• April 12, 2004

A major survey commissioned by Euro RSCG Worldwide and conducted in cooperation with Adweek shows that the advertising and marketing industry retains plenty of appeal for both industry insiders and students considering the field. When asked in which three of a group of 19 industries they'd most like to work, respondents put "advertising agency/marketing firm" head and shoulders above the other venues, with 38% of students and 79% of ad industry professionals including it among their three choices. No other industry came even close to advertising in the professionals' responses, and students' second choice, "educational institution," earned 10 percentage points less than advertising.

Nearly all the students who ranked advertising as their top choice cited the industry's reputation as a fun business to be in (97%), while the vast majority listed the opportunity to do creative work (88%), the high earnings potential (87%), and the collaborative environment (83%) as motivators.

The surveys, conducted on behalf of Euro RSCG by Market Probe International, tapped into the views of 1,238 advertising and marketing professionals, and 1,269 college and graduate students, all randomly selected from online panels in the United States.

Among the other noteworthy highlights:

When asked in which area of the industry they'd most like to work, the student respondents were most likely to choose "creative" (38 percent). The next most popular choices were "media" (27 percent) and "creative services" (23 percent). At the bottom of the ladder: "human resources," the goal for just 9% of the sample.

An overwhelming 80 percent of ad professionals (and 49% of students) agreed that at most agencies, the clients are more powerful than management.

Seventy-four percent of professionals agreed that a big problem with working at an ad agency is that management is too often unwilling to stand up for their own people if it means taking on the client. Over one- third of students (39 percent) had the same idea.

A substantial 64 percent of professionals (vs. 27 percent of students) agreed that a lot of good people leave the advertising industry every year because of dealings with "bad" clients.

Asked which job would be more prestigious, 31 percent of students chose management trainee at Ogilvy & Mather while 49 percent chose management trainee at Procter & Gamble.

Among professionals, 71 percent went for the Procter & Gamble traineeship compared with just 29 percent for Ogilvy & Mather.