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Three Weeks, Two Radio Recordings And One SOS Call

Diary Of A Marketing Intern

By Shauna Crawley, Marketing Graduate Intern at Sage 

Looking back at my last three weeks at Sage makes me wonder three things:

1. Why no other company I worked for has had the genius idea of a chillax room (officially the ‘Chill room’ but I refuse to call it anything else)
2. How I wasn’t fired for suggesting (albeit in jest) to the head honcho to use the phrase ‘Totes Amazeballs’ in our advertisements ( a smidgen off brand…)
3. How I’m still awake right now

I’m the new intern in the marketing department at Sage, and was asked to blog about my experiences so I’ve put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to give you a glimpse into my first three weeks here.

Firstly, I should let you know a little about me. I’m 21 and just finished my degree in Business and Management at DIT (1.1 Result- BOOM!). And this isn’t my first ‘proper job’. Coming from an entrepreneurial family, I’ve been working since I was about 14 in various jobs; door to door sales, marketing research, apartment rentals, digital marketing intern (later allowed to call myself digital marketing executive), performing arts school manager, drama coach - the list goes on. So I’m no stranger to the world of working in a business but Sage is my first large business experience.

Well that’s enough about me! Here are some insights of the past few weeks:

The Brand Guidelines
My first day I’m welcomed with a big folder of ‘brand guidelines’ which goes into great detail the way in which marketing can represent the brand, in like 50 pages, that’s going to take a while to learn.

The Kitchen
Sometimes it’s the small things in life. A kitchen on each floor of the building with an unlimited supply of tea, fresh coffee and hot chocolate (that most defiantly should have been in the perks part of the job description).

Email Marketing
I’ve done email marketing for the past five or six years so I was no stranger to the idea of it. But, for the first one I sent to a lot of customers from Sage, Aisling (my boss) had to witness my involuntary hands in the air cheer (thankfully I could wait until her back was turned to do the victory dance). I’m getting used to the absolute fear of pushing the broadcast button but at least my victory dance has remained inside my head for the time being.

The Radio Recordings
Definitely one of the highlights! The first was a whirlwind of recording a few ten second promos. The second was to launch our new Sage 50 2013 campaign. For the latter, we used four different voice-over artists which was located at one of the coolest office buildings I’ve been in. Very contemporary furniture, a big couch for us to curl up on listening to the recording, bowls of sweets EVERYWHERE (nom nom nom) and (randomly) a pool table! I think I’m going to like it here.

The Office Takeover
They decided to do an internal launch of  Sage 50 2013 so I spent a lot of my time sorting out printed materials (posters, cut outs, postcards etc.), making a Sage TV presentation (plays on plasma screens all over the office) and desk drops for the office (miniature heroes!). The night of the 31st arrived and the marketing department got to work transforming the office into a superhero cave! Aisling and I truly experienced the glamorous side of marketing– hitching up skirts to clamber on top of desks to hang posters bigger than us #behindthescenesnothingisglamorous.

The SOS Call
So you’re probably wondering from the title what I meant by the SOS call. Well I was asked to do a stock take of trade show materials (definitely bad decision to wear the tight pencil skirt that day). The lovely Claire (The ‘Aisling’ of upstairs) set me up and mentioned briefly that I should keep the chair propped up against the door. So I spent my day devising a new stock management system and climbing in and out of boxes awkwardly.

Needless to say I was tired, and dying to get home by the end of the day. I cleaned up the room, pulled the chair away and was just about to walk out when I realised my phone was inside so I slipped back through the closing door and grabbed it. I’m guessing you can see what happened next. I reach for the door handle and pull… and nothing happens. After a brief burst of giggles I realise that since my boss Aisling isn’t in, there’s a possibility nobody would notice my absence as they start to leave. I pull out the phone and ring up the main sage line and get asked to be patched through to the Business Advice Team because they sit near me.

BAT Team: Good afternoon you’re through to the business advice team. This is Sarah Jane, how can I help you today?
Me: Hi Sarah Jane it’s Shauna
Sarah Jane: …
Me: From marketing?
Sarah Jane: Oh hey- what’s up?
Me: Not much, well actually…don’t laugh
Sarah Jane: Ok…
Me: I’m sort of stuck
Sarah Jane: (Chuckle)
Me: you know the fire door by the kitchen, well I let it close and I’m stuck
Sarah Jane: No wayyyy….
Me: Yeah… Could you come let me out?
Sarah Jane: Sure…

So she promptly arrives and escorts me back to the desk. Slightly mortified I attempt to regain my dignity and decide to go to the bathroom to regain composure but forgot to swipe my card and walked full force into the door. That’s what I call doing it in style.

Well that’s all from me this time, I’ve a million more stories but no more time to write! Wish me luck. Or maybe wish Sage luck!

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