Confessions of an agency intern

Jeanette Debek, a rising sophomore at Penn State, joined us in May as a summer intern. As a communications major, she felt she had at least a solid introduction to the world of marketing. So, we threw her into the deep end of the pool, with a few watchful lifeguards standing by, and had her attend virtually every meeting, presentation, strategy session and creative review.

Before she heads back to school, we asked Jeanette to reflect on what she learned this summer. Upon review, we think this 19-year-old can teach us a thing or two.

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Working as an intern for Pappas MacDonnell was not at all what I expected. To my surprise, I wasn’t making frequent trips to pick up lunch each day, or only entering meeting rooms to push in chairs.

Instead, I felt like a valued part of the team from the start.

Working with them is the reason I was so incredibly excited to come in each day. I learned something new about the industry daily, and I can’t thank everyone enough for such a wonderful experience as I begin my journey in the marketing field.

If I were to define marketing in one sentence… I couldn’t. There is so much that goes into each advertisement or deliverable that it’s nearly impossible to explain in a quick phrase.

Take tag lines and logos, for example. Behind a simple brand identity, there are hours of deliberation and brainstorming to create something that aligns perfectly with a client’s brand. It must fit the brand’s goals and values, look visually pleasing with the company’s fonts and colors, be concise yet not forced, and, of course, just roll off the tongue.

Under each of those check boxes, there are more and more tiers in the hierarchy of considerations and different members of the team who focus on each. Maybe you’re an expert with language, but not the best with color and design. Or good with design, but not equipped to research everything there is to know about the client’s brand. Each member of the marketing team is so vital for that exact reason… even the ones with four legs. Without their contributions, it would be impossible to find the optimal solution.
 

It’s hard to imagine a process of such depth and dimension is required for something that seems so simple in the end.

 
Once that solution is shared with the client, their feedback pinballs through the various parts of the agency, where it’s refined into something even better. It’s hard to imagine a process of such depth and dimension is required for something that seems so simple in the end.

Although each person has a distinct role within the agency, there’s a lot of collaboration. Team members must be aware of everyone else’s responsibilities, so things run smoothly and time isn’t wasted. In a smaller agency, like Pappas MacDonnell, people wear many hats. Initially, it blew me away that the agency was able to produce such amazing work without hundreds of people, but there is less room for disconnect in a small agency. When everyone is clued into each movement that’s made, it’s easier for the magic to happen.

Speaking of everyone being clued in, the more eyes on a project, the better. Think about the final QA, for example. Everyone brings a different point of view, a different angle and different experiences to the table. That enables them to see things others may have missed, or provide additional feedback that wasn’t considered. This helps ensure the fine details are exactly as they should be.

When looking at a marketing campaign, commercial or website, the audience doesn’t think about how the font fits perfectly or the colors connote certain emotions. Instead they just glance and, if everything aligns, they glance a little longer. That’s the goal. Hours and hours go into this precision to ensure that everything flows seamlessly and nothing distracts the viewer from the message. The more eyes that look at it before it’s finalized, the higher the chance that audiences will delve into the brand a little longer.
 

The minds here could never be replicated by artificial intelligence.

 
Because Pappas MacDonnell has been in business for over 40 years, they’ve seen it all and are adept at adjusting to this fast-changing business. As a college student focused on a career in this field, I’ve wondered if marketers could ever be replaced by technology, like robots. About a week in, I could tell simply from engaging in everyday conversations here – always filled with vibrance, imagination and wit – that the minds of the people here could never be replicated by any kind of artificial intelligence.

Of course, marketing has come a long way since postcards filled mailboxes and desk drops were used to distribute news to everyone in the office. Now that the world can communicate in real time and social platform feeds will never finish refreshing, every marketer has to stay on their toes…always.

In this business, if you skip the additional research to keep up with the latest and greatest, your latest may already be dated by the time you go to market. Knowing that a quality project takes time and planning, the key to marketing is knowing what’s on the horizon and already being a step ahead. Otherwise, it’s very hard to be heard with all the content out there, even with great creative insight, beautiful copy and a deserving brand.

Something I failed to realize before is that agencies not only have to market their clients, but also themselves. They have their own social media pages, internal projects, website and oftentimes their own blog – like this one I am writing to you now – and all must follow the agency’s own brand, style and values.

Internal marketing takes a lot of time and effort, just like a client project. That being said, the client always comes first. In the event of surprise changes or new deadlines, internal projects get bumped. But they’re still important. If a marketing agency doesn’t execute well on their own efforts, why would a client trust them with their brand?

Looking back to May, it’s hard to believe that KPI, CTA and ROI were alphabet soup to me. I am just stunned at how far my marketing knowledge has come over the course of one summer.

I can’t thank Pappas MacDonnell enough for giving me this hands-on experience. Being encouraged to speak my mind during meetings, completing high-responsibility tasks such as building and updating schedules, actively participating in brainstorming sessions, engaging with clients firsthand, and learning something new every day has made me very excited for what’s to come in my future career.

Now that I’ve reflected on my experience with Pappas MacDonnell and narrowed down my favorite takeaways, I guess there is a way to explain marketing in just one sentence: Simplify the complex.