I’ve been at ITMS for almost one and a half years now.
I always wanted to work in an ad agency so deciding to do my apprenticeship in marketing communications was a no-brainer. The training not only reflects my interests, but also offers me the perfect opportunity to learn and develop my personal strengths, as, for example, my language skills.
I also work in other areas within my current department or in other departments within the agency. This brings a variety of creative and exciting tasks that have to be accomplished. I tackle these challenging tasks with passion and ambition.
Currently, I’m involved in several projects, mainly in public relations, business development and events. In PR, I’m active in the process of generating media attention for our clients’ brands and products. The goal is to increase consumer awareness, to launch new products or to pave the way for a foreign company’s market entry. I contact diverse media such as lifestyle, family and health magazines, as well as online publications to help pitch different themes. For example, I made a health product tasteful to the media recently. Basically, the procedure is as follows: we identify all of the relevant media for the project. Next, we’ll contact the editors. In the best case, the editor will be interested in covering the story we’re pitching. At first, making calls made me nervous but now they have become part of my everyday work.
I’m also involved in new business development, supporting the head of the department in acquiring potential clients and maintaining client relationships. I make qualifying calls to potential clients to develop leads and ideally, get their attention to eventually arrange for a live presentation. In such meetings, our new business team will introduce the agency, it’s accomplishments and our service portfolio based on diverse real-life case studies. Moreover, they’ll present initial creative ideas and relevant measures that align with the potential client’s goals.
Due to my very good language skills – I speak German, Polish and English – my tasks often involve contacting international clients by phone. I am also responsible for other client acquisition-related tasks, such as pitching potential exhibitors’ for ITMS’s bridal fair in Bad Nauheim. And I’m also active in the purchasing department, comparing and researching companies that produce promotional merchandise. At the agency, I’ve gotten the nickname “Terrier”, because I’m very persistent and always negotiate lower prices.
Here is my half-time summary for my apprenticeship: brilliant!
I’ve acquired a lot of knowledge and gained firsthand insights into how exactly an agency works. I’ve also come to realize that marketing is a lot more than just advertising. Better to think of marketing as a multifaceted brilliant diamond. You learn something new every single day, you get to work in exciting areas of corporate communications, and you learn things that you can apply to your own life.
