Marci Ikeler

Digital Advertising Team Roles

As digital technologies and behaviors change rapidly, so do the roles and titles of the people who work in the digital space. Over the past 15 years, as digital design has matured and grown, a wide variation of titles have been proposed and used. Some are particularly confusing – What in the world is a Technopologist? What’s the difference between an interaction designer and an interactive designer? (It’s a big difference, actually). Even people working in the industry can’t keep up.

Given the constant shift, and the lack of consistency across the industry, it would be impossible to provide a definitive list of these roles. This list is an attempt to map some of the more common titles to a set of roles and tasks.

• Digital Strategist
  (aka Digital Planner, Marketing Technopologist, Interactive Strategist, Digital Analyst)
  Leads the research, analysis, and strategic recommendations for solving the business problem online. Defines the thought process and brand POV, and provides executional recommendations to the creative team.
• Social Media Specialist
  (aka Social Agent, Community Manager, Outreach, Digital PR)
  This title refers to two distinct roles; the person filling the role may provide one or both of the definitions described.
  In one sense, this title is an almost exact overlap with the digital strategist role, but with a focus on social media research and executions.
  In the other meaning, it refers to a person responsible for social media outreach after the product launch. This might involve interfacing with influencers, blogger outreach, seeding, and community management.
• Content Strategist
  (aka Editor, Senior Copywriter)
  A content strategist is responsible for planning an ongoing approach to content creative, publishing, and governance. This practice includes: editorial strategy, metadata strategy, search engine optimization (SEO), content management strategy, and the definition of content distribution channels.
  This is a relatively new practice and is not yet widely adopted, although that is changing rapidly.
• Creative Director (CD)
  As in traditional advertising, the CD is responsible for leading the creative team (UX designer, visual designer, copywriter) and managing all aspects of the product/brand’s tone across multiple media, based on input from the strategist. The CD’s background might be UX Design or, more frequently, Visual Design.
• User Experience (UX) Designer
  (aka Interaction Designer, Information Architect, HCI Designer, Usability Expert, Experience Planner, Experience Strategist, Business Analyst)
  The UX designer creates the architecture and interaction models for a specific execution, owning all aspects of the user’s interaction with the product: how it is perceived, learned, and used.
  At the highest level, this role can overlap extensively with the Digital Strategist. However, the focus is not the “what” but the “how” - the UX designer investigates consumer behavior in interacting with products and related processes.
  At lower levels, this role is responsible for creating wireframes, site maps, and functional specifications that detail all aspects of a product’s interaction and functionality with the consumer.
  In certain projects this role might not be necessary (for example, a branded email campaign or Facebook page doesn’t allow for much variation in interaction, in which case visual designers will typically handle the design on their own).
• Visual Designer
  (aka Art Director, Interactive Designer, Creative Director, Web Designer, Digital Designer)
  The visual designer is responsible for all visual elements of the product – logo, colors, fonts, and layout. Additionally, visual designers work with the UX designer to ensure that the interactions of the site “feel” appropriate for the brand.
• Interactive Designer
  (aka Flash Designer, Flash Developer, Creative Technologist)
  An interactive designer designs and develops interactions in rich technologies (usually Flash). This role overlaps with the development team.
  Projects that do not require Flash (or similar rich technologies) don’t usually have this role.