My Week at Coast

So this week has been amazing, I have spent the week at the Coast head office which is based in Shoreditch in London. Drapers, Retail Week, Karen Millen and Oasis- so a fashion hub under one roof. I'm going to give a brief overview of my day-to-day tasks- I arranged the weeks experience back in February to help with the AW14 press launch and event. I feel so privileged to of been able to work on and attend the launch and gain first hand experience from a premium fashion brand.

Monday

Today was my first experience of the tube at rush hour- and wow it was very busy. I travelled in from Clapham South with my friend Abi who has been working at Coast on her placement year also with Nottingham Trent, this of course eased my nerves a little. When I arrived at the very large and very grey building I was a overwhelmed on the size and the amount of people arriving for work (I felt like a child on their first day of school). Once in the building I met the marketing team, who I will be working very closely over the next few days. Emma- Head of Marketing, Sarah- Marketing Co-ordinator and Becky- Assistant PR and marketing (Becky has only been in the roll two weeks but she really is fab). I learnt that today would be spent assisting Becky in the prep of the event, the team quickly briefed me on the theme which in a nutshell is 'the coast girl' throughout different stages in the day, wearing different outfits. The location is at a wonderful Georgian house and in total we have 20 mannequins to dress which were previously used in Dior's show! We got stuck in straight away preparing all of the clothing, this involved liaising with the buying team to ensure all of the samples were ticketed and in the correct order ready to be packed and sent to location tomorrow. This took nearly all day, we spent the majority of the time chasing the samples and ordering as per mannequins. I learnt that at 2pm there is a weekly meeting to run over sales/progression/ PR coverage/bestsellers of the week. I thought that this was great because it brought together all departments from the office and everyone was up-to-date with our objectives for the following week and targets that needed that need to be achieved. Becky presented the PR coverage from last week and there was a lot! Much different from what I am used to at Commotion- they were featured in Look, Daily Mail, The Sun just to name a few! One of the most prominent things that stood out was how all the different departments work together and communicate numerously throughout the day- I think this contributes to the businesses current success. Communication is key.

After the meeting I grabbed a bite to eat and spent the afternoon sorting out the visual props for the event, this consisted of me cutting up leaves for the autumnal mannequin. Let's just say this took a very long time and now my fingers officially hurt! Before I knew it was 5:30pm and time to catch the tube home. Before I left Emma gave me a written copy of the schedule for the next two days. Tomorrow will be mostly preparation at location and Wednesday is D day, which means a very long day. I need to be at location at 7am (meaning I need to wake up at 5:30) and the day doesn't finish until 7pm. Although I know I am in for a tough few days I know it's going to be very rewarding and insightful!

Tuesday
I woke up this morning feeling refreshed, a lovely eight hour sleep was just what I needed, however I didn't realise just how much my toes would be hurting by the end of the day. Today was so so so busy, it was the set up for the press event tomorrow and the plan was to leave the offices at Shoreditch by 12pm to get to the venue by 1pm, to meet the courier and start to get the mass operation under way! The first couple of hours Becky and I spent the day bagging up the clothing for the rails and for mannequins, I also boxed and signed off accessories and handbags. The morning involved lots of running around ensuring that all products were signed off and we had everything ready to dress the venue- I even got to pick a sample dress to wear to the event.

At 12pm promptly we left the head office and ran madly across town, to beat the courier arriving at the venue which is an astounding Georgian mansion around the Warren Street area. However there was a few issues with the courier and ended up being an hour late, this was really frustrating for the team waiting because we couldn't get thing under way. Whilst we were waiting I met a few of the people helping and Coasts PR representatives- they were all really lovely, I loved hearing about their career, many of the girls gave me a few tips on how to progress within the industry. Once the couriers arrived things got under way and we began building 20 of the mannequins, whilst we were busy building the contractors were constructing the rooms- the transformation had begun and it was all due to the genius work of the VM and marketing team.

