End of placement, beginning of internship

Hello!

My marketing placement year at IBM has finally come to an end! A year of working in marketing full-time has given me a glimpse of the real world and how marketing can function outside of the textbooks, lectures and models that university can bring.

If you're currently studying marketing at university and have the opportunity to take part in a placement year, DO IT. It will open your eyes to the real world, you will learn an awful lot and you may decide what field of marketing you would like to work in, or in my case... NOT work in.

I first ventured into studying/ wanting a career in marketing whilst steering away from Journalism/ Public Relations therefore for me, I want to pursue something creative, which I can really sink my teeth into and experiment with... the great thing about marketing as a career is that there are so many avenues to go down, one area of marketing can be completely different to another!

Working at IBM was an amazing opportunity, a world-wide company which has a huge budget and is therefore able to commit to huge conferences, websites which are designed down to the T by the leading design agency in the world, events which the Senior execs of the biggest organisations in the country will happily attend at short notice... all of these things are obviously, amazing assets and what better position would you want your company to be in? The thing is, they don't actually NEED to do any marketing! The IBM brand is so well established and is a household name, in the business world it's the top dog of technology and therefore where is the competition? Where is the drive to increase awareness from 0% to 100%? It just doesn't exist!

The opportunities at working in such a large organisation, however, are probably unmatched with other types of jobs. I was able to get expenses to travel across the country, try out lots of education courses, meet hundreds of new people and network to my hearts content! I was also able to see what was successful and the struggle that such a large organisation faces when transitioning in to a new way of thinking/ new technologies.

A big company can offer flexible working, a great pension scheme, great pay, great facilities and the support you might need at a readily available service. However, weigh this up against just being 'a number' in 400,000 employees, facing outsourcing to other countries, never actually seeing your team apart from their icon photo in a conference call, having to phone a helpdesk every time you want to send a parcel, having to get every project you complete checked and finalised by hundreds of processes and procedures, it can sometimes feel like your individuality, thoughts and suggestions and even your personality can be a little bit squashed....

However, the experience was of course, priceless and an amazing opportunity, which I (hope) grasped with both hands and got the most out of. Even in a bad situation (not saying that it was a bad situation) you can always learn and grow through the things you experience.

However, I think I have almost made my mind up- I would like to work in a small- medium enterprise, or at least a highly competitive industry! I also think, for me, it's important to market something which I am passionate about and can relate to.

So therefore, this summer I am undertaking an internship at Vet's Kitchen in the marketing department (consisting of 2 people) which is an start-up pet food company based in Swindon, their products are sold in Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda and online. It couldn't be more different to marketing at IBM which is exactly what I wanted, a chance to try something completely different and a chance to show my skills to a small team of people and to actually have some responsibility, and mostly- to make a difference.

As the business is B2C, I am also getting the chance to try types of marketing activity that I would never had been able to within a B2B organisation. Vet's Kitchen literally do every type of marketing campaign I could ever think of- which is an amazing opportunity for me to gain experience in all of them! They are big on social media, and I am basically running all of their social media channels at the moment, advertising- print, radio, online etc, events (I'm going to exhibit at one of their road shows in a few weeks), email marketing, public relations, web design, packaging design, sales promotion, direct mail, merchandise...... I've literally done the lot! I've only been here 2 weeks and already I am learning the ins-and-outs of the organisation, how it operates, and how the company has grown and how the marketing can be used to attract new customers, raise awareness and ultimately gain market share.

I am also able to make my own suggestions and plan my own marketing activity (an amazing opportunity!!) and if I think something would work, I can suggest it AND request budget! There is so much freedom, flexibility and creativity- everything I wanted from working in marketing.

I'm really excited to carry out the rest of my internship and hopefully learn lots before deciding what kind of graduate job within marketing I would like to apply for.

Of course- everyone has their own desires and different opinions of work, I think any experience is a good experience, again even if this makes you realise what you DON'T want to do.... I know I don't want to work in a B2B technology organisation and I thank IBM for providing me with such a rewarding experience that helped me realise this! I would highly recommend a placement year there to anyone!

Opinions are entirely my own!

Steph

Brands who got it RIGHT: Oreo

A brand who have always done their social media marketing exceptionally well is Oreo! They have been referred to a "social media innovators" and have received exceptional recognition for the social media marketing they have demonstrated.

