Account Management (20511)
Degree/study: Bachelor's Degree in Advertising and Public Relations
Year: Third and fourth
Term: First
Number of ECTS credits: 4 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 100 hours
Teaching language or languages: Catalan
Teaching Staff: Patricia Comas
1. Presentation of the subject
This course's goal is to make students acquire basic skills and knowledge about the accounts department within advertising agencies and its most relevant figures. Specifically, understanding how this department works and its interrelations with clients and with the rest of the teams in the agency, as well as knowing the procedure elements making up an account manager's wide range of tasks of.
The course's organization allows covering both theoretical and practical aspects of the daily experience, through real cases that will help to fix the knowledge.
2. Competences to be attained
GENERAL SKILLS
Having a global perspective of the profession from an accounts manager's point of view.
Knowing the basic aspects of the accounts department and the relationship with advertisers.
Using the available work tools and the vocabulary to communicate concepts and proposals properly.
Oral and written communication skills, along with speaking and presenting in public skills.
Being able to put knowledge into practice.
Caring about the quality of the papers and tasks that need to be carried out.
Complying with the required deadlines.
Adjustment skills, depending on the interlocutors and the different day by day situations.
Team work skills aimed at developing practical cases.
Debating and arguing skills aimed at presenting and defending tasks.
SPECIFIC SKILLS
Knowing the accounts department structure within the agency.
Identifying the main roles and duties of an accounts manager.
Understanding the skills an accounts manger must have and the common mistakes to avoid.
Using argumentative and expressive resources properly to solve a specific problem.
Understanding the accounts manager's role within the process of creating a communication campaign.
Knowing the processes and work methodology to use.
Basic notions about quotations of some of the advertising processes.
Understanding the new demands of the sector and how a good accounts managing affects the relationship with the client.
360º communication. The need for integration and global vision, more and more obvious and necessary in communication campaigns.
3. Contents
1. The advertiser.
a.Advertiser types and examples.
b. Relationship between the advertiser and the agency.
c.Agency selection methods. Aspects to be taken into account.
d. Current outlook. Advantages/ Disadvantages of working with an agency.
e.The brand's role as a strategic active.
f. Advisers ranking in Spain.
2. The agency.
a. Agency types and examples.
b. Structure and departments of an agency.
c. Basic organization chart.
d. Accounts department. Main characteristics.
e. The rest of departments and how they interrelate.
3. Accounts department.
a. Accounts manager's profile and distinctive features.
b. More representative figures and their roles.
c. Work process, from the brief assignment by the adviser to the campaign publishing.
d. People implied in every phase of the process.
e. Work tools and main documents: meeting report, status report, timing, retro-planning, briefing, counter-briefing, etc.
4. Briefing.
a. Use and characteristics.
b. Main parts of a brief.
c. Typology according to structure, types of advertisers and communication means. Examples.
d. The process of handing a brief in and the people participating.
5. Budgets.
a. Fees types depending on the work to do.
b. Parts to be taken into account when budgeting a project through the advertising process.
c. Examples and cases.
6. 360º communication.
a. ATL and BTL communication characteristics.
b. Integration of disciplines. Global vision.
c. Internet. Viral marketing, virtual press releases, e-mailing campaigns, etc. and real cases examples.
d. The future. New tendencies and supports. Impact on our communication with the consumer.
7. Campaign analysis from an accounts manager's point of view.
4. Assessment
1. Seminars assessment (50% of the mark)
Students must work in teams to carry out these two projects:
- 1st Seminar project: Making a brief about a campaign that has already been launched (25% of the mark). Students from the former degree are exempt of doing this project.
- 2nd Seminar project: Communication proposal and action plan for a client's specific problem (25% of the mark).
Assessment will also take into account the attendance to classes and the participation of the group members in the case presentations.
2. Final exam (30% of the mark)
An individual final exam with different questions about the theoretical contents explained in class and from the compulsory readings.
3. Compulsory tasks (20% of the mark)
Punctual tasks about several topics to be assigned in class throughout the term and to be solved in couples or in reduced groups.
Individual contributions with weekly news pieces to debate in class with the rest of students.
5. Bibliography and teaching resources
5.1. Basic bibliography
Solanas García, Isabel; Sabaté López, Joan (2008). Dirección de Cuentas. Gestión y planificación de cuentas en publicidad. Editorial UOC, Barcelona.
5.2. Complementary bibliography
Aaker, David (2002). Construir marcas poderosas. Barcelona, Gestión 2000.
Aaker, David; Myers, John (2001). Management de la Publicidad. Perspectivas prácticas. Barcelona, Hispano-Europea.
Aaker, David; Joachimsthaler, E. (2001). Liderazgo de marca. Bilbao, Deusto.
