Internship at Mullenlowe Group
Internship at Mullenlowe Group
Introduction
Mullenlowe Group, an integrated marketing communications company headquartered in London with offices operating in over 65 markets ("About Us," n.d.), is an innovative company I have interned in for six weeks between 10 February and 22 March at a number of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia offices. The company adopts innovation in each and every aspect of business management and client servicing activities. Offering integrated digital marketing solutions across different geographies and markets, Mullenlowe Group covers a broad range of social entrepreneurship, public advocacy, business branding, corporate communication, leisure and spirituality. Notable projects include, for example, "Redraw The Balance," "We Listen," "#NYC TakeOff," "Holiday Feeling," and "Chris The Redeemer" ("Work," n.d.). In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I was engaged as an intern servicing or helping servicing, mainly, L'azurde, Harvey Nichols.
As an intern, I participated in different functions at Mullenlowe Group. Mainly I performed functions covering areas of account management, creative design, community/social media management, copywriting, filming, media buying and media planning. The internship, six months overall, has been a flexible project, I would say, in which practical learning in day-to-day activities has been complemented by conceptual knowledge I have acquired at college. Part of program's flexibility (and, of course, of combined learning approach at Mullenlowe Group), I spent six days in Dubai, UAE in order to participated in Dubai Lynx ("Festival Program," n.d.) but also to gain more insight into work dynamics of Mullenlowe Group in a different market.
My six-week internship can be broken down into six areas in which I both learned specific concepts and/or functions and contributed to different functions performed on day-to-day basis: (1) Orientation, (2) Preliminary Design Functions, (3) Digital Marketing Campaigning, (4) Reporting and Dubai Lynx (5) Dubai Experience, and (6) Media Strategic Management. (This breakdown does not necessarily reflect a chronological order but, rather, highlights main areas I learned in/form and/or contributed to.)
Over Week One, I was formally introduced to internal working system at Mullenlowe Group. I was, more specifically, briefed on overall functions I was planned to do according to set plan. In fact, I started working on Day One as I was being shown around office space, new "colleagues" and internal work system. Having been introduced to L'azurde as well as jewelry design and marketing industry in brief, I was assigned client briefs I was expected to adapt as creative, publishable briefs. In addition to L'azurde's briefs, I was assigned multiple briefs by different clients as work pace continued to evolve day after day. Part of readapting briefs into creative formats, I performed numerous research activities, including secondary web-based research, on bank-initiated promotions for jewelry products. I also followed up by different requests by clients initiated via company's proprietary platform. The orientation and activities in Week One were concluded by an informal report outlining main activities.
Over Week Two, I moved on to another client, Harvey Nichols. First, I sought all relevant client projects and portfolios in order to better asses client's campaigning needs. As I progressed in handling Harvey Nichols account, I picked up and/or assigned functions. Notably, I went over client's card designs (in order to match new redesign requirements with existing card offerings), assisted in picking card packaging and revisited all executed advertising campaigns. Next day, I was handling another work order for Harvey Nichols, a KSA leaflet brief for retail credentials. I performed a review of submitted creative brief and suggested changes. Then, I participated in readapting client's creative brief for a Mother’s Day Campaign. The week concluded by reviewing performed design, creative brief re-adaptation and campaigning efforts for Harvey Nichols.
Over Week Three, I was engaged and participating in digital marketing campaigning efforts. The week started off by a review of L’azurde's briefing and advertising efforts performed over weeks ago. The review process was followed by extensive research of jewelry campaigning efforts in KSA specifically and Arab World in general in order to better segment audiences into categorizable clients.
In a separate project, an active, primary research was performed as part of a new E-Net Campaign. The research efforts included identifying proper slogans for upcoming movies Batman, Jurassic Park and Minions. This research effort involved a brief introduction (becoming more extensive in subsequent weeks) into media planning.
The week concluded by being assigned more clients in order to prepare creative briefs pending approvals.
