#NeffKnows My Spring Internship
This past spring semester, I was lucky enough to obtain a copywriting internship at Neff Associates in Old City. Neff Associates is an advertising and public relations agency and for the past 30 years has been serving the Philadelphia area in all kinds of marketing. One of the first things I noticed that sets Neff apart from other agencies is its layout.
As seen above, Neff does not look like a regular office. After doing some research for my first blog post on behalf of Neff Associates, I found out that factors like furniture, lighting, layout and noise all contribute to a business’s level of productivity. Office layouts also affect colleagues relationships with each other, which I soon found out to be true.
I have never been in this type of environment before; therefore, it took some getting used to. Instead of sending a short email asking a question, most of my colleagues just yell aloud because you can hear everything. There are definitely pros and cons to this layout but I personally had no negative experiences regarding the open office concept.
The positives I experienced from this layout has broaden my creative horizons. It gives workers the opportunity to converse with all of his or her colleagues, not just the ones sitting next to him or her. I felt comfortable enough after my first few weeks to talk to people from other departments if I thought they could help me in my tasks as an intern. This layout also taught me to not end my creative thinking inside the box. Whether it was either looking around at all of Neff’s awards, playing a round of darts or even drinking a pint from the Neff kegerator (yes, we have a kegerator and I am 21), there was always something to stimulate my thoughts when writing blog posts and social media posts for Neff.
One project I completed at Neff that I take pride in is a Geno’s Steaks video. March 24th was National Cheesesteak Day and with Neff representing Geno’s, the public relations and social media team created a Twitter hunt in Philadelphia to create awareness of the holiday and the one and only, Geno’s Steaks. Overhearing the excitement of national cheesesteak day, I sparked an idea of recording the whole day. I have a GoPro and really enjoy recording and editing videos, so why not suggest I do this for Geno’s big day? I took the initiative and asked the team if they would accept my help and they did! I worked my copywriting skills and helped craft some of the hints on the hunt. The next week I edited the content and the team was thrilled with the outcome. If I never spoke up about something I am good at, my agency would not have known about my talent. I owe this confidence to the open concept because it is an environment to experiment with different creative ideas.
