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. To help you out, we asked as many former interns as we could find what their experience was like and how it prepared them to be a full-time, full-on Extra Miler. Hit the icons to hear from them, then tighten up that resume.

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!

Public Relations

I’m Mark Glissendorf, and I’m one of the few contributors to this rundown that did not have an internship at Lawrence & Schiller. I’ve been in your shoes, though – I was hired as a news reporter intern at KSFY-TV during my college career. Fortunately, the news director put me to work immediately and I had a story on the air my first day. That internship led to a full-time job in the newsroom and an in-depth understanding of the world of journalism.

Public Relations is a unique blend of journalism and advertising. So that experience definitely helped prepare me for transitioning to a career in advertising and my current role at L&S.

As a PR intern, you’ll help find opportunities to insert our clients’ messages into conversations in the media. You’ll do that through a number of tactics, ranging from writing press releases to conducting street team events. The key skills needed for this internship are creativity, curiosity, enthusiasm and killer writing ability.

Sound like fun? Submit your application and we’ll see you at Ad Camp.

Video Production

Mason Horacek here – I’ve been a video editor and content producer in the video department at L&S for a little over a year. 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 short 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. 

Web Development

The Internet. A popular medium for memes and bidding in online auctions. But where does the Internet come from? Who’s behind it all?

The answer is web developers. They’re responsible for building the websites that people interact with daily, from simple landing pages with images and text to large-scale sites with thousands of pages and advanced functionality. The developer’s toolkit is always changing and growing but typically includes front-end languages like HTML, CSS, and Javascript, and server-side languages such as PHP, Python, or C#. A good developer is always searching for new ways to improve their process, testing out new development technologies to improve their process and the final product.

As a web developer, you would work closely with the rest of the digital team, helping to define design and strategy for new projects. Once the design and structure of a website have been decided, the developer takes over and turns the vision into a reality, checking in with their team along the way to ensure the final website meets expectations for both the team and the client. As a development intern, you’d have the chance to work closely with the existing development team, building your skill set and working on client projects from websites to emails. So apply for our Web Development internship, and let’s make the Internet even cooler.