Tag: 19LaurenH

I thought I was going to get through these two weeks without being late but nope on the very last day I got stuck in traffic. I didn’t have to get in until 9:00 instead of 8:30 today and underestimated the difference in traffic times. To my relief, everybody was understanding and said it happens to everyone especially since we work in downtown Raleigh.

In the morning I got to shadow a photo shoot of a city council member at Dorothea Dix park explaining the renovations about to happen there. It was a very quick shoot but still cool to see what happens. While trying to find our way out of the park, we passed several haunted buildings that are going to be torn down in the renovations so that was pretty neat.

Today I was with the social team so in the morning I put together a blurb to go into a monthly report sent to all of French West Vaughan’s hotel clients.

For the rest of the day I looked for more UGC’s (user generated content) for FWV’s Wilmington/beaches Instagram accounts. At this point I feel like I could plan myself a Wilmington vacation based on all of these people’s posts.

Also I discovered the file cabinet under my desk was blocking an outlet which is probably why the intern at the desk next to mine gave me a confused look when I loudly rolled my chair by to use the outlet behind her the other day.

Today started off slow with later summer hours at the office. In the creative department, i was looking for reference photos for an advertising project for a fruit company based on the theme of nostalgia. This was somewhat difficult as I wasn’t born yet in the years people typically get nostalgic about.

Later on, I sat in on a department meeting where everybody gave updates. It seems like a large part of marketing is attending meetings and generally communicating with other people.

Since it’s the beginning of a new month, we had a company meeting first thing in the morning for each team to give updates. It ended up lasting 1hr and 15min and my feet were aching by the end of it since the meeting was in the kitchen which had limited seating. On the plus side, there were complementary breakfast treats but on the downside I was too shy to take any. While most of the discussion went over my head I felt a true connection when one presented said “I don’t even remember what I put in this presentation but we’ll see how it goes”.

For the majority of the day I updated the May social media reports for all the hotels that French West Vaughan runs social media for (there’s a lot). Although a tedious task, it was kind of nice to do something repetitively productive while listening to some music

Today I was back in the creative department of French West Vaughan however it was just me and Richard since Jergin and Deagan were in Colorado for a photoshoot and Rich has been out because he had a baby.

In the morning I helped design a different logo for the same pet company as Wednsday but this one focused more on initials than images. Meanwhile, Richard was playing some old music with weird lyrics that I started to get into.

Around lunchtime I discovered that there’s a free candy machine in the kitchen with 4 options that deposit themselves into my hands with the twist of a dial.

Finally, in the afternoon I helped catalog various clothing items from Wrangler to be sent to a magazine and wielded my folding skills (thanks mom) to fit them all in one box.

Today I spent my day with the social media team again, this time helping with captions instead of finding pictures. In the morning I inserted captions, hashtags, and photo credits into a planner for the North Carolina sweet potato Instagram account run by French West Vaughan. Each month is planned out for the account with posts and captions laid out for each day so I was working on the June posts. It took me much longer than expected, perhaps because I strongly dislike sweet potatoes, but I managed to insert a few good puns so we’ll see if they get posted.

In the afternoon I worked on the later stages of social media planning with the official Disney princess style account which posts Disney-inspired clothing and other products targeted towards adults. I was working on editing the June planner using feedback from the client. I learned that the majority of marketing is going back and forth with a client tweaking things along the way until they’re satisfied. It was very interesting to see all the work that goes into running a large social media account and I gained new appreciation for what a social media manager actually does.

 

Today at French West Vaughan, I switched over from the social media department to the creative department. Social Media Art Director Jerstin gave me the rundown on the various projects he was working on. One of the ongoing clients is Wrangler who you might recognize from the lyrics “Wrangler on my booty” by legend Lil Nas X in his hit “Old Town Road”. French West Vaughan helped Wrangler capitalize on such exposure by releasing several “Old Town Road” clothing items which blew up.

Next, Jerstin explained the “Legends” series that French West Vaughan is running for Wrangler which includes various stories related to the brand. Tomorrow, he’s leaving to film an all female biker gang in Colorado for this project and so this morning I spent my time pulling out various videos about biker gangs for reference.

Finally, in the afternoon I practiced making logos for a Pet Company that was being somewhat difficult because of all of their “recommendations.

Today I began my internship at French West Vaughn, a marketing and advertisement agency with sites across the nation. From the outside it may not look that intimidating but I got lost several times once inside even though I only worked on one of three floors. Before getting lost several times, I was given a tour by Morgan Dougherty, an account executive, which makes my confusion more embarrassing. The building itself is beautiful with several spiral staircases and quaint remnants from when the building was a furniture factory such as a cool chair tower and conveyor belts on the ceiling.

During my internship, I was meant to shadow Senior Art Director Rich Griffis, however; it turns out he and his wife had a whole child over the weekend and so he was unable to come in. Consequently, I spent my day learning about the ins and outs of the Social Media Department with Social Media Manager Alaina. Today, Alaina showed me how to look for user generated content (UGC), which is basically just pictures that other people post, to use for various Wilmington tourist accounts run by French West Vaughn. I perused countless photos of over-edited sunsets and blurry portraits before finding suitable candidates upon which I would reach out for permission to use the photo. Not going to lie, I felt like some sort of tycoon or boss running an account with tens of thousands of followers reaching out to people with 8 likes per post offering local fame and exposure.

Tomorrow I’ll be working more on the creative side of the company so we’ll see what sort of adventures that will bring.

 

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