We finished around 7pm- after four hours of hands on work, the rooms were completely different- all the mannequins had been dressed, the rooms transformed, the clothes on the rails and Kim the head visual merchandiser had carried out a few tweaks on the outfits- everything was in place, all that was left was press gifts and a few minor changes in the morning. The theme works so well and is visually beautiful- I loved seeing the end results of months of planning of a brand that has a healthy marketing budget. I have definitely learnt that events like these take a long time to perfect and still things do go wrong! As long as you have a strong and willing team around you things can get done. The press day begins at 9am tomorrow, I'm so excited to see the reaction. I've posted a few pics from today to give you an idea of the business and the theme. Catch up tomorrow!

Wednesday
Today was the press event at Fitzroy Square, London. I arrived at the venue around 11pm as Sarah kindly let me have a lay in after a week of early gets up and late nights. Outside was a mobile coffee cart serving an array of hot drinks, so I helped my self to an earl grey tea. After arriving I noticed things had been perfected and finishing touches added- it really looked fabulous! We had caterers providing refreshing elderflower water and delicious, beautiful canapés. My duty for the day was to meet and sign-in guests once they arrived at reception, create the press packs and also give out the gift vouchers and goodies. We had a great turn out with over 200 journalists arriving throughout the day from Harpers Bazzar to Elle to Debenhams marketing. At Commotion I speak to a lot of journalists throughout the day and it was great to but a face to some of the names, all of the journalists were lovely- I even met the CEO of Coast. I also saw the PR agency which represent Coast working their magic, the three girls look fabulous dressed head to toe in Coast and knew all of the journalists- they took them around the event explaining the products and logging sample requests. During the day we also had an urgent sample request from the Daily Mail who wanted two necklaces for a piece tomorrow, Poppy from the PR agency Lee Publicity and Becky spent a while sourcing and sending over to the Daily Mail offices. It made me realise how important the journalists are and how hard us PRs work to provide samples and the journalists with content.

By 5pm it was time to de-rig and quickly dissemble the whole set (we needed to be off-site by 7pm). Everyone worked together and as a team ensure the job was done, the kitchen was full of body pieces from the mannequins being packed away. To everyone's relief, we managed to get everything packed away by seven. The marketing team and VMs were so pleased with the turn out, the comments we received from the journalists were positive, they could not praise the collection enough! Many mentioned the shift from occasion wear to wearable separates, Emma and the buyers were particularly pleased as the event was really showcasing the diverse 'Coast Girl' and the fact their is an outfit for every hour of the day. I am so pleased I have experienced a press launch with such a prestigious brand, I'm still buzzing from the day and don't think i'll get much sleep tonight! Tomorrow I'm assisting with VM and hoping to gain more insight on their job role.

Please see pics from today's event.. (we even had Coast branded coffee cups!)

Thursday

The aftermath of the press event created a few weary faces in the office this morning, everyone was really pleased on the outcome. Today I assisted the VM (Visual Merchandising)  team with their duties- today however this required working with Leanne who is in charge of creative VM and the concept for the press day, which meant we had a lot of unpacking to do from the last couple of days. The courier arrived at 10am and we had to unload the small lorry of goods and bring up to the office from the basement to the second floor, all of the buying team came to assist and so we got it all done fairly quickly. However... Leanne and I then had to sort out all sixteen mannequins remove their make-up, sort out props, check everything had arrived back safely and then store in VM cupboard, this all needed to be done by 4pm sharpish Kate (the CEO) was leading a meeting in the room where we was working. As a team we managed to get everything packed away- however I can safely say I never want to work with mannequins for a while, they are very heavy having to lugg around the office (not very glam). It was good to spend the day with Leanne as I found out more about how she got her role as creative VM, her previous career history, her skills and what she did at uni. I feel as though there is a lot I can go into with the degree FMB and i'm not limited to choices once graduated. 

The four pm meeting consisted of Kate updating everyone on the business- she spoke about the new 'House of Coast' and it's current re-brand. I've learnt that here everyone is kept up to speed with all the  different areas be it buying or HR and the teams all work very closely together. It was a lively meeting with music and new Coast advertising being shown and It does feel like a large community and I know I've said it already but communication really proves worthy here and I think it makes a real difference to other places of work. I can't believe that tomorrow is my last day, the week has gone so quickly, I've loved everything I have learnt and the people I met.  

