Journal Entries
08/25/2016 Final day
Today marked my last day at funpool. We all had a breakfast together, and I baked muffins for my colleagues. I received a card and a gift box with quite a few samples of companies I acquired during my time. Christian told me I can come back whenever I want, and already asked what I was doing after graduating.
After the breakfast, I worked a few more hours on acquisition for the WEG VOM SOFA GUIDE. Also, I handed over my unfinished tasks to Justus who will be responsible to get these done. I also handed over all my ongoing negotiations concerning sampling to Udo, and also informed the contact persons in those companies that I was leaving and that he would take over from me. When it was finally time to leave, I sent out a goodbye email to everyone and then went to each and everyone of my colleagues to say goodbye personally. Christian told me again that I was always welcome back, and I will definitely make sure I stay in contact with him.
I learned a lot during my time at funpool, and I will treasure all the memories I made during these three months. I will miss all my colleagues and will stay in touch with most of them.
Today marked my last day at funpool. We all had a breakfast together, and I baked muffins for my colleagues. I received a card and a gift box with quite a few samples of companies I acquired during my time. Christian told me I can come back whenever I want, and already asked what I was doing after graduating.
After the breakfast, I worked a few more hours on acquisition for the WEG VOM SOFA GUIDE. Also, I handed over my unfinished tasks to Justus who will be responsible to get these done. I also handed over all my ongoing negotiations concerning sampling to Udo, and also informed the contact persons in those companies that I was leaving and that he would take over from me. When it was finally time to leave, I sent out a goodbye email to everyone and then went to each and everyone of my colleagues to say goodbye personally. Christian told me again that I was always welcome back, and I will definitely make sure I stay in contact with him.
I learned a lot during my time at funpool, and I will treasure all the memories I made during these three months. I will miss all my colleagues and will stay in touch with most of them.
08/18/2016-08/24/2016 More research and acquisition
The whole focus right now is to pull in offers from sports centers for the guide, and almost everyone is involved in some way. It still is tough to get through to the centers but we already pulled in the first offers so that our graphic designer can start designing the first layouts for the coupons that will appear in the guide. With my internship slowly coming to an end (my last day will be the 25th), I am starting to wrap up some other things and make sure I can hand open tasks over to my colleagues so everything that needs to be followed up, actually gets followed up. I have had a great time with amazing colleagues, learned a lot, and now I am looking forward to my last two days with them before returning to Tiffin soon.
The whole focus right now is to pull in offers from sports centers for the guide, and almost everyone is involved in some way. It still is tough to get through to the centers but we already pulled in the first offers so that our graphic designer can start designing the first layouts for the coupons that will appear in the guide. With my internship slowly coming to an end (my last day will be the 25th), I am starting to wrap up some other things and make sure I can hand open tasks over to my colleagues so everything that needs to be followed up, actually gets followed up. I have had a great time with amazing colleagues, learned a lot, and now I am looking forward to my last two days with them before returning to Tiffin soon.
08/17/2016 Research and acquisition of sports centers
Today we just continued our research for sports centers in Cottbus and Frankfurt. Since we have a very tight time schedule we already started contacting sports centers while also looking for more centers. With the centers that already know about us and the WEG VOM SOFA GUIDE it was easier to get started than with the completly new centers. With the new centers it is hard because we need to get through to the right person, and then explain who ur company is and what we are doing. However, there were some positive reactions since these guides basically are an opportunity for almost free marketing. They do not have to pay to place an offer/coupon in the guides, and we do all the layouting as well, so for them they just need to send us an offer and some pictures we can use. If you manage to get through to the right person and explain this, most of them are interested. However, this time of the year a lot of people are on vacation and not available. And in some cases you just do not get a chance to explain the project to them because they just do not want to talk to you. So, it can be a little challenging, but we realized that the term "no cost" can open a few doors.
