My tips for Interns!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have come up with a few tips for anyone who is an intern or about to start their placement year. Even though I’ve only worked for a year, here is my first hand experience and tips ive picked up along my journey.

This period in your life is to enjoy and learn. Forget what the textbooks say (depending on what industry you work in) and immerse yourself in real-life experiences. As a Marketing Student, not once during placement did I have to use my text-book knowledge on the 7P´s or anything like it. I am not saying everything you have learnt at university up to now is irrelevant, all I mean is that each client, agency, product and campaign is different. There are different ways to get things done and it probably was not on Chapter 4 of your textbooks – this is why internships and placements exist, to give you insight into how the industry really works.

• Take Ownership of your Internship/Placement: It is entirely up to you what you want to make of your work experience. If you go into work with a positive and right attitude, it will work out for you and you will appreciate it in the near future. The existence of interns is entirely to help the busy workforce and an oportunity to learn on the way. We make life slightly easier for our managers, boss and colleagues. Therefore, it is entirely up to you to shine, move aside your weaknesses, showcase your strengths and make it a productive work experience. Moving on to my second point…
• Be proactive: Prove to your colleagues and superiors that are interested in working. Take initiative in providing help whenever needed. It’s never a good impression if others are busy with work and you are idling away on Facebook or Twitter!
• Patience is key: As an intern, you can guarantee situations where either you don’t know how something is done, or perhaps you’re in the early stages of placement where simply workshadowing your superiors and observing is vital to successful learning. Many people find these situations harder to handle and the feeling produced isn’t great. My tip would be to “take it easy”, you probably have months ahead to work on projects and campaigns and even though you might not have a direct hand in working on something, the fact that you have observed and workshadowed your superiors is a learning step on its own. I guess it is finding the right balance between being proactive and patience which is key.
  
• Take initiative: Never be afraid to voice out any ideas or suggestions during meetings. Show your colleagues that you feel confident with the project in hand and are willing to contribute too! Nonetheless, think before you speak and in front of who!, just in case! 😉
  
• Listen and observe carefully: No one at uni taught me how to write emails to the client, or how to communicate with other people involved within a campaign. During placement, I gradually started to observe how my colleagues would speak to our client, the structure of their emails etc. After working for a year, ive understood the importance of using the correct tone, conveying messages efficiently and effectively. You probably wont get it right the first time, but practice makes perfect and observation is essential.
• Be humble: Dont be too overconfident and think you know how to do it all, because you probably don’t. Be aware, this is the real world with real client and campaigns that are actually going to be aired or going live, that said, take the advice of your colleagues and superiors when they tell you how to do something, because they know what is best. Going on to my next point…
  
• Learn from the past: We all make mistakes and can have a bad day. All you have to remember is to look at where you made the mistake, be cautious and make sure you don’t do it again. Within the first few months of placement, I made a mistake which could have easily been avoided. We resolved the issue in time and all it took was a pep talk from my boss and a lot of being careful afterwards to never make the mistake again.
• Maintain good relations with your colleague: And finally! Being completely honest, you will probably spend more time at work than you do at the gym or at home. It’s essential to maintain a healthy relationship with your colleagues, you will spend many hours with them and if you work together as a team even more importantly need to work in synergy. You dont necessarily have to be best friends, but it is entirely up to you! – from personal experience, I have enjoyed some fun moments with my colleagues and can guarantee it makes work and stressful days a lot more bearable.

Hope you enjoy your placement and make the most of your experience!

A journey that has come to its end (for now…)

After a full 52 weeks: 365 days − weekends and bank holidays − 4 days of holiday, my placement year has finally come to an end. I can honestly say that working at Wunderman Madrid has been the best experience of my life so far and one that I wouldn’t change it for anything in this world

I´ve had an absolutely amazing team and great colleagues that any intern would die for.  From them, I’ve learned endless skills and go away having learned not only about digital marketing, account management and advertising but also gained valuable set of skills to help me professionally. I also developed a great relationships with all of them, making them my “work family”.