Friday:

So today is my last day at Coast, I have had a wonderful but busy week which has allowed me to gain insight on what it takes to plan and create a successful press launch. Today has really been about tying up several lose ends and ensuring the PR agency has new samples to send to press. I assisted Becky in her role in sending the new stock samples over to Lee Publicity, this required taking photos of the new products, recording the details images and data on a spreadsheet then packaging up to send across to Lee Publicity. Logging the details of products sent is very important the marketing team have separate samples to the buying team and the company must keep track on what is getting sent over- as eventually we will need them back! 

During the rest of the day I was computer based (which was nice change from the busy week before) I completed several tasks which included: sorting out new samples from the tail end of press day, writing personalized gift cards for the journalists who couldn't attend, arranging look books and logging coverage received for file. 

Soon 5pm came around and my time at Coast was complete, I have had such a great week. Sarah, Emma and Becky brought me a present and wonderful card thanking me and inviting me back for next press day, I was pleased because of their appreciated of my work and the help I gave them during a manic time. 

This evening I am going to see Phantom of the Opera tonight to celebrate my week. 

Little update on Placement -- 5/05/2014

So once again I've had a lovely short week- these bank holidays are great (and the weather was fab). I'm looking forward to having a full 'normal' week, sometimes they can make you feel slightly out of sink with everything that's going on. Luckily our team communicates regularly, so I never feel out of the loop!

Overview of my week:

After being here just over a month, I well expected my inbox to be full, so the morning I spent sorting through my response sources and replying to a few major emails. With the bank holidays I hadn't really had chance to catch up with Sharon therefore we had a meeting to go over the main focus for the month. The brand Solaray (which I am writing my report on) is our main emphasis, we will be running a series of press releases to try and raise awareness. The fact that I am doing my report on the brand has helped with research and direction which we can take the brand. Sharon also briefed me fully on Hanbury Manor and we discussed  ideas pitches to journalists. I think its imperative that meetings and conversations are part of a weekly occurring- communication really is vital.

Sharon asked me to attend the monthly networking luncheon in June- which is for ladies in business to meet and discuss their business and ways which they may help each other . This will involve speaking for a minute in-front of the other women (very nerve wrecking). I'm excited to have been asked and can't wait to have the chance to network with others and of course have a slice of cake :).

On Wednesday Sue (my course leader) visited the office for my placement review; which is basically a meeting to check up on my progress. I was really pleased with the feedback I receive from both Sue and Sharon, the comments were very positive and I feel reassured that I'm doing a good job, I also cleared up a few questions regarding my report and now hope to finish in the next week or so!

Friday is always quiet in the office, many of the staff work from home and this week it was me and my colleague Danny. From the meeting Sharon and I had I wanted to dedicate some time to Hanbury manor and begin researching wedding blogs and websites which we could target heavily over the next few months. I began to build up a database of contacts to be used and added to when needed. Sharon has been asked to speak at a health and spa conference about her experience in the business- for this she needs spa trend research, I offered to help source some of the research because of the database access I have through the university- I found out some really interesting stuff about the future of spas and how the industry is changing!

Next week I am changing it up a bit and completing a week at Coast marketing. I arranged it over two months ago and will be assisting with the AW press launch (very excited indeed). I'm staying with my friend for the week and cannot wait to experience working in the big city!

Busy Busy Week - Week of the 28th April

So this is my blog entry for the week- with a glass of Rosé in hand (and boy does it taste good), unwinding after what seems the busiest week yet. To start my week of madness off the family decided to buy a new family pet in the form of a Golden Labrador Pup, his name is Buddy and he is beautiful. However he has been keeping me up all week with his pooch cries during the night.

Meet Buddy

My gorgeous new pup!

