The State of Project Managers in Advertising

It seems that the roles and responsibility of project managers in advertising are changing day by day, especially with the tremendous growth of digital work. Project managers are expected to be more nimble and be the “jack of all trades” internally and externally. Here are some key points that agencies are looking for more in a project manager:

Client facing: Agencies are now asking project managers to be the day to day contact with the client. Makes sense. Project managers know every detail of the project within the agency. Before, project managers will just hand off the information to the account executive to discuss with the client. Now, PMs need to keep the client abreast of the project.

Technical savvy: Just knowing Excel is not going to cut it. Project managers, especially ones who deal with online, need to understand basic tech. Depending on what you are managing, agencies expect you to know things like HTML, Web 2.0 and how social media.

Resourcing: This is a hit or miss at some agencies. It’s important to know how much time it will take a resource to complete a project. For example, if you are managing the development of a online campaign, how many hours will you need each week for an art director or a copywriter? What about a coder? Many clients are share the same creative/tech resources and it’s important that you get the resources you need to complete the project on time, on budget and quality. You can create a resource document and or utilize MS Project to calculate.

Estimating: This is also related to resourcing. Project managers will need to know how to estimate a project not just in terms of resource hours, but also when it comes to budget. Some clients like progressive billing and some clients prefer billing at a retainer. Your budget must be like Goldie Locks and the Three Bears: can’t be too hot (or high) because the client will either not buy into it and it will seem unrealistic, too cold (or low) and you’ll blow through your budget, not completing the project and scrambling to ask the client for more money (or eating the costs). It needs to be just right to cover the project. Having a little left over is fine. If you go over, it’s due to the multiple review rounds by the client (hopefully). With estimates, PMs should be tracking costs.

These are just some high level things that PMs in advertising does. What else do you do?