BD NETWORK WORK EXPERIENCE - DAY ONE

I have just returned home from my first day of a two week work experience at The BD Network (an integrated digital marketing agency based in Shoreditch, London and also in Australia).

My first day was, well, BRILLIANT! It was everything I expected and more. The agency was a little bigger than I expected with a busy office of a couple of hundred pairs of drainpipes and barely a grey hair in sight. The people working there were young, trendy and energetic. Everything you'd imagine from an advertising agency in this day and age. So I fitted right in to the aesthetic in my flannel shirt and skinny jeans.

The agency works with established clients such as Nintendo, Molston Coors (as in the beer), Coca Cola, Peugeot, Heinz, Virgin (a recent win) and the client I was working for today, Alra Foods - the company behind Lurpak..yummy. And yes, the fridges were rammed full of the stuff and I took some home with me, though unfortunately I have no bread on which to eat it.

Today I worked with the accounts guys at Arla foods but was sittin with some members of the Nintendo team as the office was so packed, this was cool. Dan, Luke and Harriet of Nintendo were chatty and friendly answering all my silly questions throughout the day. All day the office was thriving and the atmosphere was great.

The agency is literally split up into accounts, creatives, copyrighters, freelancers, planning, HR, traffic and finance (I may have missed out a section) and then within those sections the staff are assigned to certain clients (those mentioned above). A smiley account handler named Anisha gave me an informative whistle stop tour during which I forgot lots of names as my brain became saturated with coolness. Then I returned to my desk and got to work. I was briefed by Simon, a really friendly bloke from South Africa. He explained to me all about what BD had done for Lurpak and put it in perspective in context with the advertising and marketing process. I had similar dialogue with Nicole throughout the all day, she is the Arla foods account director and was exceedingly accommodating.

My task was to explore some products from Lurpak's competitors and find out how they are advertising and marketing their products. The idea is to keep this information flowing to the client to create a constant dialogue between them and the agency in order to keep on top of the market and planning for future business.

I had a great first day and I didn't want to leave. I can't wait to go back tomorrow and get working on some more butter related stuff. It was so much fun and I was astounded by how helpful and friendly the staff at BD were. What a brilliant agency - really made me realise that this is the career for me. Massive thanks to all those who helped my out today at BD. I'll let you know what I get up to tomorrow.

Love to you all,
Rob x