Michael Browne

Advertising Internship Sept 2012 - Jan 2013

The following are some highlights of my recently completed advertising internship.

Internship Background

This four-month long work experience program was co-designed by the Institute of Advertising Practitioners in Ireland (I.A.P.I) in conjunction with the Dublin Institute of Technology (D.I.T). It formed the main grading element for the final term of the Advertising & Digital Communications program from which I recently graduated with distinction (GPA 4.0). The project involved completing an internship with the Irish tourism board and working on their live communications brief. The goal of the internship was to equip students with industry experience of working in their desired area, on a live advertising campaign.

We were formed into an agency structure comprising of executive (strategy, MD, communications planner, account executives) and creative members (copywriters, artistic directors, illustrators, creative director). The project goal was to devise an integrated multi media campaign to boost domestic tourist numbers in Ireland. Our agency was assigned industry mentors who guided and critiqued our work as we went along. Our agency name was “Human”.

Here’s the Team

Team Human: Back row L to R, Michael Browne, Paul Molloy, Alex Calder, Darran Hanratty, Stephen Byrne, Rachel Owens, Jessica Majekeodummi. Front Row, Ivor Noyek, Nataliya Langan, John Mc Sweeney, Cian Fanning

Internship Details

Organization Name: Discover Ireland

Campaign Structure: Fully integrated cross media campaign

My Role: I took on the role of Brand strategist for the project so a large portion of my work involved carrying out primary and secondary research and drawing unique insights from this data. This helped to give our project direction and focus.

The Brief: To promote holidaying in Ireland in 2013, the year of “The Gathering” to a highly skeptical domestic market.

Campaign Big Idea: ’Bursting to Life’

Rationale: After enduring an extended economic recession, finally Ireland seems to see light emerging at the other end of tunnel. Though our spirit may be a little dented we remain unbowed. The seedlings for new growth have already been set and the sweet smell of spring fills the air. Irish people are hungry for a change, a new direction – to redefine our nation- to become reborn.

In 2013 Ireland, now more than ever, is going to be “Bursting to Life” as a result of The Gathering. You’ll be missing out on the fun and excitement if you’re not here so, “Where else would you be?”

Campaign Platforms

The campaign initially embraced used traditional above the line media (outdoor, press, radio & TV) to promote Ireland to a broad demographic. We then initiated a digital route including augmented reality ambient and social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube). We incorporated mobile with the ‘We Are Here 2013’ hashtag used to generate personal experience maps, photo sharing in order to create a user generated information database. The Discover Ireland app became our Geo specific information tool.

Businesses were also included with trade packages encouraging them to adopt our check-in facility.

This campaign had many complexities as it had to be flexible enough to cover a multitude of events taking place in Ireland as well as be appealing to all demographics.

Conclusions and Lessons Learned

This project gave me the real world experience that academia was unable to provide. The brief was challenging and at times stressful. Throughout this project I learned to be understanding and collaborative with my team. I also learned to be less controlling and to place faith and trust my teammates abilities.

Overall our agency were happy with the work we produced and there was a palpable sense of relief when the project was completed. In saying that this experience showed me the addictive nature of advertising and why people that work in this industry are passionate about what they do and the work they produce. It instilled in me a burning desire to fulfill my ambitions of becoming the rock star digital strategist I believe I can be.

We were extremely proud when Discover Ireland used our strategy ’Bursting to Life’ in their 2013 national advertising campaign.

You can view our final pitch proposal document here

Here is the campaign presentation

Below are some images from the client pitch night