Grads of the Round Table

It's been nearly 9 months since I first started at MEC on the Graduate Rotation scheme. At the end of last week the 'Grad Dads' as we like to call them, took us out on a graduation type lunch to celebrate the success of the rotation scheme and mark the end of our time on it. We definitely celebrated in style, eating dim sum at Ping Pong and drinking cocktails like they were going out of fashion...well why not, we deserved it after all and it's not like we had to pay for anything; apart from the deathly hangover each of us suffered the next day!

We were also celebrating the fact that we had found out our permanent roles for after the grad scheme. Thankfully this meant that we had all passed the rotation and were officially being let loose around MEC. Most of us are either moving into MEC's digital department MEC Interaction or the Communications Planning department. I myself will be working in Communications Planning in the Paramount Theatrical (films) team which is a dream come true, especially since if you read my Red Carpet Glory post you will know I am a natural when it comes to film premiere's and red carpets! All jokes aside I am thrilled to be working on such a great entertainment client as the nature of it's business means there are always new campaigns and challenges for each film release.
Although we know our permanent roles we are not quite ready to start singing Boys II Men's End of the Road just yet! This week is our final week on rotation and we'll be spending it at Kinetic - our Out of Home (OOH) advertising agency which specialises in how brands connect with people's lifestyles while out of home and on the move. Check my blog later this week to find out how good we were with getting our hands dirty during a Taxi wrapping session!


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Goodbye Traditional...Hello Digital

It's been a few weeks since my last blog and the reason for this is because I have recently moved departments as part of my rotation. I completed my first 8 weeks in Communications Planning and am now working in MEC Interaction our 'Digital' department.

Within digital there are a number of sub-departments including Social Media, Search (SEO - Search Engine Optimisation and PPC - Paid for Search), Brand, and Acquisition (digital direct response). So far I have found digital to be a real eye opener and a completely different experience to Comms Planning. Having not had any experience working in digital before there is so much to learn and understand, let alone getting to grips with the digital jargon.

Everyone I speak to about working in digital says the same thing: It's the most exciting place to be and the most rewarding in the long term future. If you specialise in digital media you will be highly sought after. I haven't yet got my teeth stuck into any really interesting digital campaigns but I think this will come the longer I spend in this department. I think until I fully understand and appreciate the extent of what brands can do with digital media I will be naive to it's capabilities. However I am both intrigued and excited about my future weeks in MEC Interaction and look forward to blogging about what is to come.

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Immerse Yourself

The only way to learn is to become immersed in the subject you are studying and this doesn't just apply to the educational environment. As part of my training programme at MEC a number of events and training days have been organised. I'm now half way through my time in the communications planning department and everyday I have learnt something new. On Wednesday CBS Outdoor advertising took myself and the other rotational grads out for a tour around some of their key outdoor advertising sites.

Standing opposite Waterloo Roundabout we were given all we needed to know about outdoor poster/billboard sizes and bus panel advertising. I never knew there were so many different ways to advertise on buses whether its a t-side a superside or a rear panel or an all over bus wrap. Whatever or wherever you want to advertise, more often than not there is always a possibility however bespoke or crazy the idea may be. The idea of outdoor advertising is to completely immerse the consumer with the brand campaign and one of the most visually impressive methods is to do an underground station takeover.

After looking at 48 Sheets, digital escalator panels and cross track projections (those projector screens you see while you're waiting for a train) we were taken to Westfield shopping centre. We were given a guided tour around the whole centre and briefed on all the possible advertising opportunities and platforms available. As our tour came to an end, we finished the day with a free lunch! Amazing!

The following day was another full days training but this time it was conducted by all of the departments within MEC who each had a an hour to talk us through their roles and the kind of work we could expect to be doing if we joined their team permanently at the end of  the rotation. This was a really insightful day, one which may have been better placed during the first week of our rotation in order to fully understand the company set-up. However listening to talks and viewing presentations on each of the departments really helped me to identify the areas I was most interested in pursuing at the end of my rotation and a number of my preconceptions about certain departments were in fact challenged.

To end a great day we were able to get our hands on invitations for a private party hosted by Spotify (free online music) and partied the night away at one of Camden's great clubs Koko.

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Scene 4 Take 8: On Shoot with Olly Murs

What better way to spend a working day's afternoon than on a film shoot for our new ad campaign. Yes that's right, I managed to bag myself a place on a shoot for Nintendo and if you think that's exciting, imagine how I felt when I was told that Alexandra Burke and Olly Murs (from the X Factor) were going to be featured! I couldn't believe my luck. Celebrity sightings asside, it wasn't all fun and games and I did sit on a really hard wooden chair for 3 hours watching take after take after take of the same scene. During the break I was able to mingle with the stars and actually spoke to Olly who is a genuinely nice guy. I was dying to get a photo with him but considering I was in a professional environment and representing MEC, I thought it would be best not to. Damn that would have been a great photo!  

