Yes, I am going to do it – writing a reflection every day for this internship!

Well, it’s more like typing down the notes I made during the internship.

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The journey to work

• Took bus 15 in the wrong direction to Tampines instead of Eunos
  • Takes more time as more stops (13~15 vs 7)
• But here’s a trick that I realized when I was in the MRT
  • Since I’m at Tampines, I could sacrifice a couple of minutes to take the train to Pasir Ris, which is the end of the Eastwest Line instead, considering Tampines is only one stop from Pasir Ris.
  • This means that I will definitely get a seat during the ride! No more standing!

• Apparently, there isn’t a need to bring a photo ID although it was recommended in the E-Mail sent by Afsana, but that’s all good.
• I arrived at Level 22 waiting area of Dentsu at 8:35 am, with me surprisingly the first one to arrive.
• Something I observed while people were coming in was that their dress code is somewhat casual, with many people wearing jeans and casual loose clothing.
  • So tomorrow, I plan on wearing my favourite loose brown shirt and jeans.

• Soon, my fellow internees (Haruki, Udit, Sophie and Pear) came too. We talked between ourselves about our nervousness and excitement whilst breaking the ice.

HR Induction – the impressions I had of Dentsu

• It was incredibly engaging and provides a comfortable atmosphere
• Gave a brief background of the company, highlighting their service, values and more
  • There are so many big clients that I am actually a fan of their advertisements like IKEA and Uniqlo, so it was like meeting your idol type of feeling
  • They particularly emphasize on being agile (flexibility and nimble as it is a dynamic industry)
    • There’s a lot of emphasis on the new restructuring of Dentsu too
  • The introduction video of “We are Dentsu” was so cool! It was so fascinating and it made me so excited to be part of the company, even if it will be only one week.
    • I thought that I will be engaging with the designing side of the company as I am under media but you’ll read later about what media is in Dentsu (and possibly other companies too)
    • Unfortunately, I can’t find it online. Maybe it is because it is published and made just this June for something that goes along the line of Singapore Townhall meeting
• Overall: Within the induction, I was hyped about Dentsu as a company, feeling that it is a fun and cool company that does not lose sight of its goals of being bettering themselves (Make it real)

Meeting with Afsana and Marcus

• The meeting with the HR people in charge of us was pretty chill, with us introducing ourselves and cracking a few jokes to break the ice
• All of us except for Pear and I had to sign a confidentiality agreement form as we are both under Gyro
  • Gyro is under Dentsu however it is not fully merged yet, still having its own administrative team and such.
• We also receive our access cards, with a tag and all, making me feel super professional and 爽. So cool!
  • It feels like I’m actually part of Dentsu

• As there was some time before moving onto the next agenda, Afsana gave us a short tour around the office spanning 3 floors

• We later visited Isolab
  • Xavier (I think) introduces us to one of the many things Isolab does
  • Which is to use the newest technology to create and innovate the answers the clients seek
    • This can be seen with a Chevrolet product – virtual driving and car demonstration
  • Impression – It was incredibly interesting and cool to me, however, I felt that it was really too much information at once, so much that I couldn’t even think of questions to ask. I also find this does not really strike me (in the product making), perhaps because my impressions were blurred with confusion.
    • I did though, enjoy and feel fascinated about the ads themselves when they are presenting the information about the products.

Meeting with the supervisors and ultimately, learning!

• I met up with Shi Yi, who is working in the media team (which spans across APAC and Japan Dentsu)
  • She is my supervisor for today as my actual supervisor Rimi was away for today.
• Contrary to the E-Mail sent to us about bring just a pen and notebook, we needed a laptop to actually work so I have spent today observing Shi Yi’s work and taking down notes for this reflection

• So it turns out that the concept of Media is different from my perception and expectations, which is that there is lots of production of content and design. That’s the Creative team
• What the Media team does is actually plan the location of the ad, as well as logistics
  • Eg. Site of ad (Facebook, LinkedIn), Size of it (320×50, Desktop view as a bottom banner)
• They look at the results and overview of the ads
  • They use Google Analytics to observe the overall behaviour of the target audience, viewing for examples the:
    • Impressions (how many time it is viewed)
    • Reach (how many people have viewed it [regardless of how many times they do so])
    • Clicks (The total number of times it has been clicked on)
    • CTR [Click through Rate] (The ratio of the number of users who click vs the number of users viewed)
    • Bounce rate (the % of visitors who does no activities on the website/page)