This post is on why I think they are social media masters:

I mentioned them in the newsjacking post previously, but there are hundreds of more examples of excellent use of social media by Oreo.

Check out these vines that they produced:





The thing that makes these so entertaining is the creativity and the success that Oreo create is SHAREABLE.

There is no point creating a loyal fan base or even posting social media content which has no shareability value- make content which people want to tweet or revine or tell their friends about!

Oreo connect with their audience, they have a strong following amongst their social media platforms and they engage with their target audience CONSTANTLY.

What some brands tend to do is run social media campaigns which publish heavy content and responses around a particular product release or around a particular time of year and then remain fairly quiet until the next one. However, Oreo continually updates with relevant, current and consistent content.

They respond to news stories, important dates, trends and peaks- this means users react in real time and are willing to interact with the Oreo brand. Look above at the phone case tweet- Oreo uses wit and humour to engage their audience and inspire others to share more!

Reasons why Oreo wins best use of social media marketing:
HUMOUR, CREATIVITY, CONSISTENCY, SHAREABILITY

an inspiration and a case study for all brands to learn from- Congrats Oreo!!

Thoughts and opinions all my own.
Stephanie Clark

A Christmassy Marketing Day in Southbank!

Hi guys, sorry it's been so long! I can't believe I haven't blogged in an entire month. Will try and keep content consistent from now on!

I've been super busy recently and I can't wait to tell you all the stuff I've been up to!

Starting with last week, I went up to London to attend the 2nd IBM Marketing Placement day in London, I blogged about the first one earlier this year!

The event was held in the Client Centre at IBM's Southbank, London office. This is usually where we host clients and host events and meetings with them. It's a really nice office and much nicer than the Portsmouth one- so it's nice to get out of there, even if it is just for a day ;-)

 

I like it when all the Marketing Placement students get together as we do  fairly often, I've made some good friends from the IBM locations all over the country! The day was mostly focused on IBM's brand and how marketing and communications strategies can positively affect this.

Firstly, we met Alison Orsi who is Head of Marketing, Communication and Citizenship for IBM UK & Ireland- this means she is my bosses, bosses, boss! It was really exciting to hear how she had got to the position in which she is in now and how she never even planned to work in Marketing to begin with! She told us about an IBM advertising campaign in the 90's featuring the pink panter and Johnathan Ross.....?? Not really fitting with the IBM brand we know now!

Softening the corporate image may have been an objective then- but now IBM's Marketing is a lot more targeted and they are much more considerate and thoughtful when making marketing decisions. She focused her presentation on social, valued content creation, SEO and mobile marketing. An interesting thought from the day was the fact that the strategy seems to be shifting from paid-owned-earned towards owned-earned-paid.

Secondly, we had Tony Chapman-Dawe from Strand Communication deliver a presentation on how to write better Marketing text. I found this particularly interesting because of my interest in Journalism- it kind of reminded me of being back in an English lesson!!

He spoke about advertisers being able to grip people in 9 words and how difficult this can be in getting a message across, but also that this is a scope for immense creativity. He presented us with examples from The Economist:

This spark some thought as he noted that brands need to think carefully about the language they use and also what content is actually relevant and of some value to the target audience. He also taught us about the structure of powerpoints and how to create useful and eye catching language. His main theory was that any marketing message should contain Structure, Facts, Examples and Brevity. A great lesson which I will be enforcing in the future! It makes you think about the way that brands craft tweets, in tweets you only have 140 characters to get your message across- therefore they have to be snappy, relevant and concise.

Then, we had Bill Jinks, who project managed IBM's presence at Wimbledon for the last few years. He came to speak to us about the work he had done and how we might like to get involved in working there next year with IBM. The stuff we do at Wimbledon is awesome and far too much to narrow down into one blog post- so check out the website if you would like to know more here.

Then we had a brand quality workshop from 2 members of Marketing who work on the graduate scheme. They spoke to us about the IBM Brand and how it is represented in terms of looking, sounding, thinking and performing like IBM. We also got chance to have a look and dissect IBM's current brand strategy.

We then had an IBM speaker; Mark Devlin spoke to us about IBM's history and the way the IBM brand has been affected and shaped over time. An interesting concept he mentioned was that IBM has never had a figure head like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs to represent it's brand image, instead of having this one person to look to, IBM is represented by it's employees who have their own name aka IBMers!

