We've heard about successful advertising companies? Do you want to create your own advertising agency? Not so simple. Every year the advertising market in Russia increases by a third: many young companies offer services, but only a few occupy leading positions.

Successful firms include teams of professionals who provide a high-quality, unique, informational and creative product to the customer. Forget about mediation right now if advertising business has been beckoning you for years.

Such “temporary” part-time jobs shorten the life of the agency to 1-2 years. This article contains a comprehensive answer to the question that interests many: “How to open an advertising agency from scratch?”

There are many freely available examples and ready-made business plans, which have become successful starting points for companies. But it’s best to create a custom plan for your startup. An advertising agency business plan must last for at least 5 years.

• production plan (room, equipment, machinery);
• description of the enterprise, company, range of services;
• main development goals, direction of activity and detailed growth program;
• financial side (amount of investment, costs for specific items, expected profits, profitability);
• time frame for refund, self-sufficiency, profit;

The size of financial investments is also taken into account here. The rate of return on business depends on their size. On average, the first profit is noticeable within 3–12 months.

Start-up capital

On average it is necessary 500-600 thousand rubles to open an advertising agency:

• 100 thousand – repairs and rental of premises;
• 250 thousand – equipment and office equipment;
• 100-200 thousand – (depending on the number of employees);
• 50 thousand – advertising campaign.

Registration of business activities

It takes several weeks. You decide which form of registration will be most practical:

If there is only one founder, then it is more profitable financially and legally. LLC and OJSC are intended for establishment by several persons.

Work room

No one will force you to buy or rent office space. You can work online while being anywhere in the world. But there is no more fruitful work than live communication with colleagues.

Renting or purchasing office space– it all depends on financial capabilities. Do not forget that, most likely, you will have to renovate the premises and purchase equipment for work.

Design comfortable workplaces for employees and purchase comfortable chairs for clients.

From office equipment you will need:

• powerful computers;
• printers and scanners;
• corporate mobile devices.

Does not accommodate equipped kitchenette, air conditioning.

Customer Feedback

Create a website where the client can get acquainted with your activities in detail, view your portfolio and leave a message or comment.

Start email, several phone numbers, a Skype account so that the customer can communicate with you in any way in an accessible way. Openness and live communication build trust in the company.

Recruitment

Your team of employees is the most valuable asset of your business. At the same time, the number of participants in a startup project is unlimited. It is most effective to assemble a team of 5–7 highly specialized specialists: a creative manager, a graphic designer, a customer service manager, and assistants.

To attract decent personnel, you need appropriate promising working conditions:

• system of rewards and bonuses for the volume and quality of work performed;
• motivation.

The latter must be both material and intangible. In addition to high wages and career growth For good results, offer:

• additional days off, vacation;
• Personal Area;
• business trip and so on.

For solutions financial issues It’s better to hire an economist at least for the first time. Specialists will help you save significant amounts of capital .

We have to give credit to freelancers. Select a couple of talented guys online and from time to time entrust interesting projects in case of emergency, creative stagnation, and also for the purpose of effective distribution of responsibilities.

How to withstand fierce competition and stay afloat: customer base

A quality product will never go unnoticed. But even if your team can sell even meat to a vegetarian, you shouldn’t expect rich and generous clients. You need to look for them yourself.

This job doesn't just fall on the account manager. Extraordinarily important good connections and cooperation with worthy partner companies that specialize in printing, printing, and advertising. This will help you cope with orders mobile and provide a quality product.