Monday:
So I started Monday with very tired eyes as I made my usual commute to Cambridge at 8am. As last week was bank holiday it was the first Monday that everyone was in the office, which was lovely to see everybody. The morning I spent catching up with Sharon and she briefed me further on Hanbury Manor and the Wedding PR which will be starting this Month. As it is the end of the month it calls for the production of the client reports which are generated for the clients. The reports detail all the activity over the month, press releases which have been sent, on-going journalist liaison, meetings, sample send on, featured products and the brief plans for the following month. I completed for two of the clients which took me several hours due to it being my first time of producing the documents (hopefully next time it won't take as long!) Whilst writing the report for Solaray I noted that no E-Blasts had been sent through our press data base Gorkana to appropriate Journalists and Publications- I decided to draft a copy which focused on exercising outside now that it's Spring. I feel that I am getting quicker and gaining confidence when writing my press releases but I always send onto Sharon to ensure she proof-reads before distributing onwards. Sharon gave me great feedback and we agreed to send it tomorrow- watch this space if any press pick it up and feature the two Solaray supplements.

Late on in the afternoon I focused on replying to our Response Source Feed which had filtered throughout the day into my inbox which was screaming for some attention. We had a several which requests festival/summer beauty products and I decided to plug the organic with Aubrey- I had two instant responses from Glamour Mag and Woman to which I sent samples. I was smugly pleased with my response from Glammour, journalists are so busy and have hundreds of PRs contacting them daily so it gave me a buzz to know she liked the concept enough to ask for a sample- hopefully she will love the products and Aubrey will benefit from some great relevant coverage! This ended my busy day and after the hour commute home I was greeted by a very excited pooch!

Wednesday:
Another early start but a long day- all in the name of PR! The morning was the usual daily tasks in the office in the morning but the evening was the first birthday press event for our lovely boutique hotel brand- The House Collection (check out the website). Sharon launched their first hotel Poets House in Ely and they have seen nothing but success since, which led into the second hotel launch of Paddocks in Newmarket last December. It was the first time I visited Poets House and the hotel is truly beautiful, it is everything a luxury boutique hotel should be but en capsules the small 'homely' feeling. I met David and Ian and had a quick catch up with the brand and their plans for expansion. Soon enough an array of red flooded through the cocktail bar- it was the arrival of the choir boys from Ely Cathedral ready to cut the birthday cake. We had arranged for the Ely Weekly News to join us for the news exclusive and take some pictures whilst the boys enjoyed some of the beautiful cake. (see pics below) The evening was a great social experience and allowed me to introduce myself to the driving force behind the brand.

Friday:
Well today has been another busy one. I started the morning with a meeting at our Digital Offices in Bedford, after getting lost because my Sat Nav directed me completely in the wrong direction I finally made in time for the start of the meeting at 10am. I had been asked by the Managing Director of Media Managers to help out with one of their new accounts that they recently pitched for and successfully won. The account is The Netherlands Tourist Board and the task is to raise awareness for Culinary mini breaks to The Netherlands through traditional media and digital- (that's where I come in). Alistair wants to create a team which works on the account managing different aspects and the meeting was really to discuss everyone's social media capabilities, from monitoring to editorial. We also met Abi who will be controlling most of the back systems ensuring that the content is measured and we are delivering against KPIs. I'm chuffed to have been asked to work on the account for several reasons, the first being it will enable me to improve my digital marketing skills including social media monitoring, secondly I feel that it proves I have worked hard over the last month and shown that I am eager to learn and contribute to all elements of the business (not just PR). The discussion illustrated how - as a team- you approach and tackle a brief set by the client, it is key to find out what they want to achieve from the campaign, time limits and KPIs. I realised that it's so important to feed from knowledge and strengths of your team to make sure the task is completed to the highest possible level. From the meeting we have arranged a conference call with the client next week and a potential meeting with the team the following week to begin brainstorming and delegating areas of the campaign- I am delighted to be involved with this side project and I know it will help me heaps and bounds in terms on first hand experience running a social media campaign- (hopefully a successful one!)