Alet, J. (2000). Marketing Directo Integrado. Barcelona, Ediciones Gestión.
Atkin, Douglas (2005). El culto a las marcas. Cuando los clientes se convierten en creyentes. Ediciones Robinbook.
Bassat, L. (2001). El libro rojo de la Publicidad. Barcelona, Plaza y Janés Editores, S.A.
Castellblanque, Mariano (2006). Perfiles profesionales de publicidad y ámbitos afines. Editorial UOC, Barcelona.
Costa, Joan (2004). La imagen de marca. Barcelona, Paidós.
Fernández Gómez, Jorge David (2005). Aproximación a la estructura de la Publicidad. Desarrollo y funciones de la actividad publicitaria. Comunicación Social Ediciones y Publicaciones, Sevilla.
González Lobo, Mª Ángeles (1998). Curso de Publicidad. Eresma & Celeste Ediciones, Madrid.
Herreros Arconada, Mario (1995). La Publicitat. Fonaments de la comunicació publicitària. Editorial Pòrtic, Barcelona.
Kotler, Philip (2002). Dirección de MK. Análisis, Planificación, Gestión y Control. Prentice Hall, Madrid.
Lambin, Jean-Jaques (1995). Marketing Estratégico. Madrid, McGraw-Hill. 2003 Esic.
Liria, Eduardo (1994). Las relaciones anunciante agencia. Ediciones Folio, Barcelona.
Lorente, J. (1991). Casi todo lo que sé de Publicidad. Barcelona, Folio.
Meeker, M. (2003). Publicidad en Internet. Barcelona, Granica.
Ocaña, F. (1997). Veinte ideas sobre Publicidad. Barcelona, Edimarco.
Ollé, Ramón; Riu, David (2003). El nuevo brand management: Lecciones de la indiferenciación de las marcas en Marketing & Ventas, nº 58.
Ortega Martínez, E. (1991). La dirección publicitaria. Madrid, Esic.
5.3. Teaching resources
Students will weekly bring to class online articles and news that help illustrate the contents of the moment.
6. Metodology
This course combines theoretical and practical knowledge. Students will learn the theory through the teacher's explanations in the master classes and through the parallel reading of the compulsory bibliography out of the class. The practical training will be worked on in the seminars and in punctual tasks to be assigned in class. This training will consist on solving cases in teacher-monitored work teams.
The work teams for the seminars will be preferably made up by 4 or 5 people and they will be freely created by the students in the beginning of the term. Every team will have to present their projects and to prepare their interventions. Four or five teams will participate in every seminar session. This way, the participation of about 20/25 people ensures an operative and profitable class dynamics.
The work teams for the punctual tasks to be assigned in class will be made up by 2 or 3 people and will be freely created by the students for every case. Cases will be solved the same day, as the teacher will leave some time during the class to solve them, present them and comment on them.
Individual or work teams tutoring sessions
They are optional for all the work teams or students. They are aimed at solving doubts, clarifying concepts or procedures, making suggestions or receiving information about the students' performance in the subject. Students must make a previous appointment with the teacher.
7. Planning of activities
|
Week
|
Theoretical sessions |
|
Week 1
|
Session 1: Presentation of the subject and assessment system. Bibliography. |
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Week 2
|
Session 1: Adviser. Adviser types. Agency selection process. Session 2: Agency. Agency types. Structure and departments. Work process. |
|
Week 3
|
Sessions 1 and 2: Accounts department. Roles and responsibilities. Accounts department's tools. |
|
Week 4
|
Session 1: Briefing. Brief types. Process and examples. 1st seminar project approach: Making a brief. Presentation and viewing of 3 real campaigns already launched. Every work team must choose one and analyze it in order to draw the briefing behind. |
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Week 5
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Sessions 1 and 2: 1st seminar project resolution: Group A and B. Presentation of the case chosen by every work team. Comments and contributions. |
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Week 6
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Session 1: 1st seminar project resolution: Group C. Presentation of the case chosen by every work team. Comments and contributions. Session 2: Budgets. Fees and examples. |
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Week 7
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Sessions 1 and 2: 360º communication. Below the Line. POS, outdoors and events. 2nd seminar project approach: Communication proposal. Presentation of 3 specific problems by different advertisers. Every work team must choose one and propose the best communication solution to solve it, while developing an action plan describing how to do so. |
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Week 8
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Session 1: Internet. Viral MK, social networks. Session 2: 2nd seminar project resolution: Group A. Presentation of the case chosen by every work team. Comments and contributions. |
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Week 9
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Sessions 1 and 2: 2nd seminar project resolution and presentation: Group B and C. Presentation of the case chosen by every work team. Comments and contributions. |
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Week 10
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Session 1: Tendencies. The future of communication. Session 2: Solving doubts about the subject's contents. Commenting reading. |