Advertising Practioners’ Educational Prerequisites: Differentiating The Needs Of Creatives From Non Creatives

Singapore‘s advertising industry is one of the clusters identified as an important growth area in the country‘s creative economy. The growth of the media industry, in particular the advertising industry has thus added urgency to call for higher institutions in Singapore to help nurture a pool of creative manpower by providing a well-rounded and comprehensive relevant education on advertising. An effective education policy is therefore a prime instrument in facilitating developments in this industry. A joint research initiative was conducted with the participation of a few advertising companies in Singapore. These included both creative agencies as well as media buying firms. The research served to examine the formal education needs of both creative and non-creative advertising professionals. From the study, we found that the education requirements for creative and non-creative education are similar, but not identical. Industry practitioners viewed that practical exposure are important for both groups of professionals. However, for creative education especially, this aspect took an additional importance as the most notable and common responses were the invitation of industry practitioners to conduct classes, undertaking real life projects and obtaining a global perspective via the engagement of renowned international advertising professionals or going for overseas internships. The study served as a springboard to a more exhaustive study in the advertising industry within Singapore as well as in comparison over a cross-section of countries, providing an insight into trends, different supporting factors and conditions for creativity in relation to the advertising industry.