Advertis-spring: My first weeks as an intern

With springtime right around the corner, things are starting to get that end of the year smell to them. The mugs drying in the sink are being rinsed of their mildew, the cigarette butts on the balcony are tossed aside to make room for new ones, and it is time for me to reflect on my first three weeks as an intern at Arthur.

               

University did not adequately prepare me for working in the ‘real world’. The pensioner’s bed times I seem to have assigned myself are testament to the fact that my student life is well and truly behind me. Yet it is far more rewarding to go to bed at 9.30pm with the knowledge that I achieved something during the day and not wasted it watching hours of day-time TV and boredom-trips to the shops. And although my internship at the Beirut office of Leo Burnett before joining Arthur was a very different experience (my poor/non-existent grasp of Arabic being less of a problem here in London), I feel like I have learnt an invaluable lesson about advertising: if it’s done right then it doesn’t matter about class, creed or colour because a good ad can transcend any language barrier.

One of the main philosophies at Arthur is to find the ‘unavoidable truth’ with regards to clients – essentially discovering things beyond the brand’s surface. For example, if you are on 7.27am train from Surbiton to London Waterloo, you’ll encounter the unavoidable truth that you will not find a seat, and you will be spending the majority of your journey in a businessman’s armpit. But this is one of the things that I love about the agency; it is not all cut and dry. It’s about creating campaigns that are made to last because they address issues that other agencies try to ignore because they appear unflattering to a brand or product.

I am usually involved with the social media side of things, which not only comes with the bonus of getting to do some Facebook stalking on the sly (and no, I can’t believe what’s-her-face from school is having a baby, either!), but also gaining an insight in to what people are actually talking about, and understanding what our clients can do to build a better relationship with customers and fans. I also have to do a lot of research to find content for our Twitter and Facebook, which I absolutely love. Hours spent trawling the internet for news and gossip? Perfect. Unfortunately, as a result, I have become the opinionated know-it-all who thinks she’s an advertising guru after less than a month’s work experience, constantly reeling off opinions at the drop of a hat about how so-and-so’s campaign was average to poor because of this and that, but then bla-bla’s idea of doing this was a stroke of genius considering that thing that happened.

Generally it’s been a grand first few weeks, I’ve learnt an extraordinary amount – not least managing to wrap my head around using Windows 7 – and have probably refreshed Mashable more times a day than I had hot meals last year (which isn’t actually saying much as I was a student with a broken microwave). More importantly it has strengthened my interest in advertising. Now I just have to decide which branch of advertising will be lucky enough to receive me as a professional until retirement. No pressure, then.