Pitfalls of the advertising business

• The dull face of the company. Just as a shoemaker is without boots, advertising agencies are often left without a bright, creative name. If you are competing for the creative pedestal, then first of all take care of a non-standard name and a flashy logo. Would you really trust advertisers whose name does not evoke any emotions?
• Openness to cooperation and desire to work for results at any time of the day. Worthy clients will brighten up your portfolio and improve your reputation in the eyes of a potential customer. But refusing small or budget tasks is contraindicated. Clients are all-seeing, and pickiness will scare off the most persistent customer. Offer as much help as you can and even a little more at any time so that your interlocutor feels protected and feels that low sales are a thing of the past.
• Lack of unique services. Many companies become successful thanks to small but very useful services. For example, 1000 flyers or business cards as a gift for orders over 50,000 rubles, recommendations from specialists on improving the logo, slogan, brand. The client will be interested and will definitely return next time.
• Lack of contact information in public sources. Local media, directories, and forums are suitable for disseminating information about the company.
• Improvement and continuous learning. The business environment changes daily. Dynamics are not always stable, because to remain in a leading position in the market you need to adapt. Development and new knowledge will come in handy. If your team has no incentive to hone its talent, then the campaign will fail in advance.

Business profitability

It largely depends on the specific region, the formed price segment and the demand for services.

On average, the company makes a profit from 20 to 40% of the order value. The most expensive projects are the development of an organizational style and logo - from 40 to 70 thousand rubles. After the project has paid off, the business can bring in from 250,000 rubles per month.

My first business school I passed the job at an Italian company where I started working while still studying at the university. Working as a translator required constant presence at negotiations with directors of Ukrainian companies, written translation and, of course, immersion in all accounting and legal issues. I traveled with the Italian director all over the country and communicated with top management. I still believe that it was a very valuable experience for me, which was not in vain.

To create the company it took starting capital about 5 thousand dollars. I was not alone, my partner and I invested together. In the first year, the Creapro agency was mainly engaged in the provision of advertising services. Only then, a year later, in 2008, we refocused our activities on conducting inspirational seminars for creative industries and became an agent of the most authoritative trend bureau in the world - trend union, headed by design guru Lidewij Edelkoort. Today we position our services as creative project management.

It's always difficult for me to describe in one word, what does Creapro do?: I have not yet found analogues of our company either in our homeland or in neighboring countries. We collaborate with world personalities, each of whom is successful and an innovator in the creative field, recognized by the global professional community. Of course, such communication greatly enriches ourselves. We see our mission in searching for new ideas and people of the future.

The most difficult there was a search for “our” clients. We focused mainly on local clients and working with them took a lot of time.

Basic the investment paid off during the first half of the year.

celebrated your first year of work fun, in the office, under New Year, with friends! It was a great party, with mulled wine and gifts!

Basic Rule, which we try to adhere to in our work - to do what gives inspiration, joy and pleasure. Since childhood, I myself have lived by the principle “what comes around comes around” and I believe in the law of communicating vessels in life.

The most important thing for me in working with a client- give what he is looking for and a little more than he expects!

About Me

The most important my inspiration Now she has a little daughter, she is a little over a year old. I must also say that communication with Lidewij Edelkoort and her team is energizing and gives me a lot for professional growth and more!

Trying don't push yourself to stress. But if situations arise that require you to look at the circumstances from the outside, then it helps me physical activity. You don't have to run to the gym to do this. About ten years ago I was exhausted by training and running on the treadmill, but now I get a thrill from working on the land (planting something with my own hands...). Well, swimming in the pool helps too!

I I like to wake up early, slowly prepare breakfast and drink a couple of cups of coffee with chocolate to stimulate brain activity, and then quickly get ready for work.

Trying go to bed no later than midnight, if you're lucky, even earlier. I like to retire in the evening and read, to be “filled” with new thoughts and ideas. I only use my alarm clock when I have morning flights. The body has apparently already tuned in and knows when I need to wake up, so today, for example, I got up at 6 in the morning. But usually this happens around 7.30.

Actively before the birth of my daughter struggled with laziness. I tried to find incentives to overcome this condition. The so-called idle day once a week was a cure for me, helping me to work like on energizer batteries for the next week. Now, on the contrary, it is an unaffordable luxury!