Overall it was a great day with some great people- afterwards we got to check out the Southbank Christmas Markets and then we were treated to a Chinese in Leicester Square!!

IBM Business Connect 2013

Hello there! So this week I was lucky enough to get the chance to attend one of IBM's biggest conferences in our events calendar- Business Connect is an all-day event and is held at various locations across the globe! The conference focuses on technology and innovation in IBM's areas of expertise: social, mobile, cloud, analytics, big data etc. The event was held at Twickenham Stadium and due to IBM's partnership with Rugby Football Union, the entire event was rugby themed. As Registrations started at 7:30- I had a very early start and decided to stay with my friend in London- this was my view of Canary Wharf at 5:30am

 

Very early start indeed!

I arrived at Twickenham Stadium and I was interested to see how the entire conference area had been transformed into an IBM event by the use of fantastic branding- the rooms looked great!

 

I was quite lucky to be able to watch the speeches as I was working inside the main auditorium, I was able to meet David Stokes- CEO of IBM UK which was such a great experience! Then I listened to his speech about the future of technology- he said that 25% of future marketing jobs will have the need for a background in technology- and he predicted that the implementation of Cloud will produce a huge amount of jobs in the next few years- something worth thinking about taking an interest in!!

 

David Stokes on stage 

Throughout the day there were lots of smaller debates and workshops for the deligates, business partners and IBMers to attend. I was mainly working behind the scenes. I had a great chance to see how such a large scale event is run- and ultimately how well IBM present themselves at their own events and how great the feedback from attendees is!

I also got a sneaky chance to sit in IBM's corporate hospitality box at Twickenham Stadium and have a look at the stadium!

 Here's a selfie of me in the stadium!!!

After a very long, but interesting and rewarding day, I got to hear a speech by Ben Kay, former Rugby World Cup Champion.

Here's Ben Kay on stage

He spoke about Leadership, Motivation, Determination, Teamwork and Discipline and how these strengths helped his team win the world cup. He also spoke about how these strengths can be applied to Business.

It was a great day and I was very lucky to be able to attend!

Steph

Working 9-5....at the largest IT company on the planet...

Hi,

I haven't really posted much about my Marketing Placement at IBM since I've started as I have just been getting to grips with my role, understanding IBM's strategies and where my team fits into the overall picture.
I think working with a large organisation is not only a rewarding experience which is full of opportunities, but can also be a hindrance in terms of understanding how such a small part of said organisation can actually make an impact.

I think I have been very lucky in getting the role I have though, as liaising with clients coming from the biggest companies in the UK is a unique experience- one which I may never be able to experience for the rest of my career (fingers crossed I do though!)

Today, all of the new marketing IT's (Industrial Trainees) got to visit one of IBM's locations near Winchester. I have visited a couple of times before for meetings, but I never got the full tour....

Today we got to hear how much IBM as an organisation has changed from the organisation it was 100 years ago to what it has become in the 21st Century today. It was phenomenal to realise how amazing the company I work for is. It has evolved from selling huge pieces of hardware, where computers needed entire buildings just to home them, to the microchip and barcode that we use everyday, and more recently to the unbelievable technology we see used for analytics, vast quantities of data and mobile technology. Who knows where we might be in another 100 years! (Not that any of us will be around to see- sad times)

When I tell them where I work, people always ask me "What do IBM actually do?" "Do they just make computers?" "I had an IBM photocopier back in the day". Well simply, IBM has moved away from these kinds of products years ago- to a far more innovative, smarter way of thinking, and rather than serve users who have simple business needs for IT, which IBM still provide- they now use technology, knowledge and data in order to create a "smarter planet" which is a huge initiative at IBM.

Today, we got to see some of these amazing projects which IBM are involved with. IBM Hursley- the location we visited, has a huge laboratory in which most of the IBM products are developed and  is also home to some UBER geeks who have developed life changing/saving/enhancing technologies!

We got to visit the IBM Hursley Innovation Centre where lots of amazing IBM inventions are showcased! (May be sounding a bit geeky at the moment) We saw a piece of technology which translates sign language from a webcam into text and visa versa, with a robot who is fluent in sign language.

