Advertising managers of proven skill and ability can command tremen dously high salaries from large advertisers, as much as 13000 per annum being given for the services of one man in this capacity. He will very frequently organise under his control a large and expensive advertising department, numbering twenty or thirty clerks and typists, more especially if the "follow-up" system is worked to any degree of thoroughness. Of course, very few firms indeed can afford to pay such a salary to an advertis ing manager, but in accordance with the firm's spending power so they are enabled to secure services of men fitted to administer campaigns of various dimensions and varying importance. Advertisers are warned that they cannot expect £3000 a year work from a 30s. a week clerk, and herein lies one of the peculiarities of the advertising business. Any person at all can call himself an advertising expert. He may be a compositor, printer, a canvasser, a bill-poster, he may be one of the rag-tag and bob-tail of advertising—still he can call himself an advertising expert, and there is no one to gainsay his use of that title.
A skilled advertising man, however, of the professional class always has his record, and in accordance with the brilliancy of his record will the amount of money necessary to retain his services increase. It is a notable fact that the majority of skilled advertising men eventually find themselves connected with the advertising agency business, since that business offers a higher rate of remuneration for their services; but it is business which is of a most strenuous character and calls for the sacrifice of a great deal of time, constant application and hard work, so that some men prefer the steadi(r and more concentrated work of being attached to one firm only.
Conditions of Success in the Advertising Profession.—It is significant to note whilst dealing with the advertising manager and the advertising agent that the supply of skilled advertising men has never yet reached the demand. The positions which are vacant throughout the country for the right men to step into them are very valuable ones, and are only avail able to those of the highest possible and proven ability. The scope offered in this profession to young men is something enormous, and has never yet been realised to the extent it should be. Whilst the advertising schools have done much to spread a deal of knowledge regarding adver tising, it is knowledge only of a theoretical and not of a practical character.
The main quality which is necessary to make a successful advertising man is that of absolute enthusiasm for his chosen profession. There should be nothing in connection with the business too insignificant for attention, no side-line of advertising which should be too unimportant for him to follow up and get to the bottom of. Ile should thoroughly understand printing;
he should be a writer of strong forcible English; he should have some artistic ability. He must be possessed of an evenly balanced sense of pro portion, and must understand human nature. It is not too much to say that the most successful advertising is built upon a keen and close knowledge of human nature. Advertising appeals in a hundred ways to the human emotions, and the success of the appeal depends upon how, when, and why it is made.
The Advertisement Manager is another type of advertising man or advertising specialist, whose duties are confined to certain distinct channels. and whose knowledge might be regarded as special knowledge quite distinct from that already alluded to. He takes complete control of the advertising columns of the paper or periodical with which he is associated. Sometimes an advertisement manager will control the adver tising columns of one paper only ; or he may control the publicity columns of a number of papers that issue from one publishing house. Whatever may be the number of papers he controls his aims are invariably similar, since they are primarily to fill the advertising columns with advertise ments. He must keep a close watch on the general appearance of his advertising columns and guard very closely the interests of his paper fLom a financial standpoint. Ile must see that his advertisements are kept in line with the general policy of his paper, and in line with decency and public taste. In a measure the advertisement manager is not called upon to exercise the same breadth of vision and ability as the skilled advertising agent or the advertising manager. He does not concern himself with general advertising or campaign work. First and last he represents his own paper, and the whole of his energy and ability is devoted to keeping his advertising columns in a flourishing condition irrespective of the welfare of the advertiser, which is some one else's business. The position of advertisement manager gives wonderful scope for individuality of methods and personality. For one thing, he should never forget that he has an interest in the ultimate success of the advertisers Nvho use his columns. The advertisement manager who seeks to make a success of the proposition he is handling, sees to it that advertisers who use his columns, use them to their own, as well as to his, profit. Therefore, he will frequently hesitate before attempting to sell space to an advertiser whose wares his experience tells him will not meet with a ready response in his columns.