Glossary of Assignments

What do the assignments signify?

Creative
The agency responsible for conceiving and creating mainstream "above-the-line" consumer advertising for the specified brands across all relevant media (eg TV commercials, display ads in magazines and newspapers, posters, cinema commercials etc). Most advertisers place the account for any particular brand with just one creative agency in each country at any time. This agency is sometimes referred to as the "agency of record" (or AOR). However other advertisers, usually larger companies, may use several agencies within a roster, and call upon one or more of those roster agencies at different times to handle particular projects. Mostly, the account is placed at a different agency for each country in which the brand is advertising, although often a local agency will be required simply to adapt or translate the advertising already created elsewhere by the brand's principal agency (or agency of record).

Media
The agency responsible for deciding which media are used for any particular advertising campaign (a process called media planning) and then booking and negotiating rates for that campaign (a process called media buying). In most cases, one agency performs both functions (although the work may be handled by separate departments). Sometimes the work is split between two different agencies, one for planning only and one for buying only. Large advertisers may also use different companies for different media. For example, one agency might plan and buy television advertising for a particular brand, while another might plan and buy print ads for the same brand. Until recently media planning and buying was generally handled inhouse at the main creative agency for a particular brand. However, during the 1990s a new breed of agencies began to spring up who offered only these media services, and were generally independent from any creative agencies. The creative agencies began to spin out their own media departments into separate companies, and now virtually all media is handled by specialist companies, although most are owned by the same holding groups who own the creative agencies.

Direct
Direct marketing. Although many advertising agencies handle all aspects of an advertising campaign (and therefore describe themselves as "full service"), there are many agencies which specialise only in direct marketing or direct response advertising (for example, consumer mailshots, or coupon-based advertising). This is a more specialised form of marketing, usually requiring sophisticated database management. Often an advertiser will appoint one agency to handle "above-the-line" or creative advertising, and another to handle direct marketing, which is often referred to as "below-the-line" marketing.

Promotions
Sales promotion. Another form of "below-the-line" marketing. Sales promotion comes in many forms, but it usually implies point-of-sale marketing, for example, price promotions in supermarkets, such as leaflets or sampling exercises. It can also involve special sponsored events or in-store research. 

Premiums
A specialised form of sales promotion, which involves sourcing or production of custom-made gifts to be distributed to a brand's customers, for example, the plastic toys given away instore at fast-food restaurants, or customised caps or t-shirts given away to purchasers of a particular product.

Asian, Hispanic, African-American
In the US, there are a number of agencies which specifically target the country's large ethnic markets. Working alongside mainstream creative agencies, these "multicultural" agencies will manage advertising campaigns specifically designed to appeal to one or other of these ethnic groups.


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