You can't give up never, even when it seems that everything is LOST! Several years ago, while traveling around America, my husband and I accidentally found ourselves in a car museum near Detroit. And Ford’s famous phrase “Never give up” was perceived then with some special meaning. Since then, in difficult situations, I try to remind myself of it, and my strength is restored by itself!

Family is the most important thing what we have! We must always remember this. And there will be time if your priorities are set correctly.

2 options for advertising agencies

You have two main options regarding which advertising agency to open:

There are companies that only do intermediary work. For example, they place advertisements on billboards, buses, put up notices, etc. This media PR agencies, which have a lot of competition.

The average number of employees is 3-4 people, which is a sufficient number of people to start with. Mostly, beginners take their first steps here, but if you can’t resist others large organizations in a race of competitors, then everything will fall apart.

Another option, which is more sustainable in this area of ​​business, is opening an agency that will create advertising(ideas for commercials, branding, slogans).

If a company employs creative minds, it will quickly become popular and can easily be a leader in this business.

What types of advertising are there: 7 varieties

No. 1. Print mass-media

One of the oldest ways of placing commercial advertisements is advertising in newspapers and magazines.

If you are going to work with this type of advertising, you need to find out the numbers of all advertising departments in print media. Next, you should find out the prices for advertising in each newspaper, technical specifications for the layout (there may be different restrictions on color rendering or size).

Of course, this information can be studied after receiving specific orders. But it will be better if, already at the meeting with the client, you can give him professional advice and give specific numbers. Thus, you will attract his attention with your competence in the matter.

If you have opened a creative agency, then the advertising should be developed by the employees themselves. Therefore, it is important to hire only experienced people for the position of designers.

Even if you have an intermediary agency, still find someone who can create layouts for newspapers. After all, they pay up to 3,000 rubles for creating an advertisement, and at first all the money is very important for the company.

If you do not have such an employee, then a bright picture can be made in the editorial office itself by a layout designer or photo editor.

No. 2. Television and radio

1. Ads.
2. Teleshop.
3. Ticker.

No. 3. Printing

It is advisable that you have a person who can create layouts for all this wealth. This is a great option for earning extra money.

If you do not have a position such as a designer on your staff, you will have to negotiate with other advertising agencies that are ready to come up with layouts. In such cases, you will lose a large amount of money from the order.

Do not forget that before sending the layout to the printing house, you must obtain consent from the client.

No. 4. Outdoor advertising

This is also a very wide range of services: banners, billboards, pillars, signs, advertisements on public transport, etc. Not a single advertising agency can do without this format, because it is in this category that the most orders are placed.

First you need to find companies that manufacture these products. Not every printing house takes on such orders, because, for example, banners are printed only in a single copy, and special material is required for production.

Again, we note that it is better to create advertising layouts yourself, then you only have to pay for the production of outdoor advertising itself, and you will keep the money for the idea. Thus, it is possible to earn up to 20,000 rubles per day if you have orders.

It is worth mentioning separately about billboards (structures with advertising on the road). Basically, there is only one owner of all the billboards in the city (maximum 2-3 people, but this depends on the scale of the city).

It will be difficult to negotiate with them about advertising if you have just opened. As a rule, they cooperate only with large and popular advertising agencies. You will have to negotiate for a long time to find a place for your advertisers.

Typically, billboard rentals are scheduled months in advance, because this is one of the most effective types of advertising.

No. 5. Internal advertising

For example, if this is a branded watch, then it is best to place advertising in offices, expensive beauty salons, restaurants, shopping centers near boutiques. If the product is aimed at elderly people, then the advertisement should be placed on transport, in the elevators of high-rise buildings.

No. 6. Souvenirs

IN Lately Souvenir products (for example, T-shirts with a company logo or a photograph of a specific person) are very popular.

In addition, it can be made with various symbols:

• cups,
• pens,
• calendars,
• medals and certificates,
• phone cases.

At first, you can offer your services in making souvenirs for retail. There will be demand for the product, especially if the price is reasonable. When you are sure that there are orders for these products, you can buy a special printer and produce the product yourself.