We saw a piece of technology used by the military which tracks snipers and can give an exact location...this kind of technology saves lives!! See why I am proud to work here :-)

We also saw an aeroplane chair that measures your heartrate without the use of straps or wires, which helps airlines help passengers adjust to their new time zone and can help reduce stress levels on board. Then we saw a mind controlled car- something which is being used in video games soon!!

But- the most interesting thing for me personally that I saw in the Innovation centre was something which usually I would say I had absolutely no interest in- Analytics. As part of the Smarter Analytics programme, IBM helped an Italian Council reduce it's social security budget by monitoring elderly CO2, methane, smoke levels etc. with a small sensor in their homes- which meant a computer could be alerted immediately whenever one of these levels were dangerously low or high- and immediately send a warden round, rather than constant checks. This piece of technology has saved hundreds of lives- from fires, gas leaks, trips and falls and O.A.Ps who have fallen unconscious etc.

This is obviously a breakthrough piece of technology which has revolutionised care homes in Italy- but has also helped the council save money and time as less human checks are needed. Now, to me this was very interesting, but the way IBM adapts such technology to meet the needs of other clients is the thing that really draws my attention so such an innovative organisations.

Whilst you can monitor the gas and electricity levels used in peoples homes- something gas companies have been able to do for years- they can tell when consumers perform certain activities, for example; cook, shower, boil the kettle etc. and by analysing such data- IBM have worked out a way of determining exactly which TV shows everyone in the nation is watching according to their energy usage.

May not sound that revolutionary- but this type of data, available in vast quantities, could be worth MILLIONS to advertisers. Once an opportunity like this is spotted- IBM act upon it and that is why I am proud to work for such a forward-thinking organisation!!

Some pics from the innovation centre:

Sam's rear end.....not the best snap!

Trying on the brain controlling device

Vicky and Rachel in the Innovation centre

The sniper launcher in it's initial stages

Brain controlled car in action!

Vintage IBM PC!

Beautiful IBM typewriter I fell in love with! Gorgeous vintage- I want one in my house!

After visiting the innovation centre, we had a history lesson on IBM Hursley- a huge Edwardian mansion- and the only property that IBM owns in the UK. The place was stunning and I wish I could work here everyday!!!

The Winter Gardens

Gorgeous features

Client meeting room (who wouldn't buy from us with that view!! Better than staring out over grey concrete buildings in London I reckon)

one of the many beautiful fireplaces

Mine and Rachel's attempted selfie!

Managed one haha

See the servants bells on the walls!

SO stunning- stairs in main hall

another selfie (how sad I am)

The exterior- end to a great day!!

What a lush location and a great day overall!

Going to try and write a bit more about IBM and the stuff I'm getting up to there!

Steph

Just a quick one!

Hello,
haven't wrote in over a week! Been super busy. Back in the north west for Christmas, which I am not enjoying as usual. I find this place so uninspiring I actually hate Lancashire! Sounds so negative but in Bristol everyone is so aspirational and hardworking and then I come up north and most people so bored and unmotivated! Sort it out Lancs.... I am having a nice time with my family though although I have a lot of work to do for my product pitch presentation, HRM assignment and finance exam in January STRESSFUL

I was also supposed to be attending a peugeot citroen, avon, caterpillar, BMW & PSA assessment centre in January too which would have added to the stress however I have some brilliant news to announce to my blog followers!

I got a job at IBM!!!

I'm sooo chuffed!! Got the phone call on Friday morning and I was in bed in a hotel room in Manchester and my phone rang and I sarcastically went "This better be a job offer" AND IT WAS!! Fate or what!!

Anyway so basically at my assessment centre day in Portsmouth I met this lovely lady who is the project manager for a B2B marketing team in Portsmouth and she interviewed me for a general marketing role. However she was impressed by me so much that she wants me to join her team in Portsmouth!! So I didn't need a 2nd interview like most people! I was soo pleased and I've already met my boss which is pretty cool.
Slightly daunting moving to Portsmouth as I've only been their once for my interview and I'm going to be living there in June! I'm so excited though and so pleased because I really wanted to work for IBM out of all of the placements I applied for! Going to buy a car in June and can't wait to be on a real wage and work for the 3rd most valuable brands IN THE WORLD

New normal blog post coming soon
Just thought I would fill everyone in!
Steph

“Sometimes there's not a better way. Sometimes there's only the hard way.”

