Haile works as a Digital Content Coordinator at Lamar Advertising in their Baton Rouge branch. Lamar is an outdoor advertising company that operates over 360,000 billboards and logo displays around the U.S. and Canada. In her position, Haile is responsible for scheduling creatives (the content of the billboard) and providing clients with webcam shots of their creatives live on Lamar billboards. She also provides reports for all clients who run campaigns with Lamar billboards.
In general, digital content or media coordinators are responsible for writing and posting content onto the Internet or digital fields. To be successful, these content coordinators are expected to have current knowledge of industry-specific technologies and be proficient in digital and publishing software.
To work at an advertising agency, prospective workers should hold a bachelor’s degree with a field in marketing, journalism, advertising, and communication. The average salary in an advertising job is $53,000 a year.
“I feel like I know more about the world and what consumers are interested in on a daily basis by what type of companies want to advertise and what they want to say,” said Haile.
Haile views her job as a digital content coordinator as a way to be up to date on current events and current societal happenings. According to her, since the job is digital, it never stops.
For example, when Haile was put on call for the National Championship football game, she stayed up past midnight to put up all of the creatives on all boards in New Orleans for clients who wanted to congratulate LSU for their win. The next morning, Haile received an email from the branding teams of Lamar’s clients thanking her for getting their messages up so quickly.
“This definitely made staying up past midnight worth it,” said Haile.
Lamar is a national corporation, so there are markets all across the country. Haile coordinates individual markets within her region and also reaches out to markets in other regions to coordinate their digital content.
“Since we are a national company, all of the communication around the country is through email, and to do my job, you must be good at communicating over email,” said Haile.
Haile also stressed the importance of prioritizing your time and understanding the quick turnaround time that comes when working in a digital field.
“For instance,” said Haile, “if an advertiser says they want to change their creative and sends something to me to get out as soon as possible, I know that I can do that within minutes and need to prioritize that task over anything else. That was the biggest thing I had to learn when I started.”
Haile started at Lamar 2 years ago as an intern in the same department she works in now. As she was majoring in marketing at Louisiana State University, she was drawn to the advertising field because of how similar it was to marketing. When she completed her bachelor’s degree in marketing, she applied for a full-time position in the National Sales Department field for Lamar and got the job.
For digital content coordinators today, it is all about working with new technology and the changing media landscapes. With the ever-changing media and technology, the advertising business is booming and has an expected job growth of 8% in the next ten years.
“Being in a position that is focused on the digital aspect of advertising has shown me that with technology changing and advancing every day, you have to be comfortable with change and learn to embrace them,” said Haile.
Being open and being able to adapt to changes in media as well as changes in society is a huge requirement of anyone wanting to work in a digital media field.
In one of her hardest days at Lamar, Haile truly became aware of how fast the digital field moves and how big of an impact digital advertising has.
“I was at dinner for my Dad’s birthday on the day of the shooting at a Walmart in El Paso. I immediately got a text from my boss asking if anyone was able to go into the office and take down all the billboards in El Paso for Walmart,” said Haile.
Walmart is one of Lamar’s clients and wanted all of their advertisements taken down following the shooting.
“It is hard for me to be in a digital field and separate work from other parts of my life. Since everything is digital, it constantly follows you out of the office,” said Haile.
However, none of this deters Haile or others from working in the digital advertising field. The growth and revenue from this field has grown by double digits each year since 2018. As new technology forms, our society becomes more and more digital every day, and these coordinators are happy to be at the forefront of those changes.
The MFJS Reporter -- Winter 2020 M-W 