After five months of working at one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world, I am able to say that this was the most informative period of my educational career. After all, practical knowledge gets you further than theory in my opinion.
TBWA\NEBOKO is the “Amsterdam family” that is part of the global TBWA collective, which unites over 11.000 employees, within 98 different countries. TBWA\NEBOKO defines itself as business-changing, culture-defining and award-winning. Its’ projects and advertisements are world-class and received the prizes to prove it.
The last five years in a row TBWA\NEBOKO has won the Gouden Loeki. This is the Dutch prize for the best commercial. The agency’s work is also recognized by other major award shows such as Cannes Lions, ADCN and Effies.
The agency works with some huge companies in the Netherlands. Such as Albert Heijn, Adidas, McDonalds, PostNL, Rijksoverheid and so on. I was placed into the account team working with the Dutch National Railway Systems (NS).
When I walked into the office the first day of my internship, having the knowledge about the standard this company is trying to upkeep, I was quite nervous. This, however, changed when I met the team I was going to work with for the upcoming months. Immediately I fell into the fun dynamic of the NS account team and I was astonished by their work ethic and professionalism. Working overtime was most definitely not an exception.
Being part of the NS account team, I mainly had the task to translate NS’ demands and ideas for their new commercials to the creatives of TBWA. When the creatives came up with their concepts, we were the ones arranging the new presentation appointments with the client and so on. Thus, simply said, I was responsible for the contact between TBWA and the client.
Some of the account tasks I had to fulfill were to coordinate the planning of the projects with NS due to the strict deadlines, write internal assignments for the creatives, but also setting up price quotes and invoices. This felt like a huge responsibility, since these advertising projects cost a lot of money.
Eventually I was assigned my own projects. An example was the voice-over recording I had to arrange for an internal NS movie. Sounds easy, but proved to be surprisingly difficult. Due to all the agenda’s that had to be taken into account, both from NS and TBWA, and the tight schedule of the recording studio, it took a long time and a lot of communication to come to a final recording date.
Managing my own projects and simultaneously having a supportive role within the account team on other projects, showed me how important it is to plan ahead and how much pressure this job brings with it.
I learned a lot from my time at TBWA\NEBOKO. Not just to have a good work ethic and an organized mind, but also the real experience of working in a huge advertisement production company. Due to my position within the company, I was able to discover most parts of the organization.
Of course I experienced my ups and downs throughout my internship, but I am most happy and satisfied to have been a cog in the machine that goes by the name of TBWA\NEBOKO.
I would recommend anyone to try to be part of this amazing company for a few months. It is definitely worth the effort!
