Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2010. The salary figures it cites for advertising executives in the US and Spain are unsourced 2010 claims, and the Cruzcampo ad about Andalusia praised at the end is a 2010 campaign.
There are no official studies in Spain on companies that hire advertising and marketing professionals for TV commercials, the role that in the United States would be called an advertising executive. To give an idea of what the job involves: advertising executives lead a team that studies consumer needs and creates a draft ad, or commercial. This idea is then pitched to the advertiser, which reviews the proposals from all the competing agencies and chooses the spot it believes will make a positive impression on consumers.
An advertising executive is at once a creator, a marketing expert, a team leader and a salesperson. In the United States, a mediocre one earns an average of $85,000 a year, while one with a well-earned reputation can make around $900,000 plus benefits, so they live like the genuinely rich.
Why are there no advertising executives as such in Spain?
Much has been said about this and no one has made it entirely clear. To begin with, the closest equivalent in Spain is someone with a marketing degree who, on entering the job market, earns on average around €20,000, and only if they are exceptional, since at a mediocre advertising agency they won’t even reach €15,000. So it isn’t a very appealing career.
On the other hand, Spanish companies are not aware of how important advertising is, and they create ads based on 1970s-style marketing. Advertising space is expensive, and the professionalism of the ads leaves a lot to be desired.
As a result, Spaniards and Latin Americans who decide to devote themselves to the fabulous world of advertising have to leave for the United States, London, Italy or Japan, where it’s a well-paid job and where they are considered a fundamental part of driving a company’s sales.
This is one more reason, and one more example, of how the mindset of Spanish companies differs from that of companies abroad.
I don’t know which agency made the latest Cruzcampo (a Spanish beer brand) ad about Andalusia, or which advertising professional was behind it, but we congratulate them: it was well rounded and had real impact, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even like beer. Let’s just hope that person earns more than €20,000 a year.
Further reading
- Common mistakes Hispanic business owners make
- Differences between Hispanic and American business owners
- How to run a small business in times of crisis
- How to be a successful businessperson
- The university degrees with the best future
Featured image: J E Theriot, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
