Tell us about your internship, what are your main responsibilities?
I’m an intern on the Digital Product Strategy team where we mainly focus on the Honda website. We make sure to translate business goals into tangible enhancements to the website. My main priority is to help free up the bandwidth on my team. I conduct competitive analyses, write out functional requirements for certain website components and support the product managers throughout the process of launching an enhancement onto the website.
Do you have a dream account or brand you’d like to work with? Which one?
I don’t have a specific dream account. However, I would love to work with any beauty or athletic apparel brand.
Talk to us about the culture in your office, how has it impacted your internship?
People are extremely friendly and welcoming here. RPA has a People First philosophy and it truly shows through the actions of our Associates. Since it’s a full-service agency, everyone is also located in close proximity. If I have a question, I can go downstairs and get the answer from an expert without any lag time. All of these factors contribute to this insightful learning experience with my team.
What have you learned about the advertising industry that surprised you?
I was surprised to learn about how much brainstorming and prep work goes into launching projects—projects I would’ve considered to be small before entering the advertising field.
Choose a current popular advertising trend and tell us what’s interesting about it:
I think an interesting trend is the battle to seamlessly embed advertising into content and the perception of it. As influencers embed paid ads into their video content, a percentage of their audience will show an affinity toward the product and feel a sense of ownership discovering the product, similar to how listeners have a sense of ownership when they stumble upon a band before they blow up. However, pre-roll ads will usually leave the audience annoyed at the interruption. Both are forms of advertising but leave the viewer with a different experience.
Imagine your dream job, where are you, what does a day-to-day look like?
I eventually want to help creatives of all kind work together with prominent brands with the goal of creating projects that will positively impact pop culture. I’m from San Gabriel and ideally, I would love to stay in California. My day-to-day will change as needed and I would love the opportunity to travel.
Are you considering another internship, or looking for jobs now? What are your next steps?
Being a recent graduate, it’s always good to explore and invest in your interests. During my time at RPA, I have been given the opportunity to work with two different teams over a period of four semesters. While I would love to work with my team full time, I’m open to other job possibilities. Wherever I land, my next steps are to learn as much as I can from fellow peers and mentors I admire.
What is your favorite ad of all time?
My favorite ad is the series of “Get a Mac” TV spots between 2006 to 2009. The campaign did an excellent job conveying human personality characteristics to a couple of inherently inanimate objects.