Billboards, commercials, jingles, and catchy slogans make up the advertising industry. And goal-oriented, competitive team players are the individuals behind this fast-paced industry.

If you decide you want to get into the advertising business, you need to really learn, be focused on the business, and know everything that's going on, says David Chalmers, professor of the advertising account management program at Centennial College. And the most successful, according to Chalmers, are the ones who come into graduate programs with a passion for the industry.

Copywriting master

A graduate program unique to Canadian schools, the one-year advertising copywriting program at Humber College is jam-packed with niche courses designed to mould students into the copywriters demanded by today's advertising agencies.

As generalist programs are longer and thus designed to be less intense, students may not have the opportunity to perfect their copywriting skills, explains Jane Bongers, coordinator for the program. On the flip side, advertising copywriting is like creative boot camp as we have only 30 weeks to prepare them to enter the industry as copywriters, she says. It also has a strong alumni base which makes for excellent networking opportunities.

Some of the program's courses include creative strategy, integrated communications, and copywriting for media platforms, in addition to art direction elements using software programs like the Adobe  Creative Suite. Students are taught from scratch and need no prior experience in any of these subjects, says Bongers. The copy on the website says ÔÇÿif you identify yourself as creative but can't draw, this may be the program for you.' This pretty much sums it all up in a nutshell.

Because the program is work-intensive, students are trained to master tasks they may be uncomfortable with, as opposed to what they excel in at first. Although it may sound harsh, Bongers explains, we create a safe space to explore, experiment, and learn, but we have to keep our creative standards really high for students to make the cut in April when the industry wants interns and juniors.

Advertising management

Attracting graduate student hopefuls both locally and internationally, the advertising account management program at Centennial College offers students the leadership skills needed to start a career in the advertising industry.

I teach some account management skills, which would be running a business, developing creative strategy, doing business background on documents, project management, and so on, says Chalmers, adding that students are also tasked to develop a campaign from scratch. They take a brand right from day one and do a whole situation analysis, develop a marketing plan for the brand and a creative for the brand. They present it to us as a major end-of-term presentation.

With one of the program's three semesters spent in a 15-week field placement, Chalmers says students are able to gain agency experience. I think it's an extremely successful program for people to help them focus on job training as opposed to coming out of university with a Bachelor of Arts and kind of having no specific skill, he explains, saying about half of the students last year landed a job offer with the agencies they interned for. 

At an agency you're on your feet all the time, you're always talking and communicating, and communication skills are always a huge part of it, so we concentrate on that.

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