HK: Are there busy and slow times depending on the time of year?

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AF: So brand is a little different than demand gen. For brand, we plan for our whole fiscal year ahead of time. The fiscal year starts in April and ends in March – just for our particular client. So we start planning for big programs back in September/October (CNN). They started planning that early, and once the big plan is set we start planning for the smaller partners. It takes a long time getting client approval, and that starts around November/December. From there to when the campaign launches in April, we are planning and executing.

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This is the busiest time because not only are you planning for the next fiscal year, you are finishing up on the past fiscal year campaign. There is hardly any in between time – campaigns end in March and the next planning stage begins in April. This past year we weren’t even fully launched until a month ago. There is a lot of back and forth, sometimes things don’t work out with certain sites. We always do optimizations (monthly reporting) for the client too.

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After we see the performance of each site, we optimize toward sites that have the lowest and efficient cost per engagement (someone clicked and there was actual activity for our client’s site) and that’s what we recommend. For sites with high cost per engagement, we recommend cutting the budget.

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HK: How did you get your job at this agency?

 

AF: I started right out of college in social media for a promotional products company. It was fun, but it wasn’t challenging. It was just social. But then I moved to San Francisco from Phoenix and I got a job as an assistant media planner at a different agency. But that was a challenging position because it was just me and a supervisor. There wasn’t a team like I have here at Swirl. There’s a lot that goes into a team for media planning because everyone plays a vital role.

 

My previous agency had a skewed version of what a team should be so I ended up moving agencies. Having an actual team has made a huge difference, and you kind of realize how important it is to have upper management support for these kinds of roles because if you think about things I do like billing – that should be overseen by someone upper level. There’s a lot of money to be managed and billed.

 

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HK: What has been your most difficult experience in this industry?

 

AF: Media is different now than before. Advertising isn’t as “glamorous” as it used to be. It used to be just print and TV, but now we’re moving towards digital that everything has become nitty gritty. I’m more of a big picture thinker, but as an assistant, there’s a lot of detail and measurements that have to be done.

Once you move to upper level positions, it becomes more big picture, but this wasn’t something I knew before getting into media planning. I didn’t even think about how digital would be so much different than your typical and traditional media. Even though media surrounds us so much, I didn’t realize that I would be working in it. I think it’s a good way to start though – with the nitty gritty.

 

 

HK: What has been your most gratifying experience?

 

AF: Well, I think it makes a huge difference when you have nice clients. Our CA clients are the nicest people. At my old agency, they weren’t hugely supportive of our work, and these clients are very appreciative of our work. It makes us want to give them more quality work.

 

 

HK: Who would you encourage to join media?

 

AF: I would recommend any young person to come into this industry. IT’s a very social industry – there’s a lot of outings and there’s a very fun part to it. I’m not sure what I wanted to do right out of college, but advertising affects basically everyone and so I think it’s a good place to start for anyone who’s not entirely sure what they want to do but also can be passionate about things.

 

 

HK: What key piece of advice would you have given yourself back when you started in this industry?

AF: Learn excel. Kidding but not kidding. It’s crazy how much work you’re doing on there, just because there’s so much reporting. It makes your life a lot easier when you know how to use it. But I did not know how to use it when I first started, but you eventually become a master because you use it so much. More than that though, I guess just be open minded to what advertising has to offer. I wish I knew more about the two different types of advertising: B2C and B2B, a more granular type of advertising.

 

I used to be B2C (used to work on a makeup account) and now I’m B2B so it’s been really cool to keep my options open and get to know both sides of those industries because they’re completely different. B2C is challenging, yes, but you are a customer yourself. Especially with makeup, the audience was me, so it was relevant and it was easy to put myself in the shoes of the consumer because the target was me. But for B2B, it’s much more outside the box and you have to think like a certain type of person, either a business decision maker or ITDM decision maker. It’s a little bit more of a challenge but once you get the hang of it, it makes a lot of sense.

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HK: What is the significance of diversity in advertising?

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AF: I think it’s good just to have different perspective on things. You’re trying to reach audiences and obviously those audiences are very diverse as well. So it’s good to have a multitude of attitudes. Everyone on our team is very different but I have learned a lot from all of them because they each have their strong suits. They all have different opinions on which partners to use and things like that and everything comes together.

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HK: What is an insider tip you’ve learned over the years?

 

AF: That it’s just advertising. I think a lot of us get stressed about it because there’s a lot that goes into it. But at the end of the day, this can be done tomorrow. When I first started, I worked really late and long hours because I wanted to get my work done and just make people happy but you just have to know that you’re not saving lives here.

 

That’s what everyone says to me when I get stressed out – we’re not saving lives, we’re just doing advertising. We’re doing important work but it also makes you realize that you have your own life outside of work.

 

 

HK: In a few words, what does advertising mean to you?

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AF: Advertising means that people need to stay relevant to make money. There’s numbers to prove it but if you’re not out there in the consumers’ eyes, they don’t know about you. I mean, the best way to advertise is word of mouth, but everyone is on their computers now and the best place to get into people’s and buyers’ minds is to advertise to them. Your business doesn’t run unless you’re advertising.

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