Author: dannyb951

Today was a fun last day because we got to talk to someone new named Hannah about something we hadn’t heard much about, which was social media marketing and tracking. Hannah showed us a software she used called sprout, which essentially tracked and collected data from all of the brand social media accounts she controlled. What was pretty surprising to me was that she ran accounts that got thousands of comments and likes on every post, and she actually goes through and reads/responds to all of them. She talked about how keeping engaged with customers on social media, even if they are complaining, is a good way of promoting the brand and keeping public relations positive. She talked a lot about changing the minds of consumers and influencing people’s opinions based on how you interact on social media. After we met with Hannah we met with Hallie, our main supervisor, and she showed us a report she was doing using some larger analytical data from various social media accounts that she ran. It was cool to see how much they could actually track, like how many times a link was clicked, or how many people viewed a post without liking or commenting. It was a very eye-opening.

The first half of today was just some more busy work, but after lunch was really cool because we got to talk more with Rich, one the artistic directors at French West Vaughn. He started off by showing us a project he was working on for Pendleton Whiskey. He had been tasked with coming up with ideas for bottle designs for a new campaign Pendelton was doing, so he showed us some of the ornate, rustic looking bottle decals and images he had drawn up on his computer. What was really impressive was that he said that that morning he was worried because he had no ideas down and now, midway through the day, he had created two different design options that both looked incredible. Rich was definitely really good at what he did and was also just a really cool guy to talk to. After showing us the bottle designs he took us out of his office and showed us many other examples of logos and other designs he had made. He showed us how he made the Runmoji app logo for Fleet Fleet, a charity bike race logo, and even some of his own little emojis that he had designed for himself. All of the finished designs he had were super impressive, but what was even more interesting was that he also showed us all of the alternate variations and scrapped ideas that led up to the finished product. Like for Runmoji, Rich told us that Fleet Feet’s own creative department had already created a logo, but when he saw it, he told them that it wouldn’t do and that he could make a much better one, so he created his own, and they adopted it. Seeing how a logo or other graphic design could change and evolve according to the client’s and designer’s preferences was really cool, and getting an insider’s input on how they felt about a client’s choices was very interesting as well.

Today was probably my favorite day at French West Vaughn so far, because we got to personally create some content that is actually going to be used by a client. Last week we had been tasked with coming up with a few ideas of how Wilmington Beach could celebrate getting 100 thousand likes on their Facebook page, and today we were asked to help with making a mosaic banner photo for their Facebook to do just that. At first, we had just been asked to research if there was any free online software that could make the image, but we couldn’t find any such software. Our supervisor, Hallie, said that it was fine and that she could find something else for us to do, but we were so invested in the project that we just decided make the whole thing by ourselves on photoshop. When we were done, Hallie was really impressed and she said that her supervisor really liked it too. It was so satisfying to have worked through issues and come up with a finished product that was really appreciated, and it’s also really cool that one of FWV’s clients is actually going to use something that we made.

Today consisted of two meetings and one work assignment. The assignment was to look up all of the locations for the pet store, Pet Supplies Plus, and make a spreadsheet listing each location’s city, state and zip code. The assignment felt a bit like busy work, but it gave me a good taste of how a job can be when there’s not much exciting going on. The two meetings we sat in were far more interesting. The first was basically centered around just touching base about progress for one of French West Vaughn’s clients Pendelton Whiskey, and the second was really cool because it was a conference call with the people at Redbull, where FWV was pitching an idea for a sponsorship with a certain barrel racer. Clay, the main guy who gave the pitch talked to us after it was over, and gave some pretty cool insight. He said that because FWV already had a reputation of working with prominent Southern lifestyle brands like Wrangler and Pendleton, Redbull asked specifically to work with them because they were trying to expand their branding into more southern sports like bull riding and barrel racing. Clay also said that because they had so much experience with that market, FWV was able to work very efficiently with Redbull and speed through some otherwise time-consuming details because of this efficiency. Clay told us right after the call ended that that was about as smooth as a pitch could possibly go and that because of their reputation, they really would have to bomb it for them to lose this opportunity. The call served as a really good example of how reputation and standing out amongst your competitors can often land you with excellent opportunities, like getting to work with large, successful companies like Redbull.