After a quick lunch and experiencing my first Costa drive through I made it back to the office for the afternoon. I knew I would have an full inbox which meant I spent a couple of hours replying and cutting press clippings. The last hour or so I concentrated on my continued research on the supplement market for my Placement Report, which is a Marketing Communication plan for the all-natural brand Solaray UK. As I promised my week has been exciting and informative, my brain is buzzing with lots of potential possibilities over the next few months. One thing is for sure, I am so grateful that I have this experience behind me- it really is invaluable and I am acquiring new skills everyday, whether it be how to handle my first formal business meeting or networking at The House Collections' first birthday. That's all for this week- time for me to relax and enjoy the bank holiday.

Easter Time! 24/04/2014 Catch up post!

Second Week & Easter

The last two weeks of placement have gone extremely quickly, I think this is due to the Easter Break occurring right in the middle which allowed me to have a couple of days to relax with the family and over-indulge on Easter treats. Despite the fact that time is flying back, over the last two weeks I have really grasped the role and I am now managing my own work-load which is helping me learn the role swiftly. As the brand portfolio we look after at Commotion is heavily beauty based, Sharon though it would be a great idea to attend the annual Natural and Organic Product Show at London Olympia- this was a really exciting opportunity for me and I feel I have benefited in terms of my research for my dissertation. The event consisted of four different elements; The Natural Food Show, Natural Beauty & Spa, Natural Living and Natural Health, there was always the Natural Beauty Awards which Aubrey Organics (one of our brands) won an award! Additionally it was great way for Sharon to pitch to new clients and really get a feel of the general market size for organic products. The event was huge and there was so many innovative/ unique brands offering new angles on beauty and natural foods. Whilst Sharon did her magic talking to potential new brands to work with, I really took in the array of things on offer. I also had the chance to meet two of our existing clients- Aubrey and Archeia, again this is enormously helpful for me as I now can match names to faces whilst speaking via email. All round it was an insightful and very busy day searching for new business, which I realised is a large proportion of the work Sharon does- managing and maintaining existing clients is obviously crucial however it is just as important to pro actively search for new clients to help move the business forward.

Event at London Olympia

Now I feel more comfortable with my role Sharon often has meetings in London and I hold the fort at the Cambridge office with the Media Managers guys. This has given me the opportunity to start using may days to fundamentally promote the brands we have using my knowledge from university and what I have been taught at Commotion. My typical day usually consists of:

• Responding to Response Sources, which is a data base that allows Journalists to request out to PRs for content for their articles- these come through in the form of emails and usually about 4-5 per hour. Some are completely non-relevant and therefore get dismissed instantly, but several provide strong opportunity to get the brand noticed by very busy journalists. I usually spend my morning responding to these, sending samples out to journalists who are interested and press cutting via our press cutting system Precise and then forwarding to the clients
• The afternoon I try to focus on writing press releases relevant to what’s going on in the world.. In PR I have learnt you always need to be one step ahead and know what's going to be occurring in the next few months. Magazines (monthlies/glossies) usually work up to 3 to 4 months in advance so it’s knowing what content/angles they’ll be looking for to ensure you have a wider margin for the product to be featured. Weeklies/nationals and regionals differ and things can usually be sent in real-time. At the moment I am looking for new angles on summer prep for your body and also festival trends which I can work into a compelling press release to plug Aubrey Organics sun care ranges. This is all still very daunting for me as it takes a lot to become comfortable with your own writing style, especially when it’s going to be sent out to hundreds of journalists (which will probably delete it straight from their inboxes!) Sandra and Sharon both explained that it takes time to master the skill of writing press releases and at Commotion they use each other for feedback and to help point out improvements which could be made.
• I tend to delegate time to small tasks which Sharon or Sandra ask me to complete relevant for that day, I speak to Sharon usually twice a day via email or phone to catch up- she also provides me gives me feedback on what I've done & where I can improve. I love having such a great support network around me – it has helped me enjoy and learn my job much quicker.

