Advertising Manager - Hamish Rickman

Marketing is defined by their Institute as ‘the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably’. To you and me that’s the department of a company which helps it deliver the right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price. A marketer can find themselves involved in any process that helps achieve this whether it be conducting market research groups, devising new products, designing new packaging or coming up with innovative new distribution channels or ways of selling their product.

A large part of a marketer's job is managing their company's overall brand and those of its products or services. As a result marketing departments often work very closely with Advertising, Event and PR agencies. The benefits of working agency side or as a marketer (client side) are hotly debated and it is quite common for people to switch between the two. From what we saw the big plus of an agency is the breadth of experience you are able to gain quite quickly by working across multiple clients. You also get to focus on the part of the communications mix you most like. The benefit of client side is that you get a much more in depth understanding of your business and a broader understanding of marketing communications. Being involved in every element of campaigns also means you’re able to have a more tangible impact on the success or failure of them.

Salaries vary quite a bit depending on the size of the company you work for but typically an entry level marketing executive would be in the low 20’s. A marketing manager would be in the £40-60K range and a Marketing Director £60K plus.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Hamish Rickman, I am the advertising manager at Virgin Atlantic Airways.

What is Marketing?

There are a number of definitions of marketing and marketing essentially is communicating the existence of your product on one level and then making people desire and want to buy that product on another level, whether they have a need for it or not.  Essentially that is what we are trying to do and to make people aware of what makes our product better than anyone else’s and therefore why people should want to buy that product as well as make them want to desire the product if they are not even potentially in the market for it.

What attracted you to this career?

I started of in a media agency then had an opportunity after six years in the agency to go and work client side on at the business that I was working on predominantly at the media agency.  I got to know Virgin Atlantic very well through having worked with them consistently for six years and the offer of opportunity came up and I felt it was a good time to go in house and go client side and it has worked out very well.

It wasn’t as straightforward as going straight from university to media, I actually went into the profession that I worked in briefly at a consultancy, I did some sales jobs and I felt slightly pressured at university to follow a traditional route as regards employment.  I wasn’t aware of media agencies and it wasn’t until I spoke to friends who work in the business that I really got to feel an understanding of what it was like and felt that was actually something I had wanted to pursue from a much younger age.  I was just frustrated that I hadn’t done because I felt there was a bit of a gap, certainly from my university perspective of really pushing that kind of career and it is something that I am very glad after spending a couple of years doing other jobs that I then bit the bullet and took a job in media agency as a graduate and working my way up from there.

Why did you move 'Client-side'?

What attracted me to go client side was the broad scope that you get going client side. In an agency you are very much focused on the key element of the marketing budget and allocation. What I wanted to do was understand the broader business implications of marketing and by going client side you can begin to understand how you can make a contribution to the bigger business, and understand the contributions that marketing has within a big organisation and an exciting organisation such as Virgin so it was really that opportunity to grow that attracted me.

What does your job involve?

I essentially look after the advertising at Virgin Atlantic and that encompasses all the above the line advertising as well as the direct sales opportunities and promotions to a degree.

What's the difference between 'above the line' and 'below the line'?

Above the line adverting tends to be in old speak, traditional advertising so broadcast, TV, media, press, radio, online, digital, cinema, outdoor, all of those elements rather than the kind of below the line one to one communication which are direct mail and email and that kind of thing.

What do you do on a typical day?

The airline industry is a very interesting business to be in, especially at the moment, there is lots of change and so you have to be very reactive and adaptable to whatever situations are thrown at you but by and large typically what I will do is talk to my agency, we have a media agency a creative agency and a direct agency who I deal with and make sure the status of all current projects are running smoothly maybe have a meeting with them, look at and assess the needs for the business in internal meetings understand what the commercial side of the business is up to where the needs are and where we can apply potential marketing solutions.

There tends to be a lot of interaction with my team with the agencies and with different departments within the business so it is very full on from the moment you walk through the doors.

Describe the process of your work?

One of the things we might be dealing with is a new route launch and what that will involve is us understanding all the commercial elements around the route launch so what the prices are, what the frequency is, what the planes are going to be flying out there and then we need to understand markets, what the competition is like, who our target market are.  Then what we will do is brief all our agencies, so the media agency, to come up with and identity the potential media channels that we will use to best target those people that we want to make aware of those new routes, we then brief the creative agency, above the line creative agency to really try and get to grips with how best to communicate a new route launch and what it is about that route which is particularly engaging.  We can then focus on creatively what is one of our key pieces of communication, we are well known for our new route launch creative so we make sure that we set a high standard and we try and make sure that we keep to that standard creatively, and then we also brief our below the line agency, who will look at elements at a direct perspective and formulate plans and communications along those lines as well, so it encompasses all elements marketing.