Over this year, Elizabeth, Josep and Cristina have given me the opportunity to learn and work on things I had never done before and wouldn’t have even imagined! They’ve had endless amounts of patience with me until I got to grips with all the different banner formats and techy specs ;), we struggled together when deadlines were tight and celebrated a successful campaign or accomplishment (OMG!! SPAIN IS IN ALL GREEN!! We haven’t got anything pending!) I really owe them a lot for where I stand today and my transformation from a student to an Account Executive (nearly).

Whilst Wunderman itself is a famous agency, working for big clients such as Microsoft, Accenture and Nokia has been another highlight of my internship.  Being part of one of Microsofts most busy fiscal year due to the launch of Windows 8, Surface and Office 365 and being involved in campaigns of such high level of importance has made me grow-up as an individual. I have come to realise that it is after you work hard, put in 110% of effort and interest, stay long evenings and undergo a certain level of stress, the “suffering” turns into love for your job and passion for what you do. Without the tough times I wouldn’t have been able to truly appreciate and enjoy little moments of success, there wouldn’t have been any pride or celebration and above all, I wouldn’t be feeling soo sad about leaving my job and the agency.

As for planning ahead professionally, I am really interested in getting back to Wunderman after I graduate from University. I want to travel, see new cities and live new experiences. The people I have worked alongside this year have been supportive, comprehensive and words cannot describe  how much i will miss my “work family”. I can guarantee that people are no different in the other WUN offices.

Not long now (October 2013) before I start re-applying for jobs and graduate schemes and as I said in the Interactiva Magazine Interview, having the name of Wunderman on my CV is a big plus on its own, working for big clients like Microsoft and Accenture and gaining the knowledge and expertise required will surely help with the job search.

As for my plans for the next few months, during July I will be enjoying the Spanish heat in Madrid and charging up my energy after a year of constant hard work. Along with another 8 people, I am travelling to Anjara, Jordan in August as part of a voluntary/NGO group to provide education to children in a convent. Having heard amazing experiences from my friends, I felt this was something un-ticketed on my check-list, I´ve also been told Jordan is a beautiful country with great historic value so I cant wait to do a bit of sight-seeing as well.

And then finally in September I will fly up to the UK to finish my final year at Bournemouth University. This will entail a lot of studying, dissertation and exams…but above all, I am so excited to see my friends whom I haven’t seen in above a year and miss dearly.

If you have any questions regarding my placement experience please feel free to email me. I will be posting a “survival guide for interns” soon with some great tips and learning points I´ve picked up this year. I´ll sign off with a couple of spectacular views from our Wunderman Madrid office:

 

Legends aren´t born, they´re dropped! Heineken Campaign

Before I begin, this will be my last week blogging as a Junior Account Executive. After 52 weeks, a full year on placement, my internship will have finally come to an end, I really wish it didn’t, but I´ve got a couple of things to look forward to in the coming months! Keep your eyes opened for my next few posts 🙂 

Heineken just happens to be one of those brands that has the coolest campaigns ever! They are engaging, interesting and definitely have the WOW factor!

Dropped in the Net is the first real-time social experiment investigating online behaviour. How do people react when they are taken out of their online comfort zone? Suddenly, carrying out a simplistic everyday task on the internet. The idea comes from part of their global campaign “Voyage”,whereby  Heineken takes part in the most daring experiment  – testing the survival skills of men by taking them out of their comfort zone, their daily lives into the unknown and unexpected.

For example, Rikar Gil, a Catalan aspiring actor, finding his way to fame who lives in Madrid, he loves the sun and hot weather and thanks to Heineken campaign has found himself in the middle of nowhere in freezing Alaska. Left to his own measures, he has to find his way back to Madrid. You can follow his journey back home on the Heineken Dropped YouTube Channel

Following this, Heineken carried out a social experiment to evaluate our dependency on the internet.

According to IE professor Enrique Dans, from the 30 million internet users in Spain, 17 million users utilize the internet on a daily basis. The digital users repeat very similar trends that outline their comfort zone when using the internet, the main habits highlighted are:

• 81% search engines
• 72% email
• 69% current affairs

Heineken invited 50 people in the Spanish capital and challenged them to find the price of a metro ticket in Shanghai or reserve a flight from Berlin to Frankfurt, a rather simplistic task if you could use Google/Bing, contact someone via e-mail or use social media webpages (Facebook, Twitter…) Unable to recur to their normal online habits, they found themselves outside of their comfort zone.

