Final Day

Today marks my fourth and final day at the Integer office. Unlike my first three days, I was only at the office for a short period of time today. The first activity i partook in today was another brainstorm. Just like the brainstorm on wednesday, my opinion was highly regarded in the meeting. I was again asked many questions about what high schoolers do on the weekend and how kids my age think. After the brainstorm I once again had the very rare opportunity to hang out with the president in her giant corner office. I talked to her about the brainstorm and how I thought it was so cool that my opinion was so important. She told me that every time there is a brainstorm, there are also teenagers in the room to give their opinion about the product. Especially if the product is made for teenagers. After the meeting with the president I walked around the office for the last time. I made sure to say thank you to everyone in the office who had met with me over the past week. They were all so sad to see me leaving and said I was welcome to come back whenever I want. Leaving the office for the last time today was such a bittersweet moment. I am glad that I am finally done with the project, but i will definitely miss going to all the meetings.

Thanks,

James Lee Cook

Day 3

My third day was once again filled with many informative and interesting meetings. I started the day off taking park in a walk through for the presentation the agency will be pitching to a potential client in the near future. Just as with every potential client, Integer had to go through a grueling process of elimination and is now one of two agencies left in the bid for the new client. In order to completely win over the client, the agency has set up an entire presentation for the client. This morning many of the employees practiced exactly what will happen in the presentation. The presentation begins with breakfast where they will greet the client and get to know her on a personal basis. After breakfast the client is walked through the entire office with many different pit stops along the way. On each of the many pit stops they will make throughout the office, one of the employees will explain a certain aspect of why Integer is the right choice for her company. It was really cool to see different employees from the many different branches of Integer all come together for one presentation. After the walk through in the morning I had the rare opportunity to go out to lunch with the president of Integer Dallas. During lunch the President told me how she got into the advertising business and how much she loved her job. She said that getting into the advertising business was the best choice she has ever made. She also explained why Integer is so different from many other agencies. She explained how she feels like the agency, rather than just being a bunch of employees, is more like a giant family. Although there are many times they will have to stay overnight to work, it isn't as bad because she said they are all in it together. I love that everyone is so close to each other and rather than being just a work partner, it is more like a bunch of friends working together. After work I met with a couple of the digital people who worked on the amazing Slurpee website. They explained how much work putting a website up actually is. It isn't just putting in a bunch of code and launching it into the internet. It takes a ton more time and organization. However, the final product they came up with for Slurpee is one of the coolest websites I have ever seen. Today was once again extremely fun. I feel like everyday I am at the agency I am surprised with something new. I am sad to admit that i will not be going into the office tomorrow. However, I will be back on friday and I can not wait!

Day 2

Today was my second day shadowing the employees of Integer Dallas. After my first day, I knew going into the office today that I would again learn many new things about the advertising world and how the agency is run. As soon as I walked into the office I was sent into a meeting room in which the CFO and the Senior Vice President of Operations had a presentation on how the agency makes money and also the legal aspect of the business. First, the CFO taught me how exactly the agency makes money from clients. Unlike many businesses which sell different products, Integer Dallas is selling their people to the clients. For example if the client is asking the agency to build a website for their product, Integer is selling all of the employees who will be working on the website such as digital producers, developers, and creatives. Before starting work for the client, the agency gives the client a cost estimate as to how much the work will cost. This estimate is based upon the number of hours it will take, overhead, which is the ongoing cost of running the agency, and a 20% profit. For example if a client is asking for one full year of work from one employee who makes a $50,000 salary, the estimate will include the $50,000, the total overhead of the agency/total employees, and a $10,000 profit. In order to insure the client will pay for the work, the agency sends the client an invoice, or a bill with the estimate, to be signed by the client. This means the client agrees to pay and now the agency can begin the work. The next thing i learned in this meeting was about the legal aspect of advertising. Before today i never imagined that working in an advertising agency would include such a legal risk. I learned that every single thing the agency uses in an ad has to be bought by the agency so that they have the right to use it. For example any pictures used by the agency in an ad for the client must be paid for. If the agency does not pay for the picture and the photographer sees the image on an ad, the photographer has the right to sue the agency for illegally using the photograph. The legal side of advertising is such a risky part of the business that the agency actually hires teams of people who make sure everything they do is legal. One of the employees in the meeting with me was an art buyer. Her only job was to make sure that the agency has the right to use every single piece of art, such as a photograph, and is not just using these images illegally. It was amazing to hear how important the legal aspect of the business is to the overall health of the agency. If one mistake is made in the legal aspect and the agency is sued, there is a chance the agency could lose millions of dollars. Later in the day I had the chance to attend a brainstorm session. These sessions are between the creative people in the agency and are meetings in which everyone throws out ideas of how to creatively accomplish whatever goal needs to be accomplished. Today the goal was to figure out how to effectively market a new small company with the least amount of money. In this case the target audience of the small company, or the client, is teenagers just as myself. It was really cool to sit in on this brainstorm session because I was constantly being asked questions about what would get my attention. For example they asked things such as would I notice an ad on facebook and where I hang out during the summer. I never realized advertising agencies valued the opinion of teenagers such as myself. I guess that makes sense however considering that in many cases teenagers such as myself are target audience of many of the agencies clients. I had such a fun time learning more about advertising today. I am so excited to go back tomorrow and learn even more.

Day 1

Today was my first day shadowing the employees of Integer Dallas. Before actually starting my senior project I had the idea that I would be following one employee, Will Clark. However after talking to several of the people at Integer I realized that in order to fully understand how an advertising agency works I would need to shadow people from many different aspects of the agency. As a result, my first day was filled with many different meetings having to do with the many different aspects of advertising. The first meeting i sat in on was a status meeting for one of Integers biggest clients, Seven Eleven. This meeting consisted of many of the members of the Seven Eleven team who work on two different aspects of advertising, digital, and in store. Two of the digital projects Integer works on for Seven Eleven are the seveneleven.com website and the slurpee website. The in store aspect is all of the branding inside the stores. Both of these aspects I learned are very important in creating the seven eleven brand and selling the product. The next meeting i attended was a lunch and learn. About once a week the agency has a "lunch and learn" in which different employees of Integer create a presentation for the company during lunch. Today was a presentation on how digital media is quickly changing the way consumers both shop online and in the store. I learned that one way the digital world will change how the consumers shop is called an nfc. These devices can be used inside stores to allow the consumer to purchase everything by just scanning their phone. As a result, waiting in line will become obsolete. After lunch I had the opportunity to sit down with the Vice President of Business Development who taught me all about how an advertising agency goes about getting new clients. In order to get the work from new clients, advertising agencies must go through a long process. It starts with sending the client an extensive resume of the company and giving them a pitch as to why their agency is perfect for the job. Finally the client narrows their options down to three agencies. These three agencies then have a one hour meeting with the client in which they give a pitch as to why they are the best for the specific job. I was shown several case studies, or videos, that have been used to persuade clients in the past. I learned that each client wants something specific from the agency, rather than just advertising. For example it is very common for a client to ask for just the digital aspect of advertising, or just the in store aspect. As a result, it is very important for the agency to create a presentation that focusses on the aspect the client is asking for. For the first day I would say I learned much more than I ever thought I would. I went into today expecting a bunch of people who just make tv commercials. However I learned there is much more to an advertising agency than just that. I am very excited to go back tomorrow and learn even more.