Important Facts
College Vidya Team Apr 11, 2025 1K Reads
If you are someone who is driven by the thought of working on creative ideas to communicate your messages and reach out to masses, then a potent career for you to explore your skills is advertising.Advertising is a career subsumed under marketing, and advertising professionals work specifically on the planning, designing and execution of advertisements so as to spread a message or information to a large audience. Advertisements usually promote either a brand, a service or a specific product owned by an organisation.
Advertising professionals are those who work in close coordination with other marketing professionals to create advertisements and align the communication with the brand’s and product’s messaging. They work on the creative subset of producing an advertisement or “ad” and can make use of numerous channels such as radio, television, digital media like social media, streaming platforms, posters, in-person ad campaigns and events, hoardings etc.
to spread their message. Advertising is a dynamic and evolving career field, given the current context of digitization of businesses.In this blog, we shall dive deep into the nuances of this field and explore the nature of this role, including the education required to start a career in advertising, its scope, opportunities available and so on.
Now that we have a preliminary understanding around the nature of this career domain, it is worth taking a detailed look into some of the pros associated with this career.
This evaluation is important to guide the decision of whether one wants to venture into the field of advertising and communication as their profession:
An advertising and communications specialist or professional has responsibilities associated with the overall planning, scheduling, execution and further monitoring of advertising campaigns, ensuring in turn that the campaign’s messaging aligns with the brand’s tone and overall messaging.
Some details about key responsibilities one must look into in this field are given below:
While communication skills and overall presentational skills lie at the core of the required skill areas for venturing into this profession, there are accompanying hard and soft skills which help an advertising specialist sail through this career more effortlessly. Mentioned below are a few such skill areas.
Technical skills are functional skill areas which are needed to perform well on the core responsibilities on the job.
Certain crucial technical and hard skills needed to function well in this profession have been enlisted below:
Key Skills |
Specifications |
Digital Marketing |
Knowledge of digital platforms and channels is important to leverage them for running advertising campaigns and spread brand awareness. |
Copywriting |
Effective copywriting skills help to write pieces that are impactful and persuasive, helping you create better brand and product recall among users and audience. |
Market Research & Analysis |
Analysing market trends, understanding the user psyche and knowing competitors’ business practices helps in leveraging data insights and further improving one’s own advertising strategy. |
Presentation Skills |
This skill, whether in creation of attractive presentations or pitching ideas and strategies to stakeholders, helps an advertising specialist to attain stakeholder buy-ins. |
Ad Campaign Management |
Having skills akin to project management in terms of the strategizing, planning, scheduling, execution and evaluation of advertising campaign is needed to achieve the desired outcomes from the campaign. |
Multimedia Content Management |
Tapping onn multiple channels and media for communication to enhance brand visibility and create user impacts require proficiency in managing and working with such diverse media assets. |
There are certain key soft skills and interpersonal competencies which are important for the purpose of succeeding in the role of an advertising specialist, a few of which have been mentioned below:
Key Skills |
Specifications |
Creativity & Innovation |
Having the skill to come up with innovative ideas, strategies and contextualising them in the market are important to drive compelling storytelling and create user impact through one’s advertising campaigns. |
Emotional Intelligence |
As an advertising specialist, a professional must possess emotional intelligence to connect with the audience and understand the implications of campaigns on the user psyche. |
Time Management |
This skill is essential in this career to effectively meet highly close deadlines as well as deliver quality results fo multiple simultaneous projects as well. |
Communication Skills |
Great communication skills in writing and verbal communication are important for all aspects of this role–presentation of ideas to clients, getting buy ins from stakeholders, creating impactful campaigns and so on. |
Adaptability & Flexibility |
Being adaptable in one’s approach of storytelling, aligning one’s messaging with different brand tones, adapting with market changes and so on require sufficient flexibility and adaptability in the person. |
Networking & Relationship Building |
Connecting with potential clients, peers in the industry, social media and digital influencers etc. are key to gaining industry insights and sealing contracts for various campaigns. |
When looking at the opportunities to explore in the advertising and communications domain, one can explore options based on the channel of communication to capture, such as in copywriting, social media production, digital marketing and advertisement and so on.Furthermore, there are options available to explore at the associate levels as well as managerial and directorial levels as one grows through the career. The field has ample opportunities in which the top advertising agencies, firms and big brands offer appealing compensation.Formally trained professionals can make earn lucrative salaries with a career in this domain with growing experience. Some of the most appealing career opportunities that one can consider exploring if they want to establish themselves in the field of advertising and communications have been listed below.