On a more serious note I felt privileged to be at the shoot and I also learnt so much about the production side of advertising and how ideas on a piece of paper translate to an actual filmed TV ad. There were so many people at the studio all looking more important than the next, not to mention the 5 people who were there just to cater for Miss Burke's needs, making sure her hair and make-up was styled and applied to perfection. I now appreciate the sheer amount of hard work that goes on behind the scenes of a 30 second ad shoot. After every scene take the shoot director would speak to the client to ask whether the brief had been covered and all mandatory points about the product had been raised. This was an ongoing communication to ensure that the brief was being met and the tone of voice and actions were appropriate for representing the product.

Overall attending a shoot for my Client's advert was an overwhelming experience and one which I really enjoyed. Fingers crossed it will not be my last!

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Everyday is a New Experience

As my second week draws to an end I feel like I have been at MEC for at least a month, I feel really settled and everyone on my team have spent time talking me through what client campaigns they are working on and how to use a number of analytical and comparable media report programs.

I have also been lucky enough to start working on a brand new campaign which means I will gain a real insight into the communications planning role from start to finish, from being given the initial brief to signing off the media plan. I sat in on my first briefing session which outlined the product details, target audience, creative stapline, business objectives and the communications objectives. In short the communications objective is to generate as much awareness as possible within the target audience because the product being advertised is a completely new product.

Being a creative thinker I remember lying in bed and suddenly a rush of flashbulb ideas filled my head so I got up and wrote them down in a notepad. The next day I took it upon myself to put together a short power point of my ideas (which went down a treat with the account manager).

The grads who were on rotation in the year before me are currently working on a final project. In teams they have been given a live client brief to work on and produce a complete media plan which they must pitch to a panel of judges. I was asked to sit it on a brainstorming session for the campaign which I found extremely insightful. I felt energised by people's creativity and enthusiasm and it was interesting to see how other people think. However I also learnt a lot about the roles and appropriateness of using certain media platforms for best communicating a brand message and engaging an audience. For example, creating brand collaborations and partnerships to enhance trends and facilitate behaviours and celebrity ambassadors to drive awareness and create buzz around a product or campaign. It is experiences like these which make working in a media agency so diverse and enjoyable. Everyday I have been exposed to something new and I am continuously learning.

To conclude, I now feel more integrated within MEC rather than a new starter because I have been immersed into my team's current projects and have been able to get my teeth stuck into some live campaigns.

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Summer Fridays - Gives you that Friday Feeling

Towards the end of the week I presented back the work I had carried out which was a great way to demonstrate my understanding of it. I was then lucky to get a one-on-one demonstration of how to use a program called Ad dynamix (a great online tool allowing users to find out everything there is to know about advertisers, brands and their media advertising spend). I was given a project looking at the pastt 4 years of cinema box office sales which I had to then compare with the media advertising spend for the top 10 film distributors (Paramount, Lionsgate, Universal etc). Through this I was able to identify trends and engage with the media used to advertise film releases and explore how advertisers have changed their communications strategy in the last 4 years (the main trend witnessing the introduction of online advertising). However I will be interested to see how the next 4 years differ and I predict that the industry may see a growth of online advertising but displayed via outdoor platforms.

To conclude, my first week at MEC has been great and to top it off I was taken out by my team for lunch - bonus! I used the opportunity to get to know the people I will be working with and also to gain more insight into the current projects the team are working on (not to mention the ins and outs of office gossip)

Finally, not that I want to brag but my first week ended in the best possible way with a little benefit called Summer Fridays. The whole company is invited to leave work early at 3.15pm instead of the usual 5.15pm! And a little bird told me that Summer Fridays was extended into the end of October last year. A good idea really because it gets darker much earlier in the autumn months, so finishing earlier will mean we get to leave work in daylight!

My 1st Day at MEC

If you have read my previous post you will know that I have started my first job in the media industry at MEC. I am going to use this blog to document my journey as I complete a graduate rotation scheme at MEC. Hopefully this will give you an insight into the various departments and roles within a media agency whilst reflecting upon my personal experiences.

I started the day at 11am which was a welcomed late morning start to the day. Upon my arrival at MEC I met the four other rotational grads who were also starting. The scheme enables us to rotate around 8 different departments within the company within 9 months. After receiving our welcome induction we were appointed 'buddies' and 'mentors to act as a guide and support - I like to think of mine as an extra lifeline.
The first day kinda resembled my first day at secondary school or 6th form - taking in the new environment and looking at all the other employees thinking wow don't they look grown-up - I felt like a total 'Newbie'.

Due to my morning nerves I hadn't been able to enjoy my daily bowl of cereal that I religiously chomp on, so when we were told that we had lunch reservations at a nearby Thai restaurant - ALL PAID FOR I thought Christmas had come early! It was a great chance to meet a few people that we would cross paths with in the near future and a relaxed environment where we were welcomed into the team.

After lunch we got a mini tour around the office building and were then separated into our individual departments. In the space of a couple of hours I felt I had got to know the other grads quite well so it was daunting to be separated from them. My first department on the rotation scheme is Communications Planning - one of the key departments I am interested in settling in. I will be working here for 8 weeks and I am really excited about the tasks I will be getting my teeth into and soaking up all the new information and knowledge I will gain.

Bring on day 2!!