Today we just continued our research for sports centers in Cottbus and Frankfurt. Since we have a very tight time schedule we already started contacting sports centers while also looking for more centers. With the centers that already know about us and the WEG VOM SOFA GUIDE it was easier to get started than with the completly new centers. With the new centers it is hard because we need to get through to the right person, and then explain who ur company is and what we are doing. However, there were some positive reactions since these guides basically are an opportunity for almost free marketing. They do not have to pay to place an offer/coupon in the guides, and we do all the layouting as well, so for them they just need to send us an offer and some pictures we can use. If you manage to get through to the right person and explain this, most of them are interested. However, this time of the year a lot of people are on vacation and not available. And in some cases you just do not get a chance to explain the project to them because they just do not want to talk to you. So, it can be a little challenging, but we realized that the term "no cost" can open a few doors.
08/16/2016 New project
We got taske with creating 3 different versions of our WEG VOM SOFA GUIDE in 4 different regions, so basically 12 different guides for a customer (a health insurance company that wants customers to get active). The 3 different versions are for young school kids, Azubis (term used for people learning a job, they usually go through a three-year training that includes school work as well as a big practical portion), and companies, and they are to appear for Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder), and Cottbus. Since we had very little sports centers in Frankfurt and Cottbus, today we were all looking for possible sports centers to contact. Sports centers can place a coupon in the guide for free because our customer is paying for he guides. Usually, we charge a fee for sports centers to appear in our guides which are produced and sold by us for Berlin.
Additionally, for our last marketing campaign we had three late written agreements sent to us after we had already closed the project so we had to notify those three centers their written agreements came in too late and they cannot take part in the upcoming campaign.
I also followed up with some sampling contacts, and had some positive feedback that might turn into a cooperation later this year.
We got taske with creating 3 different versions of our WEG VOM SOFA GUIDE in 4 different regions, so basically 12 different guides for a customer (a health insurance company that wants customers to get active). The 3 different versions are for young school kids, Azubis (term used for people learning a job, they usually go through a three-year training that includes school work as well as a big practical portion), and companies, and they are to appear for Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfurt (Oder), and Cottbus. Since we had very little sports centers in Frankfurt and Cottbus, today we were all looking for possible sports centers to contact. Sports centers can place a coupon in the guide for free because our customer is paying for he guides. Usually, we charge a fee for sports centers to appear in our guides which are produced and sold by us for Berlin.
Additionally, for our last marketing campaign we had three late written agreements sent to us after we had already closed the project so we had to notify those three centers their written agreements came in too late and they cannot take part in the upcoming campaign.
I also followed up with some sampling contacts, and had some positive feedback that might turn into a cooperation later this year.
08/15/2016 Not a lot to do
With no current projects needing work, I was mainly continuing my work on sampling partners. Additionally, I helped my colleague with a few PR things. It was nothing really big, he just had some questions about things that happened while he was on holiday, so I brought him up to seed with everything I did while he was on holiday before then continuing to look for new sampling partners. As usual, the rate of responses was very dissapointing. I guess for every 100 emails I send out to potential sampling partners, I get maybe 5 responses and maybe 1-2 interested companies. With some companies I found LinkedIn or Xing(a German version of LinkedIn basically) a helpful tool to actually find the head of marketing for some of the companies or a person working in marketing. In most cases it is really tough to get through to the right people but if one has a starting point with someone in marketing it really helps getting to the right person in the end.
With no current projects needing work, I was mainly continuing my work on sampling partners. Additionally, I helped my colleague with a few PR things. It was nothing really big, he just had some questions about things that happened while he was on holiday, so I brought him up to seed with everything I did while he was on holiday before then continuing to look for new sampling partners. As usual, the rate of responses was very dissapointing. I guess for every 100 emails I send out to potential sampling partners, I get maybe 5 responses and maybe 1-2 interested companies. With some companies I found LinkedIn or Xing(a German version of LinkedIn basically) a helpful tool to actually find the head of marketing for some of the companies or a person working in marketing. In most cases it is really tough to get through to the right people but if one has a starting point with someone in marketing it really helps getting to the right person in the end.
08/12/2016
Die Welt Emails, Altpapier, Logistik BW, Sampling
Today was pretty slow day, I did my usual sampling search, before helping out Justus. We cleared out some older stuff from old campaigns that were just wasting space. Most of it were flyers and similar things from older campaigns, so we cleared that stuff out of the office and the cellar and he drove to recycle everything. There are actually places that buy old paper to recycle and then resell it.