What are the best bits about your job?

The best bits about my job are working with great people internally as well as externally, we have a really strong list of agencies we work with and you know it is great to go to them with problems and solve problems together and seeing the fruition of all you labours expressed through the end product which is advertising and then it doesn’t stop there, we get to see the results of our advertising and the impact it has on the business and seeing the project through from start to finish is a really great experience and one that keeps us all motivated.

What are the worst bits about your job?

The worst bits about the job are just not having enough time in the day to do everything we want, we have a very lean operation here in the marketing department which is great for getting stuff turned around quickly and being very reactive and proactive but there is a huge amount of other things that we would like to be doing and it is just a question of not enough hours in the day to make it all happen so it is about trying to choose what to prioritise on and what to deem less important.

What has been your greatest achievement?

The achievements I am most proud of since I joined here were producing a fantastic upper class campaign including a TV commercial which we turned around in very strict time pressures that performed the strongest of any TV commercials we have ever set about doing. So obviously creatively there is a lot, the upper class campaign being one of them that I am particularly proud of but also adding a lot more science and accountability to advertising through the likes of introducing econometric modelling and much more rigidity in the way that we monitor campaigns so that when it comes to defending our budgets and making sure that the advertising in particular is pulling it weight, we have some strong evidence and hard factual evidence that can back that up not just brand measures moving in the right direction.

Any regrets?

What I would have done differently in my career is when I was younger, I wanted to go into advertising and I don’t think I passionately followed that through my university career.  I jumped on the bandwagon of applying for banks and consultancy and I never really felt that that was something that I wanted to do but what it meant was I ended up wasting a couple of years of my life doing jobs that I wasn’t particularly engaged with.  Then I bit the bullet a couple of years after leaving university and started at a media agency and while the cut in salary was a bit of a shock, from a career perspective it was far more down my street and it is something I am very glad that I took that opportunity to do.

What is the pay like and are there any perks?

The pay within marketing is never going to be in line with those of banks and consultancies, certain in the middle to lower levels of the job but in terms of the perks and the salaries here at Virgin they are on par with the industry average.  But the perks are fantastic, from a flying perspective if you like to travel there is a lot of opportunity around that and there is a lot of concession flights depending on your benefit levels and how long you have been here but if you like to travel they certainly look after you here.  There are other benefits again depending on your level which is pension, car allowances, health care and other benefits like that, but I think what attracts people at a younger age into the business is the travel element of the business and that is a really big perk.

How long is a working day and do you have to work out of hours?

My hours here are, I come in to the office at about 8.30 and leave about 6-6.30 normally and there are rare occasions when you have to stay later but I do have a laptop and wireless and blackberry and Wi-Fi and mobile phone so I find that I can do some additional work on the commute back home if I need to or when I get home.  I do feel the hours are certainly less than when I was at an agency where I was working 8-8.15 until 6.30-7.00 on a regular basis with far more weekends and working late so I do feel it is slightly easier to manage with a family from that perspective now working client side.

Is there much in the way of travel?

In terms of what travel there is, we are the global headquarters here so most people come to us and my remit is the UK advertising, obviously I need to have an idea of what is going on in the regions but my remit is very much the UK.  Since I have been here I have probably travelled abroad probably twice a year that may increase depending on how the business structures itself in going forward.

Do you have to be based anywhere in particular?

I think marketing is a truly national job and in fact there are a lot of big companies with head quarters based regionally outside of London and marketing tends to sit within there.  So I think whether you have to be in London or not, certainly outside of London I think most of the big marketing opportunities are.

What is the working environment like?

Within Virgin Atlantic as a whole there is a very broad spread of demographics and ages and in terms of the marketing department it tends to be a little bit younger in terms of there is a lot of 20 to mid 30s in terms of the people who work here and it tends to be quite female based, I am one of the only males in the marketing department in terms of formality Virgin as a brand that is reasonably relaxed brand and we can dress down we do dress down, I wear jeans to the office every day we don’t have to wear a shirt as long as you don’t look too scruffy no one is going to be too concerned as to how you are dressed.

