The Internship and The Job- When Worlds Collide

Hi all, This semester has been a complete whirlwind.  Last Fall I started an account management internship with Star Group and, long story short, I never left!  The agency is growing fast and furious with several different mergers over the past few months and I’ve found myself taking on a slew of brand new projects.  One of the projects that I work on the most was also the very first creative brief I  was handed when I walked through the door on day one.

Right before I started last September Star Group launched ShopScape, a blog all that focuses exclusively on insights and trends in shopper marketing.  The format started off simple- articles were pulled from different news outlets, anything from eMarketer to Fast Company to BuzzFeed, and add a few sentence synopsis of how this will affect shoppers.  I write about 5-10 of these annotations every week and in addition to the agency’s combined efforts ShopScape started to grow.

ShopScape now features longer length original content articles that analyze current events and I was lucky enough to write a few.  Although I’m an account management intern my heart still lies with copywriting, my track in the advertising department.  Being encouraged to think creatively while writing strategically is a great exercise, not to mention a killer addition to my resume!

My favorite post was born out of the huge announcement from Gap Inc. that the company was going to significantly raise the minimum wage for its employees.  The news was compelling for anyone but particularly for me because I’ve been a sales associate with Gap for three years and I am among the 65,000 employees who’s paychecks with be affected.   The news was met with great accolades.  President Obama even visited a New York City location to show his support for the wage raise.

I am ecstatic about Gap Inc.’s decision.  However, I think that it is important to recognize that while the move was made under a veil of altruism the decision was likely more strategic than solicitous.  Being in an agency setting has given me insight into this web of strategy that exists behind every brand.  You can read my post here https://theshopscape.com/shopping-and-the-minimum-wage-debate-the-changing-value-of-retail-employees/ and others.