Hi, I’m Kimi…

Earlier in the semester, I began my last internship as an undergrad advertising student at my first agency position in Center City Philadelphia. My name is Kimi Bath and I am a senior advertising student with concentrations in Brand Strategy & Research and Account Management.

Down the research path

I was lucky enough, for my last semester, to get a strategy internship at Brownstein Group, a medium-sized advertising agency. I was lucky to get this position because of two things: first, I’ve never interned at a real advertising agency before, so I finally got to see what that experience and environment is like. Secondly, I picked up the concentration of brand strategy & research when I was a junior and decided that I wanted to go in that direction instead of account management. Therefore, this internship gave me some insight as to what it would be like to do this kind of work when I graduate.

Throughout my college career, I was very lucky to have Justin Melnick as an instructor in various classes, who previously worked at Brownstein Group (BG) as an account planner for several years. Therefore, I came into this internship with fundamental knowledge of how BG operates when it comes to research and strategy. I definitely appreciated seeing what I’ve learned in classes really come to life in a real work setting. Knowing that my knowledge from class could help me be successful as a brand strategist made me more confident in my skills and eager to learn even more throughout my internship.

My overall experience

I think my biggest takeaways from this internship so far is that not all clients are the same when it comes to research and strategy. In order to collect research and come up with a strategy, it requires different methods for each and every client and their specific needs. I was very fortunate to work on one of BG’s clients for a majority of the research and strategy process and I was very hands-on as far as helping with client deliverables. This client is a private school on the Main Line and they were in need of a rebranding due to some internal shifts they’ve made. I was able to assist with secondary research, quantitative research, and helping build the brand strategy presentation. I think this is something unique that many interns may not get the chance to do. I felt very involved in this particular client and I knew that research was my path when I found myself getting lost in the information that was in front of me.

This experience was definitely more than I thought it would be. I wasn’t expecting to be so hands-on with client work and I did not think that my work was as important as it actually was. I could tell that my manager really trusted me to find quality information and I’m glad I could meet his expectations. My original expectations for this internship was that I would be doing very small tasks that were helpful, but not necessary. I thought I’d be doing data analysis, typing up notes, etc. I’m so glad this wasn’t the case.

Overall, if you’re considering to intern at Brownstein Group, I would highly recommend it. Along with my amazing experience as an intern, it also gave me a leg up now that I am looking for full-time positions. Brownstein is a well-known agency so future employers will be thoroughly impressed with it on your resume.