Today was a pretty quiet day at the office. When we showed up in the morning we had a quick meeting with a woman named Morgan, and then she gave us an assignment that took us the majority of the day to finish. We moved rooms and ended up working at the “intern desks,” which meant that we finally got to formally meet one of the two other college interns that were working at French West Vaughn. I never actually caught her name but she was going into her senior year at UNC for marketing and was interning at FWV all summer. We talked to her for a little while about how she got into marketing and how she ended up with her internship. What was interesting was that she said she had no idea that she would end up in marketing when she was our age, and that when she was in high school she wanted to be a marine biologist. She sounded a lot like Rich, the Artistic Director for FWV that we met the day before. Rich also said that he never thought he would be in marketing and design when he was younger. He had told us that he wanted to be a teacher when he started college, but then slowly moved away from teaching and into graphic design as time went on. I guess both Rich and the other Intern we met just show that you don’t necessarily have to know exactly what you want to do going into college because even if you do, your interests could easily change as time goes on.

Today was another day of meetings. We started out with a morning meeting with the whole team associated with Wrangler. After everyone had debriefed and was on the same page we moved to another smaller conference room where a guy named Clay, another woman named Colleen, and two other women that I had never met had a meeting about their media trip they were planning in order to get publicity for Wranglers new outdoor line. This was one of the coolest and most interesting meetings I had been to so far because I got to watch first hand as the team formulated a pitch for a piece of “viral content” that involved some celebrities and athletes that had already worked with the brand. I’m not sure if I can go into the details of the plan or not because it hasn’t been officially put out yet, but it was really cool to see them just throw ideas around and then get really excited once they thought they had something that was going to be a hit.

After lunch was also really cool because we got to have a one on one meeting with one of the head art directors at FWV named Rich. He talked to us about how he got into Graphic design, what a typical day was like for him at the office, and then he showed us a logo design for a charity bike race that he and his team had just finished working on. Overall Rich was just a really interesting guy to talk to and his work was very impressive.

Today was our first day at French West Vaughn. Everything we were seeing was new to us, but the people there understood that and definitely were trying to ease us into it. The day mainly consisted of meetings. First, we sat in on a conference call with a man named Robert who was a part of NC State’s Industrial and Systems Engineering Division. The meeting was called to go over plans for arranging tours of the biomedical lab. After we debriefed that call, we then sat in on a lunch meeting where almost everyone in the company gathered to talk about how they can improve on their award-winning strategies. They talked about how winning awards not only boosts company morale and makes the agency look better, but it also serves as a portfolio piece for the agency, the client, and individuals at the company.

After we debriefed that call, we then sat in on a lunch meeting where almost everyone in the company gathered to talk about how they can improve on their award-winning strategies. They talked about how winning awards not only boosts company morale and makes the agency look better, but it also serves as a portfolio piece for the agency, the client, and individuals at the company.

After lunch, we sat in on two more meetings and took notes. The first meeting consisted of all FWV employees as they prepared for a second meeting later that day that would be with one of their biggest clients, Wrangler. FWV was in charge of the brand’s publicity, and they had been planning a party in Nashville that would showcase Wrangler’s 70’th anniversary denim collection. What was really interesting was that there was a whole discussion about which influencers they should invite to the party. Influencers being bloggers or other figures in social media who have a large following. Later one of the people in the meeting, Clay, told us that social media influencers were a very new but useful tool in PR. A few minutes after that small group meeting the larger meeting/conference call with the people at Wrangler was held. Anjali and I were sent a list of talking points that the people at the meeting wanted to get through with the clients. After the meeting, it was time to go home.

Overall this was a big day with a lot of new stuff to take in, but it was very fun and not at all stressful. I’m hoping that we are soon going to be able to help out for ourselves by doing research or other kinds of work for the company, but for now, it is really fun to just observe.

Lunch Meeting

I’m excited!