How did you get into your job?

I got into the industry in a media agency and the way I got into that was in a graduate recruitment programme and a graduate day that they had which I was obviously successful in doing that and then I spent six and an half seven years with that company and then the opportunity came to move client side and to move into broader marketing areas so that is how I got into the role.

What's the application process like?

In terms of the opportunities for graduates in VA, we don’t hold any big graduate days, it is just a question of applying for jobs as they come up although we do hold internships for students doing third year placements and that has provided us with a number of future employees.  So it has worked really well for us and is something we take very seriously in and we are very proud of the students that have come and worked for us and gone on to eventually get full time employment and as a graduate you could even apply for one of those internships with the view of potentially after a year seeing if there are any opportunities for a permanent job here.

What are the key skills required for your job?

In terms of the key skills you need to work here, you definitely need to be able to get on with people and talk to people.  You are going to be surrounded by a number of different characters at the agencies that you have on the roster and also internally there is a lot of communication with different departments that need to understand what the need for marketing is.  The other skills that you need are a certain amount of creativity, and that goes without saying, and analytical skills in order to understand the effectiveness of what you are doing and the campaigns you are doing.  But I think the most important thing comes down to communication and being very good at expressing yourself and being very good at interpreting what the business needs are and then you can translate that into a brief for the agencies, and then you can understand also whether they are meeting that brief or not and being able to be quite diplomatic but forceful.  Also have a vision of what is important to you and to the business even though some people might well want to steer in a different route you need to be able to stand up for what you think is right so you do need an element of strength of character as well.

What's your top tip for breaking into your industry?

I think nowadays marketing is not all about being incredibly creative and ‘oh look at me’ and trying to stand out from purely a creative perspective.  I think you need all around business skills and one of the important ones is obviously a certain amount of understanding of creativity, but an understanding of people and how to motivate people to buy your product, I think that is a key element that needs to be understood.  But it does go far beyond that in the sense of the commercial sense of how the business operates.

In terms of top tip for getting in getting in to marketing I think that you need to have a very good understanding of the business and the business sector which you are looking to go into.  You need to understand beyond just the marketing and credentials you need to have like creativity and analysis; you need to understand the broader elements within that business sector and therefore if you are going to be a true all round candidate; you need to go beyond just your traditional marketing degree or media studies degree and you need to try and understand the bigger business sector that you are trying to get into.

Do you need a Marketing degree to get into Marketing?

In terms of a marketing degree and whether you need one to get into this job I think no, I did a languages degree.  I think as long as you show a certain amount of intelligence and business acumen you can get into this job without even having done a degree but obviously a lot employers will require some level of degree and I think that does show a certain amount of aptitude, but it is certainly by no means a dead set requirement for getting into the job.

What are the industry resources that someone interested in joining must know about?

In terms of industry resources they are pretty good - Brand Republic has a good web site to cover all the different facets from advertising to marketing to direct marketing.  So I think that gives you a good opportunity to see what is going on in all the different sectors.  Then there is the off line products which are associated with that which is Campaign Media Week, Marketing, Marketing Week, I think it is definitely worth reading all of those tiles, and then just looking around the website to see which blogs there are of which there are a few.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

In terms of the job opportunities in the Virgin Atlantic marketing department there are entry level opportunities from a Graduate Executive level and then you can work your way up to a manager level. Then there is a head of department and a sales and marketing director, so depending on how your career progresses, you could either stay in marketing and follow that chain up, but the beauty of working in big corporation like Virgin is that you can then switch to other departments should you feel you have exhausted your expertise or you wanted a new challenge within a different area, so whether that is within the commercial department or the credit department, there are opportunities for people to switch their career internally so that is a good opportunity

In terms of whether skills in marketing are transferable, yes, I think they are. You need to be able to show a great deal of people management on one side of the fence to strong analytical skills on the other and I think understanding problem solving the commercials of the business to be able to do your job properly so you do grow an understanding of what makes a business operate and I think with those skills you can then go on and look to work in different departments whether that be internally or in other sectors so yes they are very transferable.

If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?

If I wasn’t’ in this career like a lot of blokes, I would like to be a professional sportsman I think I would have turned my hand to becoming a professional golfer so that would have earned me huge amounts of money and the ability to travel the world, much like my current job.

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