Which Intern Position is Right for You?

THE WORLD OF ADVERTISING IS A WEIRD ONE.

Sure, every industry involves people with different specialties working together. But ad agencies are a different animal. Creative people, curious people, personable people, analytical people… it truly takes all kinds to bring a campaign to life. The one thing we’ve all got in common, though, is the passion to create effective work that exceeds expectations. And that’s the biggest quality we look for in Ad Camp interns.

Not sure where your talents would be the best fit? No sweat. If you’ve got what it takes, we’ll find a place for you.

Account Service

Are you detailed-oriented? Do you love being organized? Is crossing a project off your “to do” list one of your favorite feelings? If you answered “yes” to all three of these, then the Account Service intern position is just for you – but it doesn’t stop there.

As part of the intern program, you’ll get to work hand-in-hand with other Account Executives along with media folks, creatives and digis (to name a few) to track workflows, brainstorm ideas, gather insights, be an extra on TV shoots, help coordinate events, learn the ins and outs of creative briefs, contract reports and proposals… the list goes on. And on.

If you’re ready for a fast-paced, high-energy career path and are open to learning a lot, then step right forward and apply today for our Account Service internship.

Consumer Insights

Do you consider yourself a curious person? How about a creative, out-of-the-box thinker? Do you like to learn and solve problems? If so, a Consumer Insights (CI) internship may be for you.

So what exactly is Consumer Insights? Good question. It would be easy to say CI is “research,” but in reality CI is much more. CI digs deeper in an attempt to understand who audiences are as people and what makes them tick. This means understanding what matters to the audience, how we can reach them and where they can be found. Simply put, we use research as a means to create actionable direction for our teams and clients that leads to smarter strategy, creative and campaigns.

Like all L&S interns, CI interns do not sit on the sideline. They work side-by-side with our Insights team and assist with projects that will influence real campaigns – survey and focus groups, competitive marketing analysis, industry trend tracking and even hitting the road with the team to conduct consumer intercepts.

So, if you’re curious, like to solve problems and are ready to work with some of the most talented advertising professionals in the region, you should definitely apply for CI.

Copywriting

Today’s copywriter is called upon to write for an ever-growing number of media – from print and television to email copy, content calendars, native content articles and website copy (to name a few).

Now, if you read that list and thought, “Ew… That sounds gross,” you should consider a different discipline. But if you saw it and said, “Oh hell yeah! I would do that in a heartbeat and then ask for seconds,” you should keep reading.

Aside from cooking up ad copy, copywriters work closely with all disciplines. You’ll meet with your account service team to talk about campaign direction, assignments and executions. You’ll sit down with designers and art directors to talk layouts, visuals and type treatments. You’ll visit with members of the media team to talk about what media are best suited for your target audience. And you’ll chat with consumer insights specialists about what messages are going to resonate.

Will you do all of that as an intern? Maybe not. But you will do a lot of it while learning about the rest from some of the most talented pros in the region. So apply! Unless you think it’s gross.

Design

I’m Dan Dismounts, an Art Director here at L&S, and I started as a design intern in Ad Camp’s class of 2014. If you live, eat, sleep and breathe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator, then design is right where you belong.

As a design intern, you’ll be tasked with helping develop graphics and layouts for everything you’ve practiced – and some stuff you haven’t. The projects that we work on range from print layouts for magazines and billboards, to digital graphics for social posts and web banners. But wait, there’s more!

You’ll also do a lot of learning along the way. Whether it’s how to deal with Facebook’s 20% rule or how to create animations for digital media, your skill set will evolve and you’ll gain valuable real-world design knowledge. You’ll get to work alongside our entire team to learn the ins and outs of how campaigns are ideated, produced and monitored; all while creating work for some of the best clients in the region.

If you’re ready to flex your creativity this summer, fire up your resume, polish that portfolio and apply today.

Digital Strategy

My name is Laura Mitchell, and I was a two-time intern at L&S – in 2004 and 2005. When I graduated from SDSU in 2006, I started full-time as an Account Coordinator. That was fun, but I really love my current job leading the digital team.

We digis live in the owned channels – you know, the stuff you can control the content on, like a brand’s website or app, social media pages and email marketing programs. We develop strategies to use these platforms to get our potential customers to engage with us – which could mean gaining leads with a Facebook promotion, optimizing a website to rank higher on search engines, testing different subject lines of emails to get the highest open rates, or trying different coupon offers in text messages.

Oh yeah – the tech. The digital team nerds out on the latest marketing tech to find ways to push our clients even further. 360 video? We love it. Beacons to track the way people move throughout a store? Great. Chat bots? Done. If the tech is emerging, we’re keeping an eye on it, and finding strategic ways to use marketing technology to reach our clients’ goals.

We have a lot of fun, and work on some pretty great initiatives for our clients. We’re all Google Analytics certified and have a blast creating award-winning work for the best clients in the business. Come hang (and learn) with us as an Ad Camp intern this summer.

Media Strategy

Curious about audience trends? Want to find out how and where consumers engage with media, then develop strategies to reach them? Media might be the discipline for you.

As a media intern, days consist of corresponding with media partners, sifting through research, formulating budgets and goals, working in spreadsheets and contracting media placement. The industry’s ever-changing nature means we also spend a lot of time working closely with our digital and development teams, forming messaging strategies and identifying emerging technology partners to suit our clients’ needs.

We see a campaign from start to finish, beginning with the client goals and ending with ROI reporting on campaign performance. Our world revolves around digital media more and more every day, but it’s our job to determine the best way to reach our audience and meet campaign goals – with help from the rest of the team, of course!

You will be exposed to the details and depths of the media discipline, but you will also gain exposure and understanding of the entire agency and all other disciplines. Find out if media is the right fit for you and apply today!

Video Production

Mason Horacek here – I’m a Senior Cinematographer and Editor in the video department at L&S. I’m involved in every aspect of creating our videos, from brainstorming concepts to the final video export. I often travel and help produce shoots for clients around the Midwest. Even in my time here I’ve worked as a director, editor, cinematographer, audio engineer, grip and motion graphics artist. Oh yeah – I even got to meet broadcasting legend Tom Brokaw.

Our job is basically to make our motion projects the dopest they can be. We always make an effort to stay up to date on the newest video trends and editing techniques the industry has to offer. We also get to work alongside big-budget production companies. This gig is one of a kind in South Dakota, so if you have a passion for making videos and all the work behind it, this is the place for you. 

Finance

If you’re an organized individual who enjoys swimming in numbers, our finance internship might be for you. Between invoices, memos and bills, you’ll become familiar with the financial documents that keep a full-service advertising agency running.

You’ll also have the opportunity to help with optimizations and work with the account service team for billing and financial presentations! Our finance team makes crunching numbers fun when they aren’t cracking bad dad jokes. For more information, skim this guide on being a finance intern.