• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, September 5, 2007

I knew that title would get your attention!

The best way to get rich in advertising is to develop some technology and build your business on that technology -- but since most of us are not coders or programmers, the only thing we have left is to sell our intellectual capital. The question is, when is intellectual capital defensible?

Working at an ad agency is how you get started in this business, but you almost certainly never finish there. It is a proving ground and a place to pay your dues. It's fun, it's exciting and you get free meals all the time, but eventually everyone can afford their own meals.

The only people that get rich in the agency business are those people who were strong enough and had enough nerve and foresight to start their own agency. Typically with the money comes an ulcer and a lifetime supply of Pepto Bismol, so not everyone is cut out to take that route to riches!

No; the agency world is not where you typically get rich financially, but you certainly hone your craft there and gain intellectual wealth beyond any other position I know. This is where you learn to understand the masses, and where you begin to make the connections between technology and the challenges it meets. I call it the Nexus for Ideas!

There are still, and always will be a mass audience -- though it is becoming more segmented now -- and as a result, there will always be popular culture. A wise man once told me that if you want to get rich and become successful in advertising, learn everything you can about popular culture (oh, and he advised against the agency business). From his words I became a sponge. I started reading every magazine I could get my hands on, from People to Time, from Newsweek to Rolling Stone; from Forbes and Fortune to InStyle and Better Homes and Gardens. Eventually I was able to distinguish which ones were actually relevant. And I've maintained 20 subscriptions through the years.

I became a student of MTV and VH1, and I watched prime-time TV just so I knew what was going on with "CSI" and "Law & Order" (along the way I became addicted too, so it wasn't exactly painful to watch those shows). Of course, trying to stay on top of all these programs became nearly impossible until I discovered the recaps and reviews one could find online. By reading and watching and listening to what people were watching, reading and listening to, I could understand their motivations and I could predict their actions. Once you gain the ability to generate insights and forecast behaviors, you can apply these thoughts to the craft of advertising!

Of course, I still haven't hit it rich yet, but I think I could be on to something.

The Internet, and specifically Internet advertising, bubbles over with the scent of innovation and becomes energizing to everyone who is involved in the business, so to get rich in the space I recommend you do what I did, and a little more. You learn what you can, absorb what you will, and apply what you believe until you've progressed far enough to partner with someone who has an idea for a technology or something different. Make sure that idea is unique and defensible and that you can maintain a competitive angle for at least a couple of years. You partner with them to become the vision for the execution of that idea, and you strike out to find gold in "them thar hills"!

Either that -- or jump ship and become an ad sales rep. Of course, those folks can't succeed without the agencies!