The Perks of Paying Attention in Class

Over the past sixteen years of schooling, maybe once our a thousand times I’ve sat in class and thought; “do I really need to know this in ‘real life’?” For instance in fourth grade when you were learning decimals and percents and thought “percentages are pointless.” These days I still wish I didn’t know percentages every time I look at my credit card statement, however learning them did become useful… eventually. With so many of these instances in life, it amazing how it still surprises me whenever something I’ve learned comes in handy, and that’s what this semester has been about. It’s been about putting all that I’ve learned over the past years of being an Ad Major to work. Interning in the account services department has taught me so much this past semester, and I can honestly say that everything I’ve learned in class has been put to good use.

Remember those days in Ad Research when you would surf the web for hours on end trying to solve the major puzzle that was your research project? Well, the good news is you learned some valuable web navigation skills. As part of the account services team, research has been a big part of my job description. I research our clients and their competitors. We look at what campaigns they have done in the past, what the competition is doing, who to market to, and what to market. A successful campaign is founded on good research and as an account manager you need to be an expert on your client’s market.

How about in Media Planning, when you thought, “I’m an account major aren’t there media planners for this?” Well surprise, you need to be just as knowledgeable in the media world as the media people. They may be the one making the calls, and getting yelled at by the publications for not having the creative in on time, but you are the one who has to explain the bill to the client. I have sat with the account management team as we analyzed media plans, budgets and prices in order to plan for the next year. Now, how embarrassing would it have been if I saw “OOH” and thought someone was just excited about something?

Next, creativity is not just for creatives. During my time her at LevLane I have been lucky enough to take on my own clients, so I have been working one on one with the creative team to get my client’s idea across. As an account coordinator I am the one talking to the client, they are depending on me to relay their vision to the creatives, so that they can make it come to life.

Finally, the creative brief. I feel like at this point in my college career I’ve written a million creative briefs. With everyone one I’ve written I’ve hoped that they don’t actually exist in the real world. Well, they do. While they may seem tedious, during my internship I realized how important they are, both to the creative team and account services. Writing a creative brief for a client not only helped clarify what the client was looking for from the creative team, but also helped me better understand what they were looking for.

There are so many other things that I’ve learned that have been put to use during my internship, yet I have learned so much more. I was given the opportunity to work with some incredibly talented people, and learn a lot about each of the departments that make up an agency. Everyone at LevLane is a part of a big family and they all want to help you succeed and are always willing to share their expertise. Interning at LevLane has afforded me so many opportunities and I am so excited to start preparing for the next year.