While he was away, I helped him sending out a number of emails concerning an ongoing project.
To finish up the day, we had some more logistics to do and packed compensation for centers taking part in ambient campaigns.
Die Welt Emails, Altpapier, Logistik BW, Sampling
Today was pretty slow day, I did my usual sampling search, before helping out Justus. We cleared out some older stuff from old campaigns that were just wasting space. Most of it were flyers and similar things from older campaigns, so we cleared that stuff out of the office and the cellar and he drove to recycle everything. There are actually places that buy old paper to recycle and then resell it.
While he was away, I helped him sending out a number of emails concerning an ongoing project.
To finish up the day, we had some more logistics to do and packed compensation for centers taking part in ambient campaigns.
08/11/2016 Regular day in the office
Today, I was tasked with contacting the sports centers that participate in the Reebok campaign and did not send any pictures yet. Since we only were tasked with parts of the campaign the centers got confused with what they needed to send us, especially because Reebok carried out a part of the campaign themselves and sent people to take pictures of those parts of the campaign. So, since a Reebok guy was in the sports centers to take pictures the centers thought they did not need to send us any pictures. Then when we got pictures, some of the pictures had real back quality so we had to call again and ask for better pictures. Part of the campaign were mirror adds and a lot of the people took pictures of the mirror adds while standng right in front of the mirror, so they were in the pictures. All of these pictures were useless for us since we have certain standards those pictures have to meet, so it was a little annoying explaining to a lot of them to take the pictures from the side and not from the front.
Today, I was tasked with contacting the sports centers that participate in the Reebok campaign and did not send any pictures yet. Since we only were tasked with parts of the campaign the centers got confused with what they needed to send us, especially because Reebok carried out a part of the campaign themselves and sent people to take pictures of those parts of the campaign. So, since a Reebok guy was in the sports centers to take pictures the centers thought they did not need to send us any pictures. Then when we got pictures, some of the pictures had real back quality so we had to call again and ask for better pictures. Part of the campaign were mirror adds and a lot of the people took pictures of the mirror adds while standng right in front of the mirror, so they were in the pictures. All of these pictures were useless for us since we have certain standards those pictures have to meet, so it was a little annoying explaining to a lot of them to take the pictures from the side and not from the front.
08/10/2016 Slow day
Today was a quite day. Once again I spent some time hunting for sampling partners and I am in advanced talks with a company about supplying us with samplings. However, since they currently have no samples available, it will be up to one of my colleagues to follow up with them towards the end of this year/the start of next year.
After that I helped my colleague a little bit with selling our WEG VOM SOFA GUIDE. We have a special offer for sports centers that want to sell the guide. However, responses were not great. For the centers selling the guide would mean extra workload, so we will have to look for other ways to sell the guide.
Today was a quite day. Once again I spent some time hunting for sampling partners and I am in advanced talks with a company about supplying us with samplings. However, since they currently have no samples available, it will be up to one of my colleagues to follow up with them towards the end of this year/the start of next year.
After that I helped my colleague a little bit with selling our WEG VOM SOFA GUIDE. We have a special offer for sports centers that want to sell the guide. However, responses were not great. For the centers selling the guide would mean extra workload, so we will have to look for other ways to sell the guide.
08/09/2016 Finishing up on the ambient campaign
Most of today was spent with finishing up acquisition of sports centers for the new ambient camaign. What again was pretty annoying that a lot of centers agreed to the campaign on the phone but forgot to send us back the written agreement which we need for our partner and our own safety. And often the responsible people in the sports centers are very hard to get a hold of, and it takes a few days until after a oral commitment they actually send us the written agreement.
The rest of the day I was back on my running task trying to acquire more sampling partners and I might pull in another partner if everything goes well.
Most of today was spent with finishing up acquisition of sports centers for the new ambient camaign. What again was pretty annoying that a lot of centers agreed to the campaign on the phone but forgot to send us back the written agreement which we need for our partner and our own safety. And often the responsible people in the sports centers are very hard to get a hold of, and it takes a few days until after a oral commitment they actually send us the written agreement.
