An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for their clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides a outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients.

Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Agencies may be hired to produce single ads or, more commonly, ongoing series of related ads, called an advertising campaign.

Ad agencies come in all sizes, from small one- or two-person shops to large multi-national, multi-agency conglomerates such as Omnicom Group or WPP Group.

Some agencies specialize in particular types of advertising, such as print ads or television commercials. Other agencies, especially larger ones, produce work for many types of media.

Not all advertising is created by agencies. Companies that create and plan their own advertising are said to do their work in house.

Agency personnel

The creative department -- the people who create the actual ads -- form the core of an advertising agency. Modern advertising agencies usually form their copywriters and art directors into creative teams. Creative teams may be permanent partnerships or formed on a project-by-project basis. The art director and copywriter report to a creative director, usually a creative employee with several years of experience.

The other major department in ad agencies is account services. Account service employees work directly with clients and potential clients, soliciting business for the ad agency and determining what clients need and want the agency to do for them.

In small agencies, employees may do both creative and account service work. Larger agencies attract people who specialize in one or the other, and indeed include a number of people in specialized positions: production work, Internet advertising, or research, for example.

Famous advertising agencies

• Doyle Dane Bernbach -- created famous campaigns for Volkswagen (including the famous "Lemon" ad) and Avis Rental Cars ("We're number 2. We try harder.")
• Goodby, Silverstein & Partners -- famous for the "Got Milk?" campaign, among others
• Ogilvy & Mather -- famous for the Rolls-Royce print ad with the headline "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock", among other ads
• Omnicom Group -- works with Anheuser-Busch, Visa, and PepsiCo.
• TBWA/Chiat/Day -- works with Apple Computer (including the "Think Different" campaign) and Adidas. Responsible for creating the fcuk brand.
• Wieden & Kennedy -- has worked with Nike, Inc. for over 10 years
• Saatchi and Saatchi -- most famous for working with the Conservative Party especially during the 1979 general election.

External links

• American Association of Advertising Agencies (http://www.aaaa.org/)
• World Federation of Advertisers (http://www.wfanet.org/)