It’s good that such a product sells out during elections. Don’t be afraid to raise prices during this period (within reason, of course).

No. 7. Promotions

A promotion is an event that should open a new product or service to people, as well as introduce a potential audience to a new business in the city.

*Example of a promotion in Metro

Promotions are held in shopping centers or large supermarkets. The event includes a program or competition during which the audience is introduced to a new product or service. Information about the competition must be indicated in advance (its location, time, conditions, organizer).

Be sure to check the information about receiving prizes. Sometimes, due to inaccuracies, those who did not receive prizes can cause a scandal. The organizer, that is, the advertising agency, is responsible for this incident.

6 steps to open a PR agency

When you already have a specific idea of ​​what you will have to work with, then you can move on to the question of how to open an advertising agency and what is needed for this.

Main stages:

1. Registration of an enterprise.
2. Competitor analysis.
3. Selection of personnel for work.
4. Rent of premises for work.
5. Creation of a website and price list.
6. Search for partners and advertisers.

Step 1. Registering a business before opening an advertising agency

Before you start, you need to register your business if you don’t want to have problems with the law. To do this, you should contact the tax office at your place of registration (if we're talking about about individual entrepreneurs) in order to register ownership.

If you want to open an agency only to provide intermediary services, then it is enough to have the status of an individual entrepreneur.

When registering, you need to select the appropriate code from the All-Russian Classifier economic activity. In this situation code 74.40 is suitable (advertising activities).

Then all that remains is to order printing for your advertising agency, open a current account and proceed to the next step.

Step 2. Analysis of the work of “advertising” competitors in 2 steps

A very labor-intensive stage in opening an agency is analyzing the advertising market in the city.

To simplify it completely, you can divide all the work into 2 steps:

First, decide what range of services you are ready to implement at this stage.

Find out what your competitors are doing. Perhaps they overlooked some type of advertising (for example, promotions). Pay maximum attention to this type of advertising in order to have a certain feature in the market and provide Additional services, different from the “range” of competitors.

You can call everyone yourself and pretend to be an advertiser to find out the prices of your competitors. This information is necessary to understand what numbers you need to enter in your price list.

The more services you provide, the more clients you will have. At the same time, do not forget that this will require investment, which will not pay off soon.

Step 3. Recruiting personnel to work in an advertising agency

It is very important to select personnel who will be interested in business development. Not everyone will want to work for a start-up advertising agency that may not stay afloat. Therefore, you will have to lure them with salaries, bonuses, bonuses, etc.

It is best to recruit personnel who have worked in this field, know the market from the inside, have their own clients or are acquainted with potential partners.

1. Director (a person who will enter into contracts with clients and partners).
2. Manager (he will be responsible for finding clients, places for advertising, partners).
3. Designer (creator of layouts).

You will also have to hire a creative director, or better yet two, who will come up with the design of layouts, videos, and come up with PR moves. Such a team will be enough to get started.

Let's calculate what costs you will have to pay for staff monthly if you decide to open an advertising agency:

Of course, we provide approximate figures. In reality, you will indicate other salary amounts in the advertising agency business plan, and enter information about future salary increases and bonuses.

However, approximately you will have to pay the salaries of advertising agency employees in the amount of from 200,000 rubles every month.

Step 4. Renting a work space

In this matter, everything depends on your starting capital. If you have money, then it is best to find an office in the city center, with good repairs. This is where they will take place business meetings with customers, and first impressions are very important in this business.

When capital is minimal, you can rent a small premises on the outskirts, but then you will have to travel to clients yourself to conclude contracts. Even if the office is located on the periphery, the repair should still be good, because the customer can come to you at any time on an important issue.

A large amount will be spent on purchasing equipment:

1. Computers.
2. Work numbers for all staff.
3. Printer/scanner.
4. Camera.
5. Tablet for the designer.
6. Projector for presentations to clients.

