This summer, rather than stick to the same schedule that I normally have, I did something quite different. This summer I found myself a co-op placement. Here’s my insider perspective as a summer intern:
During the short course of one month at One Red Bird, I’ve not only changed the way that I see the marketing field, but also the real work force in general. Rather than learning about marketing in a classroom, seeing the process of the company’s operations showed me many aspects, big and small, that go into the work that they provide for customers as well as things that all businesses have to do no matter the profession.
Beforehand, while searching for summer co-ops opportunities during my grade eleven year I was looking for something related to my Specialist High Skills Major in business, it so happened to be at the same time that I was taking my first marketing course. In need to obtain a placement, there it was, in a long list full of past co-op student placements I had found One Red Bird. At first, I did not expect to receive any reply what so ever, but I was extremely excited when I did. From then on I dedicated half my summer to learn and hopefully contribute too.
Everyday at One Red Bird there was something new, and with the help of Chris Hokansson, One Red Bird’s founder along with Charles Topping, Matthew Gray and Simon Cooper who worked with me personally, I was able to understand the new tasks and enhance my work skills. Marketing is so much more than people can imagine, and although I knew that there was more than just advertising and publicity, there were things myself and others wouldn’t even think to associate marketing with.
At One Red Bird I learned:
- The importance of connections and communication.
In marketing, it isn’t only important to connect and communicate with the target audiences, but it is also extremely important to connect and communicate with clients and co-workers as well. Without the ability to socialize with the people that you work with, it isn’t possible or even worth trying to connect or communicate with the customers that you wish to obtain or keep. If everyone isn’t on the same page and accomplishing work together, it is not possible to run a business efficiently.
- The difference that publishing dates and times make.
Once everyone is on the same page it’s important to make sure that the work you publish becomes available at a time that people will actually see it. It wouldn’t be wise to publish a social media post at 5:00am, right? Well this is what needs to be thought through.
- To think past an advertisement and to think in depth about it.
To achieve great results from your marketing efforts it’s important for marketers to go above and beyond. An attracting picture, video or radio advertisement isn’t going to get results if it’s not thought through. In marketing it’s necessary to understand the purpose, what format the target audience will see the most, where they currently are in life and more.
- That there are unknown marketing methods that don’t cost anything, but they still make a huge difference.
Contrary to what some may think, not all marketing has to be paid for, yes there is free advertisements on social media platforms, but there is even more ways to get exposure. There’s a wide range of things that you can do to show up in search rankings like improvements on your keywords, meta descriptions and alt codes. Things as simple as letting the search engine know what the content is about can create great results.
- That marketing can be a trial and error.
With all that being said, it doesn’t mean that you can be guaranteed to have success with every marketing effort. It’s important to test the waters. Often there’s no way to tell what will occur and so marketers have to learn why it didn’t work and how they can make it work in the future. This can be both fun, or irritating, but it still helps to improve future marketing projects.
Overall through co-op I was aiming to obtain real life experience in marketing and business in general. Thankfully, not only have I gained the new knowledge that I was hoping for, but I have also gained great memories at One Red Bird. One Red Bird has truly been a major help to step forward with my education.
