Planning Director - Andrew Mortimer
Media is not something people are generally that familiar with as an industry. Probably because most people think it falls under advertising and indeed 10 years ago advertising and media agencies would have been in the same building.
Media is an industry which plans and buys the space where ads are going to appear. So pretty much anything you come into contact with day to day from TV, to newspapers, the radio, internet or sponsorship of your local football team is in a media person’s armoury. They work very closely with ad agencies to make sure the advertising is appearing in the right place and being seen by the right people at the right time.
Most people in Media seem to have fallen into it having originally thought about advertising as a career and then finding out about media. It’s probably a little easier on the hours front than advertising but retains the fun of being part of a creative industry.
Media is also evolving as the challenge to connect with consumers becomes ever greater, so increasingly more innovative approaches are being used which add a great deal of excitement to the job. For example, instead of recommending a TV ad you might find yourself proposing a TV series paid for by an advertiser.
One huge perk of media jobs is that all of the media owners (like ITV or the Daily Mail), fall over themselves to persuade you to place ads with them, so you get some great fully expensed jolly’s like weekend ski trips and tickets to sporting events.
Salary is similar to advertising. Media execs would start in the low twenty thousands. After 4 years you’d expect to be in the 40K region with the top management being 100K+.