The experiment drew out a series of observations and conclusions, proving Heineken´s theory: By enhancing our ingenuity, we can overcome many of the threats that are outside our comfort zone, even on the internet.

Observations:

• People read more carefully and closely, paying a lot more attention to detail.
• The ability to improvise upon unusual situations is directly related to the degree of experience in the digital environment. Over half of the users entered a loop, repeating and visiting the same pages they already knew. This group of users were composed by the less experienced users of internet.
• Users became slightly more creative, they adapted to the unfamiliar circumstances and started inventing URL´s to try their luck!

As of 20th of June, users in Spain can test their skills in ‘Dropped in the Net’ on Heineken´s websites  interactive experience and also win a world tour for 2 people and cash prizes. User must get back to their comfort zone in the fewest clicks possible. I´ve tried my luck and got back to Madrid in 7 minutes and 11 clicks! Can you do better?

Overall I think it was a great campaign and personally interests me a lot. I’m hoping this is something I can bring into discussion and explore further in one of the modules I have chosen for my final year (Online Behaviour and Culture). Perhaps even an interesting dissertation topic I could develop further…only time will tell!

Memorable Slip-Ups!

Most of you must have seen Microsoft´s latest software; Windows 8 which was launched in October 2012. A tremendous marketing effort has been put to raise awareness of the brand new Windows 8.Whilst most of Microsoft´s marketing and advertising efforts are standardised and only the necessary elements are adapted to fit markets…early this month, three viral videos caught the attention of many internet users.Three videos were accidentally leaked onto their YouTube channel in the Asian market and proved to be an absolute success. I would define these spots to be random, funny and hilarious. The videos use Windows 8 taglines “Beautiful and Fast”, “Work and Play” and “The Power of Touch”.

Here are the three videos:

Without doubt, my two personal favourites would be “Multitasking” and “Fast & Beautiful”!Enjoy!

P.s. I recently converted from Mac to Windows 8 and I can rest assure confirm that I love Microsoft new Operating System 🙂 To anyone considering the swap, I would 100% recommend it!

Heineken: The Negotiation. Have you got the skills?

An average lunch time at work and I come across one of the best campaigns in a long time, its like coming across a pot of gold!

Heineken offered a handful of men the opportunity to go to Champions League final at Wembley. How? By challenging their negotiation skills….with their own women. Do you think you have the negotiation and persuasion skills to convince your other half to purchase and absolutely, positively NEED and cannot survive without the red plastic stadium seats in your home? The same red plastic seats that costs a staggering $1899!!

Of course, there was only one rule. The guy could not mention a word about the tickets to London to watch the Champions League Final at Wembley. Clearly, there had to be a catch somewhere!

Surrounded by hidden cameras, negotiation powers start to surface out, (surprisingly enough it’s usually the men who hate shopping)! “It´s industrial, and industrial is the ´in´ thing right now”, “The dog wont scratch it”, “Get a cheaper wedding dress then” or “It´s plastic, its durable, it’s an investment” were just some of the hilarious quotes I can pick out from the video!

Interesting Trends in Marketing & Advertising

A couple of weeks ago at Placement, my boss assigned me to a rather special task! I was to search the internet, dig deep, rummage through the endless number of marketing campaigns that really stand out and pull together the best and most latest trends in marketing and advertising to form a sort of newsletter which could be sent to our client….

Challenge Accepted! 

After searching for days on the internet; Adweek.com, MarketingWeek.com, Blogs, various “Top Campaign” Lists and hidden YouTube viral videos…I finally presented what in my opinion deserved to be amongst the top marketing and advertising campaigns. Here are my top picks from the selection:

 

1. Augmented Reality
By now, we should all know what AR is and how it works!

– Nokia & Orange
A mixture of Gesture Control, AR and Real Time 3D! This explosive mixture lead to visitors of a shopping mall engaging with the brand new Nokia Lumia 610 and experimenting with its new User Interface and creating a much more interactive experience with the brand!

Have a look -> http://youtu.be/q1ZNdJY6VI0

2. Web Series

Deep inside, most of us if not all LOVE series and we LOVE them even more if they are quick, short and use humour. They brighten up our day and proves as a great distraction/break time entertainment!