• I asked about the overall process of a campaign
  • 1. The client gives a brief – budget of the client, the type of campaign, the location of their campaign (countries) and their target audience (like professionals, athletes)
  • 2. Research how much it will take to buy the data for the information on the target audience (where the audience normally browse) from others
  • 3. Write up a proposal on how to market, how much Dentsu will earn and how much to buy the data etc.
  • 4. Reporting – Includes the # of impressions etc, how much the client spent, how much the company earns, the breakdown of the data through creatives (like which variation of the design of the ad was the best) and the breakdown of the data by countries
• Lunch!
  • We went together with Shi Yi’s friend – Justin who is in the Accounting team in Gyro (Literally sits right in front of us)
  • We went to Ippudon ramen for lunch. It was beyond my budget of $10 a meal but they told me that it was no big deal since they can claim it (which means the company pays for it)
  • We discussed a lot about hobbies and our education, with Justin casually being philosophical: keeps saying “What was I doing when I was 16”, telling me that I should explore as many paths as possible and that since I am still young, I can and should make lots of mistakes. Although it kind of was unexpected for me, however, I will heed his advice.
  • Later, they gave me a tour around Tanjong Pagar (well, the nearby areas) and introduce me to lots of good food!

• After lunch, I learned more about the role of Shi Yi, which is Trafficking [the process of technically setting up an ad campaign]
  • This comes in the form of a huge Excel document, keeping track of the UTM [Urchin Tracking Model]
    • The UTM tells you the source (where the ad was posted and where the user came from), the medium (the type of media [preroll = video]), the content (the site’s/page’s/ad’s content), the campaign it is under
    • It comes in the form of this: Original link-source-medium-content-campaign
  • This is useful as it helps track and identify where and which ad is most effective
  • There is also a lot of use of Google Campaign Manager, which aids the creating and generation of UTMs.
• I also went for a quick snack down at the vending machine in the pantry and oh my, the price of the food there is slashed in half! Pocky for only $0.70 instead of market price $1.10?! I am buying them from here every day now.
• I actually told Shi Yi that as an intern, I thought I would be running around serving coffees, which in response, she laughs and says that she can make her own coffee.
• Around 3:45 pm, after finishing my notes of today, I decided to have a look around the company, allowing myself to explore and observe how other work (though I didn’t really approach any of them except for Haruki, who was surprisingly just sitting alone reading some brochures)
• When I returned at 4:15 pm, Shi Yi decided to let me off, to not only allow me to catch the MRT before the rush hour but also because she felt that there wasn’t much for me to do (which after a whole day of observing and asking questions, I agree)
  • On the way down, I asked Shi Yi, who was accompanying me down to the lobby, whether she likes her current job. She told me that since it was concerning advertising, yes. When asked about which aspect, she answers again that it was because it’s about advertising. I accepted that answer after thinking about it because sometimes you just can’t explain what you like about something like a person or a sport. I think that’s how I’d react if I was asked what exactly I like about badminton too.

• This time on the way back, I took the Eunos route, which is to stop at Eunos MRT and take bus 15 back home.
  • I did get somewhat lost at the station trying to find the bus stop since I didn’t look at the map and followed the signs to the wrong bus stop. Next time, I should just look at the map at the entrance.
• During the HR induction, Vivian, the speaker asked us all to make a goal for the week. I did originally had one, which is to be more confident in myself with communicating with others. But to my surprise, I found myself feeling confident and comfortable with the environment I was in. So, let me change my goal to knowing more about how media works and be more experienced in using Excel.

Overall, it has been a great first day! It has been a comfortable start of the week and I am excited (and at the same time nervous) to meet Rimi, the head of the Media Team.

FYI – there are only 3 people in the Media Team. Is that considered small? I’ll have to ask that.