Week One Synopsis

With the completion of my first week at McKinney, I am beginning to get a feel for what my tasks will be here. However, the pacing over the duration of this week has been very sporadic. Monday was just initiation for the interns really and nothing more. A meet and greet of sorts into not only some of the staff we would see around, but the office etiquette, where things are located, etc. I realized and at this point believe I stand to get the most out of my internship as I can invest more than any other intern into my work here. Naturally it will be up to me to get the most out of it but I feel confident that will happen

Tuesday I hit the ground running with a couple of creatives to help develop new, interactive media for a client. I really enjoy the casual environment that is created at McKinney as I feel it fits perfectly into how I best conceptualize ideas. We got together in one of many conference rooms and really just threw around ideas that we thought would a) provide an inviting and engaging experience for consumers and b) be in line with the current positioning of the campaign. More importantly for myself, my ideas were really well received out of the gates and that led to a rather large confidence boost knowing that “hey I can actually do this (on some level.)” In fact, they liked one of my ideas so much that it made its way all the way to the client pitch.

Things took an entirely different turn on Wednesday as the people I was involved with got busy working on things that were a little bit out of my league in the sense that they were comping up designs and presentations that would be used to pitch our ideas to the client. I did my best to stay eager about finding work as I know it will be a great tool in helping me learn the in’s and out’s of the industry as well as stimulate my brain and fine-tune my craft. But for the most part it was to no avail with my contacts as they were all swamped. Things picked up towards the end of the day (I have noticed that everything here happens on a delayed schedule. In-house meetings, the start of the day, etc.) as I was told I could sit-in on a group meeting where the creatives collaborate with the account managers to get a feel for whether or not certain ideas make sense, are executable (in terms of the programming of say…an online interactive game in a web banner), in line with what the client is looking for, and financially viable.

Thursday I arrived a little later than I had been (11:30) all week since, as previously mentioned, things get started a bit later in the day—especially when haven't quite been synchronized with the office workload. That would all change upon arrival as my “manager” (One of the Creative Directors) put me in touch with some new creatives working on new headlines and body copy for a new client. My role in this project is just the same as the other employees working on this campaign currently: to develop new headlines and corresponding body copy for seasonal promotions for the client. Furthermore, another intern will also be working with on the same material as me so perhaps we will collaborate together to develop material.

Later that same day things took a more casual turn, as at 3 there was a staff-wide invited “I think that’s cool” meeting. This was an open forum where employees are encouraged to show up and discuss things going on in the world that they think are cool. The topics ranged all over the place from “computational art” (see Erik Natzke,) to “augmented reality” (I recommend checking out http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/?c_id=googaugreal#/augmented_reality to how this is being incorporated by companies,) or to things like Guinness Beer and sports rivalries. This session, something that McKinney does frequently are just a great way for people to think of new ways to engage consumers, to spark imagination, or really just to serve as conversation starters and was just another thing that I found really “fun” about the environment here. Shortly following this was “Thursday Open Bar.” You see, McKinney has a bar in-house and on every Thursday between the hours of 4-6 all employees are encouraged to make an appearance and mingle amongst each other.

Friday we would prove to be the busiest day of the week for me (I never thought after what had already happened that that would be feasible.) Early morning staff meeting to more or less brief the creative team (especially us (3) creative interns) into what direction our headlines and copy should be taking. We then dispersed and initially the three of us set out to tackle the task alone. But after working so well on Tuesday within the constraints of a team, I took the initiative to engage my co-interns collectively and I feel that served us better as together we are able to ask advice, brainstorm collectively, and just get a better synergy than could be achievable solo. Additionally, we (the interns) were briefed on another client and given a timeline into what needed to be done for them and by when.

So by the end of week one, I have already started work on three separate accounts. Not too much of a stretch as back at school I was accustom to juggling multiple projects at one time—only these seem way more important. I was as mentioned earlier very enthusiastic to have my work selected for a client presentation and am hopeful to repeat in the future. Upon reflection, I am a bit nervous and pessimistic about the fact that all my hard work over this semester may go in vain in the sense that it may never actually see the light of day. If you think about the fact that the likelihood of an intern producing work that is ultimately produced—that sort of thing is very uncommon here. However, the opportunity itself for me should more than suffice as just getting such positive responses from my peers is more than enough to drive me to try even harder in the future.

Seeing how things operate here at this point is still a bit overwhelming. I have realized just how much goes into running this advertising machine and I still have a lot to learn before my understanding matures beyond its current level of infancy. But to date, I have really been encouraged by how the business is run. The people are friendly and upbeat (while staying extremely busy,) the culture is engaging and insightful, and really I just enjoy being here (as I write this at 6 pm on a Friday afternoon.) I look forward to my time here and hope to come out of this a stronger, confident and more affluent pupil in this industry.