Baile Átha Cliath


Friday, April 23, 2010

Starcom




I've been interning at Starcom Advertising Agency since the middle of March Monday through Thursday. It replaces the courses of Irish History and Contemporary Irish Society which ended before spring break, while the Arts in Ireland course resumes on Fridays. On top of working the internship, because it is an academic course we have to compile a portfolio documenting everything we do on a day to day basis. I have a log starting from my first hours in the agency detailing everything I do. As you can imagine, they are each 5-6 pages. The minimum is two.

Starcom is a media planning and buying agency. In other words, it is exactly the type of agency I thought I would drown in. The nitty gritty, meticulous planning, number-crunching-practical-thinking atmosphere that I always assumed was a 180 degree from what I wanted to be doing- the creative, the ideas, the art. Looking back on the last six weeks of working at Starcom, I can't believe how wrong I was. I've certainly learned a lot. I've learned what I don't see myself doing in the future, but more importantly, that I AM capable of doing what does not come easily. And I really enjoy working hard!

The people are by FAR the most amazing part of this job. I laugh my way through the day amongst the cheerfulness, sarcasm, slagging, and generally fun attitude of everyone in the office. I'm surrounded by my favorite accents; the Managing Director is Scottish, the guy at the desk next to me is Australian, and everyone else is a rainbow of my favorite Irish accents. Sometimes I'm so fixated on the way they speak, I have to ask them to repeat themselves to listen to what they're actually saying.

They have been nicer than I could have ever asked for. I'm always included in conversations, jokes, lunch excursions, nights out. Everyone has shown such an interest in my life when I'm so much more interested in them, how they got to where they are, whether they have other plans for the future.

My favorite part of the internship has been sitting in on client meetings. I've been able to shadow someone multiple times, and I feel so privileged every time. Other than that I've learned the basics for the media world, placing ads, using archives, documenting trancerts, invoices, and most definitely learning my way around Excel Spreadsheet.

It just so happened that my first day was the beginning of a VERY busy time for the office. The beginning of two important pitches. I was handed two briefs first thing, and reading through them, I immediately felt like I was in over my head. But my supervisor and everyone else in the office definitely helped me out more than I could have hoped for.

After a month and a half of research, clue hunting, hunching, opportunity, themes, and ideas, we narrowed down the pitch ideas to 6 main statements. I illustrated the six ideas for the second pitch that happened this past week.
The final product!

So much meticulous work went into the research. Why not display it for the client to see?



I got to watch a lot of the real work go into it, but I know that there were even more hours of toil that went into this one presentation, competing for the business of these two companies. I hope I made a difference helping out; that was my main goal coming into this internship. I have one week left there; I'm going to miss it so much! The people better stay in touch!!

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful, Eileen. Thanks for sharing! You have been BLessed!
    (and by more than a bird!)

    ReplyDelete