Advertising Agencies

Advertising agencies are the most significant organizations in the development of advertising and marketing worldwide. An advertising agency is an independent service company, composed of business, marketing and creative people, who develop, prepare, and place advertising in advertising media for their clients, the advertisers, who are in search of customers for their goods and services. Agencies thus mediate between three different but interlocking social groups: industry, media, and consumers. The history of advertising is largely the history of the advertising agencies that have served the needs of these three groups. They link industry and media by creating new forms for messages about products and services; industry and consumers by developing comprehensive communications campaigns and providing information thereon; and media and consumers by conducting audience research to enable market segmentation. This article is concerned with the origins, early developments, organization, compensation arrangements, and accounts of contemporary full-service advertising agencies.