Advertising agency

Advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients. Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Agencies may be hired to produce an advertising campaign.

Full-service agencies work on a combination of fee-based and commission based compensation. The fee is paid by the entity for which the marketing is being done. The commission is a payment from the media to the agency and is usually equal to 15% of the cost of the advertisement. The broadcast media, radio and television, traditionally pay a commission. Full-service, or media-neutral advertising agencies produce work for many types of media, creating integrated marketing communications, or through-the-line (TTL) advertising. The "line", in this case, is the traditional marker between the media that pay a commission to the agency and the media that do not.

Full-service agencies are also known as traditional advertising agencies for the client, wherein the client satisfies almost all their advertising or promotional needs with the same organization. This type of agency provides advertising services such as strategic planning, creative development, production, media planning, media buying, and other related services such as sales promotionals, direct selling, design, and branding, etc. Interactive agencies may differentiate themselves by offering a mix of web design/development, search engine marketing, internet advertising/marketing, or e-business/e-commerce consulting.

Interactive agencies rose to prominence before the traditional advertising agencies fully embraced the Internet. Offering a wide range of services, some of the interactive agencies grew very rapidly, although some have downsized just as rapidly due to changing market conditions. Today, the most successful interactive agencies are defined as companies that provide specialized advertising and marketing services for the digital space. The digital space is defined as any multimedia-enabled electronic channel that an advertiser's message can be seen or heard from. The 'digital space' translates to the Internet, kiosks, CD-ROMs, DVDs, and lifestyle devices (iPod, PSP, and mobile). Interactive agencies function similarly to advertising agencies, although they focus solely on interactive advertising services. They deliver services such as strategy, creative, design, video, development, programming (Flash and otherwise), deployment, management, and fulfillment reporting.