It is to be noted that the salary figures mentioned indicate approximate salaries as per latest market trends and are liable to changes:
Career Option |
Average Salary (Per Annum) |
Advertising Manager |
INR 5,04,000 |
Advertising Copywriter |
INR 3,64,000 |
Promotions Manager |
INR 6,00,000 |
Digital Marketing Manager |
INR 6,50,000 |
Brand Manager |
INR 8,50,000 |
Communications Manager |
INR 9,18,000 |
Multimedia Content Creator |
INR 3,50,000 |
Art Director |
INR 7,12,000 |
Social Media Marketing Manager |
INR 3,50,000 |
Creative Director |
INR 13,00,000 |
Market Research Analyst |
INR 4,00,000 |
If you are an aspirant looking to develop or start your career as an advertising professional, then exploring various facets of the career, including the industry trends in the profession, the scope for growth in the field and the average financial investments in terms of course fees required in the field. Such insights have been provided further.
Advertising and communication is an inherently dynamic field experiencing continuous evolution, and with the turn of the decade marking leaps and bounds of digitization, the field has seen some significant changes.
Presented herein are some of the key insights related to the industry trends in advertising and communication:
There are a multitude of educational options in this field. While pursuing a course in the specific specialisation of advertising is beneficial to give your career a kickstart, one can also consider related specialisations like journalism, mass communication, digital marketing, branding, public relations and so on. These courses are available in the form of UG and PG degrees, PG diplomas and short term certifications as well.
The overall financial investment one is required to put into a course in this field depends on a number of factors including those like the institution chosen (private versus public), the level of the course (undergraduate versus postgraduate) as well as the mode in which one pursues the course (e.g. online versus regular versus distance). Some of the most common courses available in the field of advertising and communications along with their approximate fee range have been mentioned below.
Advertising & Communication Courses |
Approximate Course Fees |
INR 80,000 |
|
INR 1,50,000 |
|
INR 5,00,000 |
|
INR 3,50,000 |
|
INR 1,50,000 |
|
INR 2,70,00 |
|
INR 2,00,000 |
|
INR 1,50,000 |
|
INR 80,000 |
|
PG Diploma in Advertising & Public Relations |
INR 10,00,000 |
The graph highlighting the growth trajectory of a professional’s salary in this career shows an appealing positive slope, indicating the potential for experiencing significant growth with due experience. The figures indicated herein reflect current trends of salary growth as an advertising specialist in India.
If you are considering exploring a career in the field of advertising and communications, then there are some degree courses at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels which provide a specialisation in advertising. Additionally there are a number of courses such as diplomas and certifications which provide a shorter duration of thorough educational experience in advertising and related fields like PR, mass communication etc.
To start a career in this domain, one can take up an undergraduate degree in the specialisation and start further with exploring professional opportunities. Another alternative career trajectory is to take up any undergraduate Bachelor’s course and further pursue a PG degree, diploma or professional certification. Students with any educational background at the school level can consider a career in advertising. The details of the career trajectory in this field have been mentioned below.
There are a number of prestigious and well-accoladed colleges and public institutions which offer thier educational courses in the field of advertising and communications. A number of these top institutions have also been accredited by bodies such as UGC-DEB and other accrediting bodies to offer courses in the online learning mode in this specialisation. Some of these prestigious institutions are mentioned below.
As explained through this blog, advertising and communication are quite appealing fields that bring together creative ideation as well as the marketing skills of a professional to bring mass influence on branding and customer perception. This field offers appealing compensation, dynamic opportunities for exploration as well as exposure to various media forms. As a result, it can be an appealing and fulfilling field for individuals having a creative streak and wish to put their skills of impression creation to use.
While there is no single career pathway to venture into the career of advertising, typically one should complete at least their undergraduate education, preferably in a specialisation related to advertising (e.g. journalism and mass communication, advertising communication etc.). However, even if you complete your UG education in an unrelated domain, you can still venture into this field by gaining relevant experience in advertising through internships, entry-level roles etc.
The average salary in India that am advertising professional can expect to earn is between INR 4 LPA to INR 6 LPA.
Some of the typically valued degrees in advertising and communication include BBA (Advertising & Marketing), MBA (Advertising & Marketing), B.A (Journalism & Mass Communication) etc.
Some of the top companies hiring for advertising and communication professionals include WATConsult, iPROSPECT India, Kinnect, Publicis Media etc.
Some of the top Indian institutions for advertising and communication studies include those Indian Institute of Mass Communication, National Institute of Mass Communication and Journalism (NIMCJ), Banaras Hindu University, University of Delhi etc.
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