I did my internship at the creative marketing agency 180Amsterdam. The term marketing and everything connected to it is very hyped, and I had high expectations of what life in marketing is like. When people say they work in marketing, my mind immediately goes to innovative campaigns, shootings with celebrities and all the big brands, etc. Through my internship, I wanted to experience what of it is real and what parts we create in our fantasy.
After working there for three months, I can tell you it’s definitely not all fantasy…but it’s still pretty fun.
Overall, I sat in on many meetings, which was interesting because you feel like you know something the rest of the world doesn’t yet. I took a lot of knowledge out of observing how people work together, and in the end, I even got to apply all of it when they gave me my own client account to manage (did I mention I worked in account management?), which is where my 180 turn came in.
So here is what a typical day looked like for me:
In the morning, the department got together to update everybody on the different projects. Over the weekend, clients usually provided feedback or put in new requests. Because of that, each account team met to discuss how to proceed. The meetings included everyone who worked on the account, meaning mainly creatives, strategists, and account managers.
When I got my own account to manage, I met with all team members to discuss what had to be done in the following days and set up any necessary meetings with the client. The rest of the day, people joined meetings or worked on new creative routes to present to the clients. The rest of the week usually consisted of delivering to clients, awaiting feedback, or reconvening for any adjustments. This usually lasted until around 5.30 pm, when I ended my workday most of the time.
Overall, I recommend this internship to anyone. While there are some tasks you just have to complete, other things made this internship really exciting. The day I was asked to manage my own client account was definitely one of the best. The following weeks managing the account was interesting because everybody was really stressed due to the tight deadlines and some miscommunication with the client, but low-key, I was just excited to be there, managing my own account.
Also, I experienced my first shoot. And let me tell you…it is as cool as it sounds! There was a lot of food and people running around yelling “silence in the studio” or “rolling” and everybody was just excited that the project made it this far (because it is a whole journey with a lot of back and forth until everything is finally approved).
But in my experience, the special part of this internship was working with the people there. Sounds cringe, but it is what it is. Of course, it’s cool working for the big brands, but clients, to be honest, can be a pain because they are simply never satisfied. But those are the moments when the team got creative and shot for the stars to find solutions to problems you never thought you’d have. (Sometimes only for those solutions to be turned down…but that’s a different story). So, the one thing I truly learned is how many hours, people, departments, and emotions lie behind every single ad, even if it’s a 15-second social media post…trust me.