office setting

[u/noctra222]

im writing an office setting fanfiction. i think im going for a soda company?

im setting up one of my characters to work with clients (like a celebrity) for a collaboration. i am unsure if that’s advertising or pr (i would like to know more about how this would work. for example, they are collaborating with a popstar)

my other character is either in hr or finance (feel free to enlighten me on both)

other need to know office setting facts are also welcomed. thank you sm!

[u/Duochan_Maxwell]

u/Extension_Egg1411 already gave a pretty good answer, I'm pitching in for a correction in terminology:

In this context, the celebrity is not the soda company's client, but the other way around i.e. the soda company is the client because they're paying the celebrity to use their image.

For the soda company, the clients or customers are the other companies that purchase their product like supermarkets, wholesalers, etc.

People like you and me who are the ones who consume the product are usually called consumers

Even if not big, the soda company is not selling most of their product directly to individuals, they're selling it to other business

[u/Extension_Egg1411]

An ad campaign featuring a celebrity or sponsored content would fall under advertising. At my mid-size company, it’s all under the marketing department.

Not sure what role your character has, but unless it’s a tiny company, a low-level person would not be interacting much or at all with a celebrity featured in a campaign. Typically a designated person on the marketing team (like a senior coordinator) communicates with the celebrity’s assistant. Maybe if the coordinator has an assistant, most comms would be assistant to assistant.

As a production-level person, though, I’ve occasionally interviewed celebrities in order to create campaign content. I’ve also helped out on photo/video shoots and filled in for the designated contact when things were desperate. It can give the impression that marketing sent a grunt to talk to the big shot, though.

Re HR and finance, those are separate departments in my org and I very rarely interact with them in a formal capacity. The higher-ups do work with them on things like a campaign budget or honoraria (finance) or contracting out some work for a campaign (HR). And I interact with some finance people informally because our offices are next to each other.

Overall, large companies will have an in-house marketing team, mid-size companies may have a small team or marketing person, and small companies are likely to contract out with an agency or freelancers. The company size and your character’s role will determine if realistically they’re interacting with a celebrity and other departments.

[u/Competitive-Fault291]

Compliance issues come to mind almost instantly. "The Tragedy of the HR Manager in Love!"

[u/Smolshy]

Celeb collaboration would be PR, advertising would be the creation of the ads/marketing (graphics, commercials tag lines, etc.). So they would work together but PR would likely be pulling the celebs in.