At the minute I'm also working with Media Managers on one of their new clients The Netherlands Tourist Board social media. Alistair the MD has briefed Sandra and I on the challenge ahead and I have been carrying out some basic research on how social media is used for tourist boards/comparing stats/ looking at travel habits. Alistair also spoke us through how he won the pitch and the presentation he put together- this was brill as it taught me how to use different angles to tell a story to transform the brief and provide context-  a skill hopefully I will be able to interpret into my own presentations. Well that concludes my post for this week- I'm really looking forward to next week as I am attending The House Collection (a boutique chain of hotels in and around Cambridge) first Birthday event! I'll try get some pics and post what I get up to- hopefully eating lots of cake. 

Round Up- First two weeks at Commotion

So the next part of my placement journey continues into the world of Media Managers as a PR executive, but I quickly learnt my role would consist more of account managing. The company I am going to be working with to complete my placement is Commotion Communications which is the PR segment of Media Managers- a fully integrated marketing communications agency. The team I'm working with is relatively small; which is different to what I am used to but definitely creates a sense of intimacy and contributes to me feeling like a valued team member. My manager, Sharon has seventeen years of PR experience and worked as PR and marketing manager at Champneys Spa Resorts, she then decided to set up her own consultancy using her wealth of knowledge to secure new brands remaining under the beauty,spa and luxury travel umbrella.

My first week was spent mirroring the shifts my new team member who I would be job-sharing, this was an integral part of my integration because it helped me learn the ways which Sandra worked and pick up the role quickly and efficiently. During the first couple of days I came to grips with the main business practices, brands and the role. The main responsibilities of the role include; account management of the brands, liaising with journalists, promoting brands through various channels, writing/drafting press releases, providing and proof reading content, generating innovate angles for brand promotion and general administrative tasks.

Commotion Communications currently work with eight brands and Sharon actively looks for new opportunities, with the most recent pitch being Lumie Clear, a light therapy acne treatment owned by Lumie lights. Most of the brands we work with have links with beauty/organic beauty market and luxury travel, I quickly learnt for me to be successful in the role I would need to familiarise myself with the brands ethics and publications/ journalists. I spent a few evenings fundamentally learning the basics- journalists and magazines which would be appropriate for our brand portfolio. The days soon flew by and my first week was drawing to an end- it has involved lots of learning and understanding (for me) a new area of marketing communications which until now not understood the importance. I'm really keen to see what the next few weeks has in-store and ways which I can possibly work on one of the brands for my report- I've already got a few ideas!! Watch this space.

Commotion Logo

THE DAIRY: second week as intern

PLACEMENT DIARY: SECOND WEEK 24/03/2014

After the mad rush of the first week getting everything sorted for the DNCC (chamber of commerce) e-business conference event, I thought the week would start of a little slow, however I was wrong- there was still some work to do on the design work and ensuring the proofs were signed off ready for print. The beginning of the week was mostly spent liaising between the clients, Shaun and the printers. Although on an extremely strict time plan, I had to negotiate with the printers to delay a day whilst the last bits off copy was sent in and proofs were finalized. This was quite a frustrating process- there was a lot of emails sent asking for changes to the artwork, this meant that myself and Shaun ( the designer ) spent hours amending to ensure the client was 100% happy with the product. As Nigel the MD was scheduled in for business meetings on the Monday and Tuesday it was really my responsibility to ensure everything was complete and with the printers. As 5 o'clock hit on Tuesday everything had been sent to the printers and completed ready for the event on Friday which I was to attend (huge sigh of relief). I received positive feedback from all the team members on the Dairy and felt that I was integral to the success of the project- definitely a feeling of achievement to overview and contribute to the project from start to finish.

The second half of the week was spent concentrating on Camloc which is a manufacturer of gas springs- which have been working with The Dairy for just over three years. Nigel gave me the opportunity the meet Andy Hubbard, the marketing manager to help work on his marketing communication plan for 2015. This was hugely insightful for me to overview the time plans which are used to guide the marketing communication objectives within the company- taking into consideration workload and budget. I was asked to spend some time working on amending the plans to reflect the changes made in the meeting, so that the account manager and client could clearly see their progress and remanding marketing budget for the year.