-Office 365 & SkyDrive

So Microsoft decided to launch viral videos on its YouTube channel that show university students the benefits of using Office 365 and Sky Drive. No more hassle of timetable or personality clashes for students! The videos clearly use a lot of humour and comedy and the aid of a famous actress (Aubrey Plaza) definitely makes it more appealing to the target audience. 10/10 from me on this one…(but I still LOVE group and team work no matter what!) Watch it here

3. Experiential Marketing

& I always like to save the best for the last!….are you ready to:

-Va Va Voom (Renault)

I myself don’t drive, but as you can imagine, there’s a lot of thought process in the customers mind when purchasing a car. Endless specs, price, colour, loans and test drives is just some of the consideration that a potential customers takes into account when purchasing a vehicle.

That said, Renualt takes Test Drives a step further…Offering their potential clients an experience they will never forget…yes, this is the Va Va Voom Experience! I really don’t want to give away too much because the ads are a MUST WATCH!  Choose wisely 😉 …In all honesty, after seeing this campaign I REALLY wanted to get my driving licence!!
Are you a guy?         OR                   Are you a girl?

Hope I put a smile on your face with this post, and if I did, please help spread the voice of a Young Marketers Perspective around!

Interview: Professional Placements with Competitive Advantage. Interactiva Magazine

A couple of months ago I had the fantastic opportunity to talk about my experience as a Junior Account Executive at Wunderman Madrid via an interview with Interactiva Digital Magazine. The interview was published in spanish in the April issue but I have translated it to English so you all can read my experience as a Zed.

One of the biggest highlights so far, in my small professional life I hope you all can enjoy!

PROFESSIONAL PLACEMENTS WITH

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE.

Encouraging the development of professional employees has always been one of the top priorities at Wunderman. As a matter of fact, in Spain, 93% of the workforce last year received a training course at Wunderman University, a training program to which Wunderman employees throughout the world have access to over 3,000 courses in several languages and disciplines. In the training area, the agency also has two internship programs which seeks to contribute to students a professional insight of their studies, which will subsequently provide them employment and facilitate integration into the working world.

The first, with students from local universities (in Spain, there has been an average of more than 15 agreements, the majority of which incorporated as permanent staff); and the second, under the name ‘Zed Academy’, is an international placement program. It started in 2010 in New York and Singapore, involving more than 72 students last year, who were able to undertake their internships in one of the groups offices worldwide. Laura Gutierrez (left) and Neha Chetnani, both 20-year-old students, who are expected to have completed their studies in Marketing and Advertising from British Universities for 2014; from Huddersfield and Bournemouth University, respectively. Taking advantage of the British university model enables third-year students to spend a year to undertake professionals placements, they did not think twice. After being accepted into the program, they packed their bags and flew to Madrid to join Wunderman in the Spanish capital as Account Executives: Laura, Movistar for Latin America and Neha, for Microsoft, Accenture and Nokia.

Q) How did you find out about Zed Academy?

Neha Chetnani: In my case it was a little curious. I was in the library, and didn’t really want to work on an essay, so I logged onto the universities On-line Portal I saw Wunderman´s Zed Academy from London was coming to give a conference about their internship program. I called to book, since I was looking for a placement, I went and loved it. Regarding the application process, there were eight or ten questions that went along the following lines:
‘What you take with you to a desert island’ or ‘Why could ask the founders of Wunderman ‘.
I had the document open on my laptop for two weeks thinking what to write to be original, but without messing up and then I realized that more I thought about it, the more unsure I would be. So I sent it as it was.

Laura Gutierrez: I found out from Neha because we are friends from school. She said that the placement was in Madrid, and I began to search on the Internet. She sent the application and got in, so I also did the same. I did the interview and … here we are!

Q) Why did you choose Madrid?

Laura Gutierrez: I wanted to return home, mum to take care of me time again … but it is also true that this way, I would not have not to pay house bills or rent. I’m saving money for university next year.

Neha Chetnani: I decided Madrid for convenience too. I was getting paperwork done, renovating my residence card … IT was convenient to live here in Madrid, rather than travelling every two months from London just to run errands.

