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.