Studying advertising, you become discouragingly accustomed to hearing how much of a struggle it is to land any kind of opportunity in the industry. With such bleak advice, I expected myself to graduate from my MSc course brow-beaten and dispirited, clutching at ‘marketing’ jobs that turned out to involve standing in a shopping centre dressed as a giant donut or strapping on a call-centre headset.
Instead, by some small miracle, I managed to hand in my dissertation a few days early and squeeze in an interview with Manchester advertising agency Delineo.
Three days into my role as social media executive in its social media marketing team, it’s already clear that this is an advertising agency that values its junior members. Instead of being asked to fetch cups of tea, from day one, wheels have been set in motion to cultivate my abilities and gradually increase my involvement in the business. My love of advertising is borne of a desire to simultaneously challenge the creative and strategic parts of my brain and this job will certainly do that.
Moving forward, I intend to further strengthen my grasp of the continually evolving and expanding set of social media marketing techniques such as community building and engagement. I believe the best advertising campaigns are the ones that find a smart way of translating great, but fairly extravagant, creative ideas into practical, profitable executions, something social media is particularly suited for. Consequently, my aim is to create impactful social media communications, no matter what the budget.
Beyond social media, I’d also love to develop my knowledge of other areas of advertising as I see digital and traditional creative departments converging more in the future. Understanding other aspects of agency life will help me envisage social media activities as part of a larger integrated campaign, which I think is the best way to create effective, streamlined brands.
