My Time at Carswel Gould - Week Three

Now that I have just completed my third and final week at marketing communications agency Carswell Gould, I am here to report how it has all gone!

As I mentioned in my last post, my main task last week was to complete a digital marketing plan to launch the RIBs to the Limit challenge film. I put a lot of effort in creating an easy to read document and it appeared my efforts really paid off. Ed seemed genuinely impressed with how I kept the objectives in mind whilst creating a table of action points to carry the plan through.

This week I have been carrying out the action points I could, whilst talking to the rest of the team about the bits I couldn’t, such as improvements to the website. Firstly I updating the profiles of the RIBS to the Limit accounts on YouTube, Flickr and Facebook to ensure that Carswell Gould’s involvement in the challenge was more widely recognised. Next I added some copy and links on each of the videos currently hosted on YouTube so that people knew a feature length video is being released, Carswell Gould’s involvement and where to go for more information.  As Twitter can only have a 160 character profile, I have written and scheduled a list of tweets for inform current followers about the upcoming release of the challenge film, their presence at the PSP Southampton Boat Show and related topics. Lastly I have left the task of designing and coding an extra case study page to the CG site to Graham and Tom (design) and Rob (web development).

My first tweet apearing on the website's twitter widgit.

To break this task up I have also been given some smaller tasks including: proof reading, looking at a brief for a new client, writing and scheduling different online content for Twitter and Facebook, milk runs and made numerous rounds of tea and coffee!

The most memorable moment of this week has unfortunately been the London riots. The buzz in the office was replaced with people sharing news of the riots and their spread across England this Tuesday. When rumors started circulating online about problems in Southampton there were some meerkat moments of us all looking out the window as riot vans parked on the high street and sirens went past. Luckily nothing happened, but it was good to see how in touch the local police force was with social media. They channeled reliable news via Twitter that the office and the rest of Hampshire could follow and not the many rumors. And if all else failed we always had guard dog Scamp to look after us!

These last three weeks have gone so quickly, and I am sad to leave the office. However the time has not been wasted, and I have learnt so much about how social media can be used by individuals and businesses. I am taking away a bank of knowledge to help me improve my appearance online, and looking forward to using the skills I have learnt. Areas that I need to improve has also been highlighted, namely by spelling and grammar. When getting my work proof read it was evident that although no one is perfect, my work was needing a lot more corrections than others, and I will be concentrating on improving this in the future.

Thank you so much to the team at Carswell Gould for having me, and thanks to all the people that have come along and read how I have been doing. And most of all, thanks for the chocolates!

Love Rie / Marie Malyon xx

My time at Carswell Gould – Week One

When people ask me what degree I am doing I always reply “Media Communications - it’s like a cross between advertising and journalism” and they often reply “oh right” with no idea what I am talking about. So when presented with the task of finding work experience I sat down and researched, asked friends, family but I was stumped. I was really interested in media communications but no one outside the industry seem to know what this really was. But with the recommendation from my tutor, the perfect place was right under my nose the whole time – Carswell Gould. 

Located in the centre of Southampton it is just minutes away from my university (Southampton Solent). It was the placement I was looking for! As a marketing communications agency, Carswell Gould encapsulates what I am trying to describe what my course is about, and so much more.

So now I have completed my first week in the office, I am excited to report back my first impressions!

Week One:

The beautifully decorated office houses a very friendly team. Warm smiles and handshakes greeted me on my first day and I was thrilled to hear everyone already knew my name (even if it has taken me a lot longer to remember all of theirs!) I couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome.

Top row : Graham, Laura, Gill, Ed and Scamp.
Bottom row: Tom, Lisa and Rob.

The Monday meeting left me with pages of notes about my tasks for the week and a real enthusiasm to get started. I have been given some really exciting tasks both to support the team’s work for clients, and generally help out around the office. Making tea and coffee is a very important job but much to my surprise is the smallest part of my temporary role in the office.  

One of my first tasks was to draft a comparative analysis of the social media used by competitors, and suggest ways Carswell Gould can enhance its social media presence. I jumped into the research and the task was soon upgraded from a report to a presentation for the following week’s Monday meeting. After a quick chat with Ed about my progress, he really helped me focus my research and gave me some good tips for increasing the value of the research I was doing.

But listening in on Gill, Lisa and Laura’s PR meeting on Wednesday morning has been my favorite time so far in the office. I learnt a lot about press releases, selling in stories (which means persuading a publication to run a story and nothing about money exchanged), press parties, mailing lists (and cleansing them) and loads more. I wish now I had made more notes, but really looking forward to the opportunity of learning more about PR.

I am really looking forward to next week now, and am so pleased that I have got this opportunity to pick the brains of experts in the marketing comms industry.

Look out for next week’s update to see how I am getting on!

Thanks for reading,

Love Rie / Marie Malyon xx