Intro to TAP Program:
Civilian’s Talent Accelerator Program (TAP for short), is an intensive 90-day paid internship program for recent college grads or current students. TAPs get the opportunity to do real work for real clients, and work together as our own micro-agency. We experience agency life hands on and at the end of our term, present a marketing plan to the agency to show everything we learned!
An extra bonus for the TAPs is the fitness Fridays, cute dogs, and a prime office location in the heart of Liberty Station. It’s a win-win for all!
About the Project:
The Lambda TAP Class was tasked with creating a mock campaign for San Jose International Airport to increase brand awareness and loyalty among business and leisure travelers within the greater San Jose Area. This campaign would include an in-depth media plan with corresponding creative as well as a plan for digital execution. The interns were each tasked with representing their department in the build out of this project. This consisted of one TAP from each of the Account Services, Creative, Media, and Digital departments. Over the course of the internship, we met with our “client”, researched effective media strategies, built out a media plan, created two flushed out campaign concepts with creative applications, and covered how we would run the campaigns on a digital level. At the end of 12 weeks we formally pitched our presentation to the agency at the end of the term as if it were a real client presentation.
What We Learned
Account Services:
As the Account Services team member, I took the role of liaison between the agency and the client. This meant I was tasked with bringing the two sides together to reach our goal of launching a comprehensive brand play campaign. Being recently introduced to advertising, I had no idea where to start. Fortunately I had the help of everyone on the Civilian account services team to help me along the way. By the end of the 12 weeks I learned how to lead internal meetings, contribute to brainstorming sessions, and create detailed briefs and schedules.
Media:
As the Media team member I was tasked with leading the strategy, media planning, and budgeting behind the tactics for our campaign. Since this was my first internship, I didn’t know what to expect or where to start. Thankfully with the help of Civilian mentors and many brainstorm sessions with my team members, we put together a range of media tactics to meet our objectives. By the end of the term I learned how to plan and budget a campaign, choose campaign tactics, and work closely with a team on a deadline. Lastly, I presented a comprehensive media plan to the entire agency in our capstone presentation.
Creative:
Being a graphic design student who has never been exposed to the advertising arena before this internship, I learned more about how the industry itself flows and operates as a whole. I was tasked with developing two creative concepts and build outs for a campaign we had to conceptualize from the ground up, which forced me to dive head first into the process of it all. Designing creative that wasn’t just for the purpose of being “pretty” but functional and on-brief required a level of thinking that was deeper than what I was previously exposed to. By the end of the project I had designed billboards, interactive displays, bus wraps, print layouts, digital banners, and collateral pieces for both campaign directions that I presented to the agency during our final debut.
Digital:
As the digital team member I was challenged with the task of creating a plan for cross-programmatic display, native, social, and something new. As someone who didn’t know a lick of digital coming into the program this marked a challenge. Using my resources and mentors I asked every question possible about all things digital. My department took the time to teach and ensure my success in the process of creating the digital campaign. By the end of the 12 weeks I had helped set up SEM campaigns, learned the ins and outs of display ads, monitored Facebook ads, and confidently presented a digital plan to the entire agency.
If you’re looking for “Real Work”, “Real Experiences” and “Real People” than you have come to the right place. As a TAP at Civilian you will get to work with some of the greatest people, mentors, and professionals around.
