First Week in Advertising - Week 1

On my first day... Waiting in reception, my level of nervousness and excitement were equally matched. Mainly because, I had no idea of what to expect. But, when I was greeted a friendly face that I recognised from the recruitment process - I felt much more at ease.

The first thing HR did was lead me into a private office to explain what the graduate scheme would involve, the perks of working at the agency such as the Monday Company breakfast and ‘Sunny Fridays’ – where in the summer everyone gets to go home at 3:30pm and other more formal employee benefits.

I was than taken into a massive open planned office, with brightly colored walls, sofas, plants and artwork everywhere, lead through a sea of desks and introduced to my new team; where there was a large box of chocolates waiting for me and lots of new stationery. Amidst all the meeting and greeting I was introduced to my new ‘buddy’. A Senior Account Manager who took me out for lunch, where we got the chance to briefly get to know each other over some sandwiches and soup. When I returned to the office, I was told that my first job would be to get under the skin of the brand 'Barclays Wealth International' (BWI). At this point, after feeling a bit out of my depth all day - I thought to myself yes!

Finally, I can use some of my university skills and approach this task in a similar way I would if I was preparing to research for an assignment. The days that followed involved researching the BWI website, and reading 2 giant BWI induction files, which taught me about the brand proposition, the offer, their customer segmentation, the target audience and the features and benefits of off-shore and on-shore investment and saving products targeted at high net-worth foreign nationals.

Throughout, the week I had various inductions with key departments across the agency such as Planning, Creative, Project Management, New Business, Client Services, Office Management, Finance and Reception. All the meetings with the above departments contributed to helping me to understand how the agency worked, and also how everyone’s role within the agency worked. The most interesting inductions were the ones with Project Management, Planning and New Business – because I quickly gained an awareness of the many ways in which creativity is embedded and integrated into the agency throughout the lifecycle of a campaign.

Date: 1st February 2011