Q) How easy was it to adapt?

Laura Gutiérrez: It was complicated to get used to a routine. At university in England you follow your own lifestyle. Now, there is a fixed schedule to follow, I have day-to-day duties and responsibilities. I struggled a bit the first month, but now im fine and I am very happy.

Neha Chetnani: The change from going to university where you have textbooks, to be in real life situations with real clients, responsibilities and very techy things that I did not know or had not been taught at the university, at first I was scared. Even now, I take a lot of care and precaution…But they are taking a lot of care of us and treating us amazingly! A month before I started, I asked the contact I had from Wunderman London on how they dressed, what attitude and ambience was there at the office … and she said: calm down, they are very nice people. And it’s true!! I was able to meet people from different teams and departments programming, creative, accounts … sometimes on Thursdays everyone meets at the pub to have a drink.

Q) What have you learned in the agency that you did not know before, and what things could you implement?

Neha Chetnani: For example, I had no idea of the extent of the coordination between the client, the digital agency, marketing, media agency, PR agency … At University, I did a module that explained the relationship between them, but you do not imagine that it is like this!

Laura Gutiérrez: It’s a little chaotic because you do not get explained all this well at university. At first it´s all theory, the ‘Theory of 4Ps’…I, for example, have not used it. Ultimately, everything you have to do, you learn on the go . At University, I also learned to compare what your agency does to what your competition does, track every detail, I do this on a weekly basis: I go to the client’s office and present the findings.

Q) What would you stay with during these months at Wunderman Madrid?

Neha Chetnani: It would be the launch of Windows 8. It was a great campaign by Microsoft and I loved being part of the account, and the entire digital campaign. Even when you are working till late, sometimes it stresses you, but when you see the campaign on the street, on websites … you get a rush of pride that and shout out “I did that Mum!”

Laura Gutiérrez: With the Latin America Telefonica Christmas campaign. I watched the whole process with my colleagues and although they were few chaotic months, it was when I had learned the most.

Q) Do you see boss-employee relationship or is it all a team?

Laura Gutiérrez: When our boss travels, he brings back gifts for us!! But yes, there is a sense of control ‘Laura do this’ or’ Laura do that’. If I have a lot of work and realise that I cannot reach the deadline, the team helps me.

Neha Chetnani: We are a team, but when my boss has to be boss she is. In fact, there are days that I’ve had bad moments, but when I go and talk to her she explains to me and tells me not to worry after all, we are here to learn. There is a lot of support and confidence within the team.

Q) Would you repeat placement with Wunderman?

Laura Gutierrez: Yes I would, because I’m very happy and very pleased with the agency. But first I have to go back to university, finish my degree, consider whether to do a master’s degree… it all depends on the situation and many other things.

Neha Chetnani: For me certainly yes, thinking big, I would like to go to Dubai or New York. After finishing my degree, I would like to work a couple of years to gain experience and then undertake a master’s degree, that is the plan.

Q) Professionally, what has this program contributed towards you?

Neha Chetnani: Having the name of Wunderman in my curriculum vitae before even finishing the degree makes me feel very confident for when I graduate and say, look, I’ve worked in one of the top 10 agencies in the world: hire me! There are marketing degrees where you don’t get the opportunity to do a placement year, but I think that by doing this placement, I gain advantage upon graduation.

Laura Gutiérrez: It gives us a competitive advantage with our peers, especially because many haven’t even worked. My university recommended me to take a placement year because all students who do get jobs the following year and also get better grades. Above all, I think you become more consistent with everyday work because when you are a student you think ‘I´ll leave it for tomorrow’ but when you are in a job it is ‘No, I have to do now’. That’s going to
be very beneficial for next year.

Q) What would you say to other students to encourage them to join this program?

Laura Gutiérrez: That they should really try to apply, it is a superb experience. It is always good work and see what it is really like, because when you are a student, you do not now what you’re really against up, but at work you realize life. You come out of your bubble and you speed up.

Neha Chetnani: I would tell them if they don’t have the time, they can at least balance it with their studies. The sacrifice of working for two months or during summer from 8 to 3 is totally worth it for when they graduate and start searching for a job.