Today is finally Friday! Yes. Today shouldn’t be too crazy. This week wasn’t so bad, have a few things but nothing urgent. Today will just be cleaning up a bunch of my accounts.
So what do I do? I am an account executive at FOX Station Sales NY – Gold Team selling TV and digital ad spots in 3 markets: LA, Chicago, and Philly. Each team has specific markets they sell for. Our office is located on 67th and 3rd in Upper East Side.
We sell TV ad spots, meaning commercial spots. We don’t produce the commercial, that’s another dept, a lot of people think that’s what I do. But we sell the commercial air time. Slots are typically :30’s sec spots, and also sometimes :15 or :60 sec spots. Occasionally we have 1:20’s (2 min) but that’s not very often.
We also sell digital ad spots that pertain to online ads on our station websites, but also can be on air ads that pop up on the screen, or pre-roll videos that play on air during a TV program. These are just a few examples, but there are a lot of aspects to digital that I’m still learning about.
How do we sell? Each account executive has a list of accounts, basically list of agencies that buy spots for specific clients/companies. We also look for new business, but typically AE’s are given accounts that already do business with us. As you become more experienced you get bigger accounts, such as the auto companies, but that comes over time.
When I started I was given a list of accounts which are pretty decent. My biggest account I would say is Popeyes in Philly. That is the account I sold my first NFL Post Season spot in the NFC Championship Game last year =). I also have General Mills in Philly and Chicago. That account comes with a lot of small brands that include Nature Valley Snacks, Yoplait Yogurt, Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, and etc. Another big account I have is Active out of Philly and LA. That account also has a bunch of brands that include Olive Garden, Kohl’s, Merial, Reckitt Benckiser, Tempur Sealy, Georgia Pacific, and more, brands change each quarter. I also have Cancer Treatment Center out of Chicago which is also good. I have some other small accounts, but these are the major ones.
Some I used to have but not anymore. Accounts change very often in this business. When I first started I was fortunate that one of my accounts got Sprint, that was my biggest order so far in LA. Almost sold them a Super Bowl spot! Ahh that too I also started during the time of the Super Bowl. OMG one of the craziest times of my life. I’ll talk about that another time, but yeah that was crazy.
Overall work is good. Honestly it has its pros and cons, but I’ve learned a lot since I started. Also I was in a training program for 6 months from last June to Dec 2016, and then got placed in the NY office. I have officially been an AE now for 7 months. Still fairly new to the game, but getting better.
Okay well I should really get back to work now lol. Then finally the weekend. See ya.
-Carolyn ❤
Carolyn Grace 