Starting an internship February 2021, things looked a lot different than I had expected my internship would look like when I was in my first year of Communication Science. My first start of the day-meeting entailed me making my own cup of coffee, in my own kitchen, looking at a screen with approximately ten to twelve other people in a Google Hangouts meeting, waving me a happy welcome. Also, my application process was completely online. So, at the start of my internship, I only knew my colleagues through screen! Nonetheless, I was excited to go into my internship journey. As a strategist intern, I worked along with the freelance strategist of Lemon Scented Tea, helping her with research on potential and existing clients.
What I liked best about the agency, is that Lemon Scented Tea works with a version of the Hero’s Journey. Which makes working in this agency a combination of both persuasive and entertainment communication. Explained, the theory of Lemon Scented Tea is that every brand can be its own kind of hero, every brand has a goal and a means by which it achieves that goal. Further, every brand has his enemy. Thus, every brand works exactly like every other story, they must trigger the emotions of their target group. A big majority of all purchases happens emotionally, which is why Lemon Scented Tea has the perfect formula to increase sales using storytelling.
Unfortunately, my internship research didn’t have much exciting results. Nevertheless, this research helped me engage with the client. Ouwehands Dierenpark zoo was the first client I got to work with during my internship. I made a competitors analysis to help my colleagues prepare their pitch trying to win Ouwehands Dierenpark as their client. As the pitch went well, the zoo became our client and for the first time, I got to participate in a process working towards a real campaign. Ouwehands Dierenpark posed a question that lots of other zoos are questioning right know: Should we focus on being an entertainment or education driven company? This is a very fair and actual question, which is why me and the Lemon strategist figured this would be the main theme of my internship research paper.
In six months, I have experienced how working at an advertising agency is volatile. Sometimes you are trying your outer best to bring in new clients, and sometimes with no luck. Other times, no one has time for anything as the workload almost gets to much as so many clients came in at once. I am very happy to have experienced both situations as I feel fulfilled to have experienced the real life at an agency.