Overview

Whether you wake up to Capital Radio or talkSport, read Heat or Pig Farmer's Weekly, prefer I'm a Celebrity or Big Brother or look up the number for a local plumber on yell.com, each are examples of commercial media that has been funded (for the most part) by advertising revenue.

The range of media and constant innovation in the sector are two of the reasons that make it one of the most exciting industries to work in. From national newspapers that inform millions to explosive and addictive online media like Facebook or Last.FM, all rely on talented ambitious salespeople to sell their advertising.

Modern media sales

In its simplest form, media sales is the selling of space for advertising.

The scope of opportunities ranges from selling classified adverts in a local newspaper through to managing an advertising agency looking to deliver an integrated campaign for a major consumer brand across national press, online and TV with a spend of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Good media salespeople are marketing consultants to their clients - either media agencies or marketing directors trying to get their message out to their target audience. To succeed you’ll need to have good commercial awareness and an understanding of business and marketing.

Huge potential

Whatever sector you’re in, you’ll find it a varied, demanding and rewarding job; speaking to and meeting a range of different people and selling campaigns that could reach millions.

Richard Branson started his empire by launching a student magazine and selling the ads himself from a phone box. If you’d like to own your own island one day too then perhaps media sales isn’t a bad place to start!

Sector Overviews

It's getting increasingly difficult to define media in clear-cut sectors... magazines have websites like Heat and heatworld.com (and radio, and mobile alerts...); successful TV shows have consumer events like Clothes Show Live; billboards now interact with your mobile phone and you're probably starting to see branded products in your PlayStation games.

We've taken a view and divided up the industry into a number of reasonably conventional sectors, not perfect, we could debate it forever but our sector overviews but will give you a good grounding in what's out there and where it's going.

Read on...