As part of our commitment to the next generation of marketing decision makers we occasionally put the spotlight on our Marketing Interns and give them the opportunity to talk about their vision, interests and observations.

Here we’d like to introduce Pierre Andrews, Marketing Intern at Creativebrief, Spring 2016.

Background

I was born and grew up in Sussex until the age of nine, when I moved to France. I’ve lived in Brittany since then but always hoped to be able to come back to the UK, either to study or work. Growing up in a family with an incredibly diverse background has definitely enabled me to take a different perspective on life, encouraging me to be more outgoing and hungry to discover culture.

In my last few years of high school I developed a strong interest in politics and communications, with the hope of one day working in public affairs, which led me to enrol at Sciences Po Rennes. I’ve already had the chance to gain work experience within French local government, but really wanted to immerse myself in the private sector to discover different and innovative practices. Creativebrief, and London on a wider level, have proved to be the ideal observation decks, while at the same time enabling me to get directly involved in building client-agency relationships.

University

I’ve been studying since 2013 at the Institute of Political Studies of Rennes, a member of the French Sciences Po ‘grandes écoles’ group. My studies aren’t confined to a chosen subject, although I have specialised in economics and finance – my main subjects are political science, macro- and micro-economics, law, history and international relations. I’ve been able to take some really interesting courses, on subjects as diverse as the rise of European nationalisms, modern Asian geopolitics or the economics of drug-trafficking, while at the same time engaging in student life through the Drama and Model United Nations societies.

The full course lasts five years – fingers crossed at the end of the year I’ll achieve a bachelor’s in economics and finance, with the ambition of achieving a master’s in public and corporate communications by 2018.

Right now I’m in the middle of my third year; during which students get the opportunity to accomplish a series of internships for up to nine months abroad in the professional field of their choice. My ambition being to one day work in political communications, I wanted to build initial experience through the London creative industry – which led to me joining Creativebrief for six months in October 2015.

My time at Creativebrief

My main motivation for joining the agency was its aim: informational transparency on the communications market; to provide brands with objective, freely accessible information on agencies of all disciplines – therefore giving agencies a user-friendly platform to showcase their work clearly and distinctly. I believe that the business-model is incredibly relevant, because brands need to be able to make the best possible choice, and by that I mean the most informed one, when allocating an increasingly rising ad-spend; agencies can’t rely on ‘our philosophy’ or ‘who we are’ descriptions – showcasing their genuine craft is what will provide new business.

The six months I have spent here proved to be immensely rewarding. My first three months were mainly focused on supporting the marketing team, working on the website’s content management system, the blog and collating data on subscribing brands.

The second half of my internship was rather more directed towards the account management team, helping to manage several account reviews of brands looking for new agencies, while also developing a few propositions regarding international development for the business. This ended in being able to handle a live account review for a brand seeking a French agency, contacting a wide range of agencies, collating documentation and providing analysis on their skills and capabilities.

Through-out all of this, because of Creativebrief’s unique position within the communications industry, I got to meet and work with some incredible agencies and brands. Attending agency events to provide coverage in the newsletter, I particularly enjoyed observing a real push for social responsibility within the industry, on the back of the IPA’s 2020 diversity targets. Agencies like Sunshine, Ogilvy, Lost Boys, JWT and Weber Shandwick have launched fascinating research projects, support groups and work experience programs to fight the problematic lack of human diversity within adland.

Also, and this is probably because I am directly concerned, I appreciated discovering through agencies like Unity, Amplify and OMD emerging discussions and campaigns around the post-millennial ‘Generation Z’ as a new category of consumers. They seek authenticity, empowerment and the ability to showcase their own skills – advertising should see them as partners, not de-personalised targets.

I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with such a competent, accomplished and welcoming team at Creativebrief. I can’t thank them enough for enabling me for to discover so much and gain both fascinating and skilful work experience.

Aspirations

As I’ve said, public affairs is the comms sector I want to become a part of – but I’ve still got a while to go before that. I’m following up with two more internships before this summer, one in the private PR sector and one in public administration, and then in September I’m back at Sciences Po Rennes for my fourth year. Additionally to a report on my time with Creativebrief, I’ll also be presenting a report on a personal investigation of recruitment practices within the London communications industry – so fingers crossed!

Hopefully once I’ve graduated in 2018 I’ll be looking to come back to London – how and where exactly I’m not sure yet…

Advice to students

Work experience. Work experience. Work experience. Interning is valuable training and is truly rewarding, during the time you’re accomplishing the internship but also after. It brings you new skill-sets that aren’t necessarily translated into academic knowledge at college, works as a reference on both your capabilities and personality that future employers can recognise as objective, and enables you to test your future professional aspirations.

Seek the longest internships you can, to be able to fully immerse yourself in the company – my six months at Creativebrief have been ideal.

Finally, if you are looking to gain initial experience of the communications industry as I was, Creativebrief is perfect: interning here enables you to discover the vibrant diversity of the industry, gaining real knowledge of best-practices while not specialising too early if you are unsure of the precise discipline you want to work in later-on.