Hellooo,
So this week I have been sooo busy! Been doing my operations coursework which is so dull it's the 2nd worst module after human resource management! I don't want to be learning about anything but Marketing which is a nightmare but I know it has to be done! Also been working with my group for one of my marketing modules where we have to pitch a product through a presentation in January- Dragon's Den style! A lot of hard work but I love my group and I think we work really well together. I think it's important to surround yourself with positive people and their positivity reflects on you and in a way makes you more motivated and definately makes me work harder.

I'm sick of negative people and people that aren't prepared to work hard to get results. People ask me how I do so much and how I have other people interested in my success and how I get so many opportunities. It's literally because I never stop! There aren't any shortcuts and if you aren't motivated and driven to succeed you shouldn't be at university full stop. People who skive uni to sleep all day or get drunk or because they can't be bothered to sit in a lecture anger me, anyway I better stop before I start a rant...

I had my telephone interview for a placement this morning and the lady said she was impressed with my enthusiasm and desire to succeed and I've got through to the next round which is an assessment centre in January which I'm so happy about! Got two lined up now, I'm so glad all my work has paid off!!

So whilst I was in London last week and in Cabot Circus this week, I saw huge billboards outside Dorothy Perkins for the new Kardashian Kollection clothing line. I thought this was a really exciting move for DP as they were a bit of a frumpy, mumsy brand compared to the other Arcadia brands like Topshop & Miss Selfidge, this will definately give a new viewpoint from a younger target market.
I did see the collection when I was in Chicago over the summer and I think the Kardashian Kollection has been in the US store Sears for a number of years (Sears reminded me alot of Matalan for some reason, so maybe their approach was the same, a brand which was once a bit frumpy has been sexed up a bit).

So I decided to go and check the clothes out for myself, the clothing is supposed to include "Kim's glamorous red-carpet looks, Kourtney's more Bohemian chic vibe and Khloe's rocker style" well from what I saw the clothes were tacky, a bit slutty and looked quite frankly, cheap. The Kardashian's are known for being curvaceous and the collection definately doesn't tailor to this. The clothes are tight, revealing and short. Kate Middleton snubbed the clothes after they were sent to her! Quite a funny read http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG9687431/The-Duchess-of-Cambridge-snubs-Kim-Kardashians-Kollection.html Anyone who is famous for making a sex tape can't really expect royalty to admire their clothing line... Interested to see how the collection is recieved in the UK anyway.

Very cool brand news- Tango are making shower gels!? I love tango and I think the product concept it exciting and I think it might be quite successful!! Already a large brand awareness and something a bit different from shower gels already on the market. I would lovveeee to work on the marketing for that product!

Speak sooon
Steph

London!

Helloooo,

Ok so Tuesday I went to London for my meeting with the CEO of newfox media. I love driving through Brentford past all the huge offices, I REALLY want to work there one day!
Tuesday night I went to see Wicked because my friend Hiten got me and him some free tickets, I've always wanted to see it and it was so great! Made the trip down to London so worth it! We also went to a pub for drinks and there was so many business men and women I was dying to do some networking haha!
So Wednesday morning I got up nice and early and got the tube to Shoreditch to google head office! It was crazy inside it looked a lot like ikea! Lots of kitch furniture and everyone was dressed very casual and everyone was a bit "individual" if thats how you want to put it. I don't think I would like to work there as I'm attracted to the suited and booted, very professional edge of working life and google head office wasn't like that at all. It's all personal preference though!
So I had my meeting with newfox media and got my role for my internship explained and I'm really excited about launching their new app and I'm responsible for a lot of the marketing for it which is so cool! I have a lot of responsibilities with them and I'm really hoping the experience will benefit me in years to come!
The CEO also said he is going to invite me to any networking events he's going to and put me into contact with some of his clients. Very exciting stuff I will keep you posted!
Then yesterday, I went in to my lecture and got my assignment brief for my marketing communications module (my favourite module at UWE) and the coursework task is to launch and market a new app!!!! ITS FATE! So I'm actually doing the same thing in the real world and at uni, double the experience!!
Doing my placement applications and lots of uni work this week! Very very busy! Managed to sneak a night out in and a bit of shopping in London! I am addicted to selfridges I literally spent about 3 hours in there after my meeting!
Next week I have a telephone interview for a placement at a very well known construction company which I am very nervous for and am going to have to prepare for next week!
So busy, but very excited about things coming up! Keep you posted,
Stef