During the week Notts TV- a new local TV channel came into the Dairy for a meeting to discuss their exciting new advertising prospects for local businesses. Notts TV has been awarded a 12 year licence to broadcast a TV channel on Freeview Channel 8 – launching in May 2014 with the vision to produce high quality content relevant to local audiences. As the Dairy is a creative marketing agency it is important to remain up-to-date with the vast number of advertising channels available for it's clients and as Notts TV is a brand new opportunity for advertising it is more relevant as ever.

On Friday (my last day) I attended the DNCC's Ebiz Conference which was what I spent most of my time working on throughout my placement. The event was held at the Nottingham Belfry and was packed full of members of the commerce exhibiting their services for attendees- it was a fantastic event with some great speakers from the industry covering social media to SEO. It was the perfect way to round-up my first industry experience - networking with other businesses and individuals in the industry.

Nigel at the EBizConf

Seeing first hand how a busy creative agency works on a day to day basis has helped to develop many of my marketing skill-set further, whilst meeting/networking with some great people. It's been a fantastic start to my journey into industry and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next few months has to offer.

THE DAIRY: first week as an intern..

PLACEMENT DIARY: WEEK ONE 17/03/2014

As part of the second year structure on my course Fashion Marketing and Branding, I am able to source my own placement for the last term. Luckily enough I managed to secure two places for the ten week term- the first being; The Dairy- a marketing communications agency based in Nottingham. Having not worked in the marketing/ advertising industry before it was difficult to know what to expect, however after completing my first week I can safely say I have acquired many skills which will help my with my own future career development and also met some lovely team members.

On my first day I met Nige the Managing Director, he ran through 'standard first day info' and quickly moved on to brief me on the project which I would be overseeing for the first week- this was a fantastic opportunity for me to work closely on a live project with real clients and to very strict deadlines. The client I was working with was the DNCC (chamber of commerce)- they were organizing an business networking event for the 28th March and needed a range of brochures, banners, badges and posters designing and creating. Nige quickly advised me that this was an extremely big task for such short notice, but assured me we could turn it around. Shortly after Shaun (the agencies free-lance designer) came into the office, over the week he would be working in the studio creating the brochures on inDesign and I would be working very closely with him to ensure all content and copy was delivered on time. After a morning of 'welcomes' and 'briefs' we were straight into the work. I was assigned my own workstation and was asked to effectively source and manage the content from the client for the brochure- this required me quickly adapting to the task and thinking on my feet.

Over the course of the week and as the deadline loomed-(we had to get everything in the printers by Monday morning) I  found myself carrying out varied tasks and really taking ownership of the project. My main skills and tasks included:

• Monitoring incoming emails and requests from clients and handling incoming telephone call
• Building spreadsheets for costs of printing- helping me to understand the basics behind the finances of a business
• Chasing up clients (the DNCC took their time delivering parts of the content) 
• Liaised directly with the designer, gaining an insight to working with deadlines and the speed of which they work. It was interesting to see how the designer was briefed with the marketing/creative problem
•  Sorted out content and copy in a logical way for the designer to drop into the brochures. 
• /Generated orders in preparation for the event
• Sourced images for designer from creative database
• Learnt the benefits of having cloud based computing with Google docs, Zoho, jobbags and the server system. (All unique to the Dairy)
• Checked brand guidelines for some of the logos for the content of the artwork we produced.
• Attended morning meetings with Nige and Shaun to monitor progress of project (working to a tight schedule)
• Proof read content 
• Blogged for the Dairy website- which you can view here: http://www.thedairy.biz/current-intern-zoe-stroud/

The list of skills I have learnt in the last week are extensive and it really has provided me with a deeper insight of the industry. Deadlines are much stricter and the clients own a lot of power in terms of the final product. During the first few days I also met Fiona Geeson- one of the account managers and 'PR lady' as we like to call her- most of the account managers take sole responsibility on the projects they work on and it was good to see strong relationships building between clients and the agency, with some clients around for over ten years! The week has been very motivating for my future career and it has allowed me to think about roles such as: account managers which previously I may not have considered. After my busy, information-filled week, I am looking forward to a large glass of wine and relaxing over the weekend!