
• Direct the hiring of advertising, promotions, and marketing staff and oversee their daily activities

A bachelor's degree is required for most advertising, promotions, and marketing management positions. These managers typically have work experience in advertising, marketing, promotions, or sales.

Additional Education

A bachelor's degree is required for most advertising, promotions, and marketing management positions. For advertising management positions, some employers prefer a bachelor's degree in advertising or journalism. A relevant course of study might include classes in marketing, consumer behavior, market research, sales, communication methods and technology, visual arts, art history, and photography.

Most marketing managers need a bachelor's degree. Courses in business law, management, economics, finance, computer science, mathematics, and statistics are advantageous. For example, courses in computer science are helpful in developing an approach to maximize online traffic, by utilizing online search results, because maximizing such traffic is critical for digital advertisements and promotions. In addition, completing an internship while in school can be useful.

The median annual wage for advertising and promotions managers was $96,720 in May 2014. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $45,060, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $187,200.

The median annual wage for marketing managers was $127,130 in May 2014. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $65,980, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $187,200.

Most advertising, promotions, and marketing managers work full time. About 2 in 5 advertising and promotions managers worked more than 40 hours per week in 2014.

Employment of advertising and promotions managers is projected to grow 5 percent from 2014 to 2024, about as fast as the average for all occupations.

Employment of marketing managers is projected to grow 9 percent from 2014 to 2024, faster than the average for all occupations.

Advertising, promotional, and marketing campaigns are expected to continue being essential as organizations seek to maintain and expand their market share. Advertising and promotions managers will be needed to plan, direct, and coordinate advertising and promotional campaigns, as well as to introduce new products into the marketplace.

Because marketing managers and their departments are important to an organization's revenue, marketing managers are less likely to be let go than other types of managers. Marketing managers will continue to be in demand as organizations seek to market their products to specific customers and localities.

Visit the Virtual Job Shadowing website to explore more about this

exciting career and to create a personalized Career Journal.

Also available on website:

Additional Links

College Search

Jobs/Internships

Related Careers