Step 5. Creating a website and price list for an advertising agency

Today it is difficult to imagine any business without its own website. An advertising agency must have its own page on the Internet. You can also open groups in in social networks, because potential customers are everywhere.

The website should contain all the information about the services provided, their prices, and contacts of managers. Create promotions on social networks and on the website itself to attract advertisers.

Here is an example of a well-designed website, where each type of advertising has its own separate section, everything is accessible, and there is no unnecessary information:

Pay great attention to creating a price list for the agency. Its design should also be as simplified as possible. The customer needs information about what your prices are, not bright pictures.

Step 6. Search for partners and advertisers

The last stage in opening an advertising agency is to include business partners. This is where managers or the head of an advertising agency get involved. At the beginning of the opening, you can involve everyone in finding a profitable customer, because this is profit for each team member.

Agree on cooperation with business partners before you start receiving orders. If you are a media agency, then enter into preliminary agreements with printing houses to print flyers and business cards. Find companies that are ready to make banners and pillars for you.

Don't expect customers to find you as soon as you open. Managers must independently call potential advertisers and negotiate cooperation. Make concessions, attract with affordable prices and bright advertising offers.

How much does it cost to open an advertising agency?

As you remember, there are several advertising agency formats. We will look at the example of a media agency, because... it will require less investment. This means that this format is more attractive for budding entrepreneurs.

Capital investment in a media agency

As you can see, opening a media agency does not require large investments. However, we should not forget about regular investments in the existence and development of the business.

Simple steps towards your goal are in the following video:

Monthly investment in an advertising company

At first, you will have to invest your money every month until you reach the point of self-sufficiency of the business. In general, it will be possible to recoup the investment in 10-12 months of active work.

In this business, a lot depends on your staff. After all, just theoretical information about how to open an advertising agency, not enough. It is necessary to have communicative employees who can as soon as possible make a name for your company.

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We continue to publish chapters from the collection prepared by CAF Russia.

Chapter 8. Participation

How to work with creative agencies

Having drawn up a brief for the development of an advertising and information campaign (see), an NPO can resort to the help of a performer - a creative agency. But first of all, let's clarify the terminology. There are several types of companies involved in the production and placement of advertising.

• Creative agency is a company that develops original advertising ideas.
• Media agency is a company that implements advertising ideas and places advertisements in the media.
• Advertising holding– a mother campaign that controls all subsidiary campaigns and in this sense is a full-cycle agency. She deals with everything: from creating and visualizing ideas to placing and promoting an advertising product.

When contacting a creative agency, it is important to understand what specific help in building social advertising it can provide. Here they will figure out how to properly present, visualize your idea and “beautifully package” it. The creative agency does not engage in media planning or place advertising in the media.

The result of a creative agency’s work with a brief should be at least three ideas, three advertising concepts that the agency will offer to the customer to choose from.

This is preceded by the following steps:

1. study of technical specifications by strategic managers,
2. processing the brief and drawing up work timings,
3. work of creative managers on the project,
4. making additions, alterations, modifications.

Timing of work

The client specifies the timing of the order in the brief. As a rule, the timing depends on the calendar of events and activities to which the preparation of advertising is timed. Therefore, it is important to immediately draw up a work timing - a document that describes in detail each stage of the work and the deadline for its completion. Creative managers say: “no timing, no project.” Timing is a project management tool. Agreed upon by both parties, it is designed to help the agency work comfortably, and the client to receive a quality product within the specified time frame.

At the same time, the timing must include time for finalizing the project: the customer should have the opportunity to express his wishes, and the contractor should have the opportunity to fulfill them.

And here it is important for the parties to understand the areas of responsibility. The customer, when making suggestions, should not allow himself to delay the discussion and decision-making.

As a rule, ideas are corrected up to three times – this, objectively, is enough. Otherwise, the contractor will not be able to guarantee completion of the order by the agreed date.

