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Show J ADVERTISING MAN. A J Here is an occupation open to ij your boy that Is certain to be ) profitable If he Is able to be- $ come proficient In It. It de- ( mands a fair amount of talent V and unlimited energy and per- A severance, but the outcome will V bring him satisfactory financial A reward and may even lead to J A something far beyond that. It A y is a calling that offers practical- ,J ly unlimited possibilities. y By C. W. JENNINGS. ) $ W O phase of modern business L'.Tw life has shown more prog-ress prog-ress during the past two J decades than advertising. "S" Formerly there was little !, in the business to develop or utilize talent of a high order or to command especial respect from the public. The modern successful advertising adver-tising man is an influential factor in business and even iri public life and receives a salary commensurate with his ability. The managers of the sales departments of the largest business concerns are but the highest type of advertising men and upon their direct efforts rests the prosperity of such institutions. in-stitutions. Governments, even, have use for the ad. man and do not hesitate hesi-tate to give him ample remuneration for the results he obtains by means of stimulating popular interest. There is no occupation your boy could choose that offers brighter prospects pros-pects if only he exerts himself and all his talent and energy and is determined deter-mined to get to the top. It is not essential es-sential that he should possess exceptional excep-tional qualifications for the work. As In most kinds of life work, hard work and study will carry him to the desired de-sired end in this case a loftier pinnacle pin-nacle than may be attained In most business careers. Assuming, then, that your boy wishes to make a stir in the world as a director of publicity, that he is 16 or so years of age and has had the usual schooling, his first step will be to go to one of the large advertising agencies and ask opportunity to begin at the bottom. As in other beginnings, his first job will be that of office boy, and his pay $5 or so a week. However, he will be given work right at the beginning that is the very foundation of all advertising. advertis-ing. He will be shown that advertising advertis-ing measurement and cost are based on the agate line, and will be set to figuring up the space taken in various publications by different advertisers, all of which is put into tables for future fu-ture reference. There are 14 agate lines to an Inch. The length of the line is the width of the column. The cost is estimated at the rate of so much an agate line. Through the business handled by his firm he will become familiar with the writing of advertisements, the charges made by different publications, publica-tions, the field covered by them, what their circulation is, what special class of advertisers patronizes given magazines maga-zines or other publications, what publications pub-lications are best adapted to facilitate the sale of various articles, what form &w size of advertisement to use, exercising ex-ercising his artistic and publicity sense by becoming familiar with the display value of various kinds of type, etc. As he advances in knowledge of all these things, and thereby becomes of greater value1 to his employer, your boy's pay will steadily Increase until, after a couple of years, he will probably prob-ably be getting $10 or so a week, and will be on a fair road to higher and more rapid advancement. Advertising agencies are firms that place the advertising and publicity work for companies or individuals that do not maintain their own advertising adver-tising departments. Thus John Doe & Co., wholesale hardware merchants, conclude that this year they will spend $20,000 in advertising; so they arrange with an agency to distribute this money for them, the agency selecting se-lecting the publications or other means and apportioning the outlay where it will do the most good. For this work the agency receives a commission com-mission of 10 to 15 per cent., not from the hardware firm, but from the publications. pub-lications. Therefore, the principal soliciting done by the agency is to get these accounts ac-counts from advertisers. As the agencies themselves are solicited by magazines and other publications, your boy becomes familiar with both sides of the game. Your boy's advancement to the po-' sjtion of solicitor will depend entirely upon himself. Naturally he will have to possess a pretty good knowledge of the business, so as to meet all arguments argu-ments and objections from persons who also are well informed, and he must present an appearance that will beget confidence. Probably he will not be competent to do all this until he has been with an agency for several sev-eral years; but all this time he will be Improving himself in the office and becoming an authority on advertising generally. He will be earning from $15 to $20 or even more a week by the time he Is in his early twenties, if he has applied himself assiduously to his work. Then will come his determination to Increase the business of the firm by his own efforts, and he will go out after an account. If he succeeds he will receive one-third of the commission commis-sion the agency gets. Thus, if he persuades per-suades the manufacturer of a face cream to let his firm spend $10,000 In advertising, the agency will receive at least $1,000 commission from the publications pub-lications selected, and your boy will get $333 of this. He is now a full-fledged solicitor and it will not be long until his earnings earn-ings are large. If he Bhows that he can get large business he will be put at that work exclusively and ultimately ulti-mately will be made a member of the firm or will establish one of his own. The possibilities of this business are shown somewhat by the fact that the largest agencies handle as high as $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 a year, of which their commissions are more than one-tenth. Deduct office expenses, ex-penses, fees to solicitors, etc., and you can see what the earnings may be. Another opportunity is likely to come to him even before he Is made a member of the firm he may be asked to enter the employment of a manufacturing manu-facturing or jobbing or other concern as advertising manager or manager of the sales department. The salary In this position may be very large. There are numerous sales managers who receive as much as $25,000 a year; for upon their efforts rests the prosperity of the business, and the man who handles advertising and other publicity business is supposed to know where the expenditure of a dollar will bring back many more. His experience as advertising agent gives him an accurate knowledge of how to spend money to get the best results. The writer Is acquainted with three young men who established themselves them-selves as a firm of publicity experts, catering principally to the exploitation of large business Interests. They made arrangements with as many as 5,000 newspapers throughout the country coun-try so that, upon payment of stipulated stipulat-ed charges, they could secure simultaneous simul-taneous publication in all of these papers pa-pers of whatever project they were booming. Before long they were handling the exploitation of large tracts of land in the south, and even undertook successfully the direction of a vigorous campaign started by a large state to attract settlers. This led to their entering into a similar arrangement with one of the great South American republics. Now they are making literally loads of money. The head of this partnership is in the early forties and his chief partner only about 35. Sooner or later your boy should have a few years' experience In the advertising department of a newspaper; newspa-per; for there he will be given the variety of work at top speed and In every branch of the business that is almost essential in one who expects to reach the top. He can get so intimate inti-mate a knowledge of people and their wants in almost no other walk of life. If he wishes to remain with the newspaper news-paper or magazine, his goal will be that of advertising manager, or business busi-ness manager, which, commercially speaking, is the most important post on the publication. (Copyright, 1910, by the Associated Literary Lit-erary Press.)' |