Monday, June 23, 2008

Getting the Ball Rollin'


After my first full week at Liggett, I can honestly say I have already learned more about new developments in the tool and office supply industry than I have in my entire life. Liggett threw me right into work as a copywriter, making headlines for a construction client’s new product on the very first day. It was refreshing to get started right away and to have my opinion valued right off the bat.

Another thing I am realizing is just how much blogging is affecting the advertising world. It seems like instead of wasting time sending out surveys and asking peoples opinions around the office, you can do really high quality product and industry research by just looking through some of the millions of blogs that are out there. It gives a quick and relatively accurate representation of what the world thinks about every topic you can think of.

As nice as blog research is, nothing is like the real thing- and that is just what I got the chance to do this past Friday. My mentor, Mark, who is the director of Brand Voice at Liggett, Katie, the graphic design intern, and I went to do some top secret research for a potential new client. We walked around noticing what would be needed to make our client’s product the one that would jump off the shelves and into peoples’ carts. After the research, Mark took Katie and me to an authentic Polish restaurant to see the side of Cleveland you wouldn’t see if you weren’t a local. Being from Connecticut, I know about as much about Cleveland as I do quantum physics, so it was nice to see a little tour of some of the areas I had never seen before. Clearly Cleveland has a lot more to offer than one particular northeasterner would imagine. The Polish restaurant was fantastic, but Katie, who is at least 50% Polish chickened out, or should I say turkeyed out, and got a turkey sandwich instead of the authentic pierogies and other Polish delights. Sorry Katie, I told you this would show up in the blog.

But moving on, the first week at Liggett was exciting, with every day bringing something new to the table, and I look forward to the remainder of the internship. Already, it feels as though the seven weeks we have left will be over far too fast.

Dan F.
Copywriting Intern

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