Account manager

An advertising and information campaign must have a manager who specializes in working with the client and interacts with all those involved in the preparation of the project. This manager is usually an account manager. This is a representative of the agency who controls the execution of the project at all stages. He is also involved in consulting, planning, documentation, and project budget management. It is advisable that all information - copies of letters on the project, meeting arrangements, negotiations - go through the account manager. This will allow him to respond to requests in a timely manner, control processes and guarantee the execution of orders on time.

How can you influence the process?

Working with NPOs for a creative team is usually additional and often free of charge. But this creative people, they are inspired by ideas. If there good idea, creative managers are ready to work extra. But inspiration doesn’t last forever: we came up with an idea, discussed it with the client, adjusted it... and then the inspiration begins to wane.

The account manager’s job is to keep creatives on their toes. However, the client himself should consider motivating the agency one of his tasks. We are not talking about material gifts here at all.

Creative people need psychological support and approval, joint negotiations and face-to-face meetings that will demonstrate your interest.

If the project is delayed, then any new information, useful throw-ins, suggestions, ideas will become additional motivation for the team. In turn, this is an opportunity for you to speed up the implementation of the project and control its implementation at various stages.

Creativity versus practicality

Most creative agencies participate in various professional competitions and festivals and are interested in social projects that can then be submitted for participation. Often, competition entries are distinguished by their brilliant creativity, and only in second place is compliance with the goals and objectives of the social information campaign of a particular NPO. There is nothing wrong with agencies pursuing their own goals when working on a project, it is important that the achievement of your goals and the agency's goals are compatible. To do this, you need to have a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of the campaign and outline them in the brief. In most cases, the nonprofit and creative agency can come to an agreement and work together to create a successful awareness campaign.

Decreased growth. The Video International analytical center predicted in January that companies’ spending on promotion in various media would grow by only 3–4%, while in last years they grew by 8–10%. The reasons for the slowdown are economic stagnation and a possible financial crisis. By spring, the problems were compounded by the unstable situation in Ukraine, US and EU sanctions and other troubles. The advertising market is always one of the first to react to the unstable state of affairs in the country: in an effort to cut costs, companies begin by cutting marketing and promotion budgets. It is precisely at such a time that small start-up agencies have a chance to gain a foothold in the market if they can offer a competitive product at a low price.

Advertising agencies have different specializations. Creative RAs write scripts for advertising campaigns, create texts, videos, and designs. They produce advertising and, as a rule, do not place it. The second type is media RAs. They, in turn, have contracts and contacts with various media and are engaged in integrating the client’s advertising into the desired channel. Full-cycle advertising agencies are companies that engage in both production and sales. Finally, there are specialized agencies that specialize in just one type of advertising, such as outdoor advertising or online advertising, and can help with both the creation and placement of messages.

The good thing about an advertising agency business is that, if you wish, you can do it on your own, without investing in renting premises, purchasing equipment, etc., provided that you have enough reliable connections in this market. If there are few connections, it makes sense to spend money on qualified employees: lure them with high salaries, or give them a share, or promise them very interesting tasks.

Room

You will need an office when your staff grows to more than five to ten people. You will need a place where you can meet, discuss ideas, where to invite the client. Commercial real estate in major cities prices are rising, good and inexpensive offices are in short supply. In Moscow, a class B office, the most popular on the market, can cost 20,000–25,000 per m2 per year. Some companies prefer to rent space in coworking spaces and club offices for meetings with each other and potential clients. This often works out cheaper, given that most employees can work remotely. Many people strive to rent an expensive and representative office, furnish it with beautiful furniture, or, conversely, paint it with graffiti and arrange a hipster loft in it in order to impress customers. In fact, customers rarely come to visit advertising agencies.

Documentation

The legislation allows you to register an advertising agency as an LLC and as an individual entrepreneur. Before you begin, you should be thoroughly familiar with the federal law “On Advertising” and all amendments, as well as learn about local legislation regulating the advertising market. For example, in Moscow and St. Petersburg there are strict restrictions on outdoor advertising.