Adaugo is a Psychology student from the University of Birmingham. Over the summer she completed an IPA AdMission internship with iris London.
Before starting my internship, I had no idea what to expect, everything was going to be new and shiny. Advertising had always intrigued me but I wasn’t sure what role I could play within it. I thought it was an area strictly for creative types, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. There were so many different roles, with people coming from all different backgrounds.
In my first week I was immediately working on various projects as part of the User Experience department. This was different to anything I had ever done before, in that I was simply considering how the consumer interacts with brands. The focus with user experience is online – how websites and apps work, how brands and consumers use social media and how all these types of communications could be made better for both consumers and brands. Working in this department gave me so much insight on how brands work to be more accessible to their consumers, in order to deliver the best service.
In the latter half of my internship, I also had a chance to work within the Planning department. My role was primarily research based and it really is astonishing just how much scope is considered when creating a new campaign. Having to know about who the consumers are, their behaviours, what they want vs. what they need, how other similar brands attract them; these are just of a few of the aspects that need to be considered.
One thing I’m happy to say I’ve gained as a result of the internship is confidence. Having to work with and within so many departments, under one building meant having to be ready with ideas and suggestions in a way that I’d not had to do before. I think that I’ve also come to appreciate the importance of integration. I worked in two departments during my time at iris, but information was always given and/or received from other departments in order to create a successful product or bring a project to conclusion. Furthermore, I learned that creativity is not necessarily the ability to create something artistic, art is also found in graphs, pie charts and Excel spreadsheets.
While I’m still not 100% sure on my future career, one thing’s for sure – if I could find a role that allowed be me to enjoy myself as much as I did with iris then I’m excited to find it! If I had had any expectations, iris definitely surpassed them.
Thank you everyone at Step for the opportunity, especially Tamsin and Sam who kept me up to date with everything – even when there was no new information! They kept me in the loop over the months, from applying for the role to actually getting it and then while being on the job. Having that support system was something I really appreciated.
Adaugo