Media Directors follow a strategy to buying and planning ad space in print and broadcast outlets. Just ask Barry Lowenthal. He's the Media Director for BBH, a top advertising agency with offices worldwide.
In this industry profile, Lowenthal gives you the guided tour of the media department and how you can break into the field.
What's a day in the life of a Media Director like?
Hectic and exciting. It usually revolves around meeting media sales people, attending new business meetings, managing people and talking to clients about upcoming or current advertising campaigns.
Today I had four meetings with different sales people. One was pitching a magazine for a client. It was the wrong demographic fit. One was selling a new audience measurement technology. One was a newspaper sales rep. The last one was another magazine. I was interviewed for a research project. I sat in a preparatory new business meeting. I helped a media team figure out the best way to tackle a client request and I had a catch up with some direct reports regarding two client assignments.
Meetings, meetings and more meetings.
BBH has worked with some major companies, including Pfizer, Rolling Stone, Mentos and match.com. For those slaving away in a smaller agency or those just starting out in advertising, what's it like to know that your hard work reaches millions of people day after day?
We only work with clients whose products we believe in. We can’t do great work for any product we’re not passionate about so you can imagine that it’s particularly gratifying knowing that we can share our enthusiasm with millions of people.
How did you get your first job in advertising and how did that first job lead you to where you are now in your career?
When I graduated from college I went to business school right away. I quickly got burnt out and decided to work and go to school part time. The classes I enjoyed most were the marketing classes so I thought I would get a client side job. But all the clients wanted MBAs and I hadn’t earned my MBA yet.
So I then I thought I’d look into advertising. I knew someone who knew someone that worked in account management at a big agency. I had an informational interview with him and he thought I’d be well suited for a job in media. I professed to be one part creative and one part analytical.
I knew which agencies were hiring since I’d been following the trades and I knew a bit about the different agency cultures from the trades so it wasn’t that hard to identify ten prospective agencies. Then I went to the agency Redbook which lists all the key people at the different agencies and which agency handles which account.
Being Jewish, I thought I might have a natural chemistry with other Jewish people so I sent my resume to all the senior media people with Jewish sounding names. Out of the ten agencies I sent resumes to, I got interviews at eight and job offers at four. Not a bad conversion.
My first job was [with] NW Ayer, which no longer exists. After being there two months, they lost a huge account and I lived through my first big layoff. People with many years of experience were demoted and many more lost their jobs. I learnt to never get into debt and the meaning of loyalty in business. I didn’t learn that I prefer working in smaller more integrated agencies until after working at two other big agencies.
What type of education and experience do you recommend for someone who wants to enter your field?
I always admire people who are scrappy, self-motivated, entrepreneurial and have a really good work ethic. I don’t think you need a graduate degree to work in media and I don’t even think you need a college education. If you can add numbers, if you’re analytical, and passionate about advertising, I think you’d make a great candidate.