Weeks Four and Five can be called weeks of listening, participation and reporting. By listening, I mean listening to clients during in-house meetings. By participation, I mean attending Dubai Lynx for more insightful – and, for that matter, formal – learning beyond Mullenlowe Group. (This part of my internship has been particularly helpful, has shown Mullenlowe Group's dedication to more meaningful internship experiences and, not least, has helped me network more effectively and gain more professional insights.) By reporting, I mean executive reports I participated in compiling as part of closing project phases, client profiling and/or internship progress reporting.
Over Weeks Four and Five, I collaborated with Creative Team members of Harvey Nichols account in order to appraise recent, former deliverables and brainstorm for new concepts and designs. This period has also been particularly significant, from a learning perspective (as discussed in further details under "Evaluation"), for me as an intern. By participating in Dubai Lynx – an event focused on digital media and communication issues across different platforms and industries – I engaged in live (and professional) discussions on a broad range of issues which has helped me learn about event organization, current digital media scene in Arab world and globally and, of course, connecting dots between what I had learned at Mullenlowe Group and digital media offerings by different companies at Dubai Lynx.
Further, being (briefly) relocated to Dubai, I was exposed to different work dynamics of Mullenlowe Group in a different market. Given Dubai's bigger more diverse market (compared to Riyadh), I was introduced to critical media planning strategies used at Dubai offices. Notably, I was offered a general brief on creative design and production process, social media campaigning efforts (particularly using Instagram) and, not least, I was granted an observer status in order to watch more closely a "standard" campaign from planning to production.
The final week, Week Six, concluded my internship. Over last week, I did not participate in specific projects but was introduced to critical concepts in digital media. Notably, I was briefed on media planning and buying processes as well as strategic account planning.
Internship in Theory
In practice, I came to better appreciate differences between concept gained at college and hands-on experiences in an actual work setting. Indeed, Mullenlowe Group is an innovative company adopting cutting edge methods in order to offer added-value digital media solutions. In so doing, I experienced slight differences between theory and application.
Primarily, I experienced how important digital media has become in digital media scene. By relocating to Dubai, I have come to appreciate social media power more. There were, however, moments when launching a social media campaign at Mullenlowe Group departed from "playbook" rules in class. If anything, negotiation processes involved in media buying efforts appeared far more complicated (and I would say "messy") compared to playbook rules in class. Specifically, different media companies, I came to recognize, have different stake in partnering with Mullenlowe Group and hence opting for or out for a complete or partial partnership. In a more ideal world, media buying process is straightforward: research, identify, negotiate price and buy.
A second difference I identified (in Mullenlowe Group's favor) is how pace and roles shift continuously in performing day-to-day functions. In an ideal world of playbooks, digital media communication campaigns are performed almost seamlessly and fixedly for pace and roles respectively. At Mullenlowe Group, I changed work pace and roles almost every hour as production, design and client servicing demands continued to change. The relocation stint in Dubai was, moreover, another practical difference I came to appreciate more by working in media markets of fundamentally different structures and dynamics.
Evaluation
Overall, I have gained invaluable experiences by being an intern at Mullenlowe Group. These experiences are gained via day-to-day practices as well as insightful interactions with staff and clients at company's different premises.
Notably, I came to understand, above all, major media planning and buying processes by performing actual functions for real, high demanding clients. By handling, partly, accounts of L'azurde and Harvey Nichols, I learned firsthand how to strike a balance between minor, day-to-day functions and major, strategic efforts. Put differently, by learning how to manage accounts more effectively, I acquired fundamental skills in sorting out relevant and irrelevant details as to better focus on account management efforts, particularly during campaigning periods.
Finally, by participating in Dubai Lynx, I acquired more insights into networking skills. By participating in discussions (during and after sessions) and exchanging information about digital media industry, I was introduced to industry professionals (in person), an important step in building a long career in digital media marketing and solutions.
References
About Us. (n.d.). Mullenlowe Group. Retrieved from http://mullenlowegroup.com/about-us/
Festival Program. (n.d.). Dubai Lynx. Retrieved from http://www.dubailynx.com/festival-programme/#/
Work. (n.d.). Mullenlowe Group. Retrieved from http://mullenlowegroup.com/our-work/