The rest of the day I was back on my running task trying to acquire more sampling partners and I might pull in another partner if everything goes well.
08/03/2016-08/08/2016 New ambient campaign
With a new ambient campaign coming in, it was back to the phones to acquire enough sports centers to participate. This time it was a regional project in only one state (there are 16 states in Germany), so we had a smaller pool of centers we could contact. At the same tiime, with it being a regional project we only needed 27 sports centers to participate which for one state is a managable number. The problem with this campaign was that it was for a health insurance company and many sports centers said they could not advertise for a health insurance company as they work together with a number of other insurance companies and have to stay neutral.
With acquisition for ambient campaigns always being necessary but boring, I was glad that I still had to organize some things for another project. Like I mentioned a few days back, one of our partners organized a competition during the European Soccer Championship, and during this week I was tasked with sending out the prizes to the winners. That was a little more fun than just sitting on the phone all day.
With a new ambient campaign coming in, it was back to the phones to acquire enough sports centers to participate. This time it was a regional project in only one state (there are 16 states in Germany), so we had a smaller pool of centers we could contact. At the same tiime, with it being a regional project we only needed 27 sports centers to participate which for one state is a managable number. The problem with this campaign was that it was for a health insurance company and many sports centers said they could not advertise for a health insurance company as they work together with a number of other insurance companies and have to stay neutral.
With acquisition for ambient campaigns always being necessary but boring, I was glad that I still had to organize some things for another project. Like I mentioned a few days back, one of our partners organized a competition during the European Soccer Championship, and during this week I was tasked with sending out the prizes to the winners. That was a little more fun than just sitting on the phone all day.
08/02/2016 Another normal day
Just as yesterday, I worked on logistics, sampling, and PR again today. Nothing new on logistics and sampling, for PR one of our radio stations asked for raffle prices, so I contacted a few of our sports centers and found a fitting price. The radio station is happy about the prce, the sports center is happy to get some publicity, so it is a win-win situation. With my colleague coming back tomorrow, I will hand the last details of the raffle over to him, but everything is basically done, he just needs to follow up and make sure everything runs smooth. For the time he was on holiday it was fun to take over his duties, and be involved in PR.
Just as yesterday, I worked on logistics, sampling, and PR again today. Nothing new on logistics and sampling, for PR one of our radio stations asked for raffle prices, so I contacted a few of our sports centers and found a fitting price. The radio station is happy about the prce, the sports center is happy to get some publicity, so it is a win-win situation. With my colleague coming back tomorrow, I will hand the last details of the raffle over to him, but everything is basically done, he just needs to follow up and make sure everything runs smooth. For the time he was on holiday it was fun to take over his duties, and be involved in PR.
08/01/2016 Normal day
After an exteded weekend (Nicole and me got the friday off), I was back in the office today and it was just a regular day.
We did some logistics packing and sending out compensation for centers taking part in ambient campaigns. This can sometimes take some time because it can be a lot of packing to do but it is aways a nice change and one can do something else than looking at a monitor the whole day. After packing, I followed up with a few radio stations, websites, and sports centers regarding past raffles making sure everyone was happy with how things were handled and talking about the possibility of further cooperations.
To end the day I was back at my usual task of looking for new sampling partners.
After an exteded weekend (Nicole and me got the friday off), I was back in the office today and it was just a regular day.
We did some logistics packing and sending out compensation for centers taking part in ambient campaigns. This can sometimes take some time because it can be a lot of packing to do but it is aways a nice change and one can do something else than looking at a monitor the whole day. After packing, I followed up with a few radio stations, websites, and sports centers regarding past raffles making sure everyone was happy with how things were handled and talking about the possibility of further cooperations.
To end the day I was back at my usual task of looking for new sampling partners.
07/28/2016 Quiet day in the office
After a busy day yesterday, today was a lot more quiet. Most of the time I continued the task of calling sports centers and reminding them to send us the pictures of the ambient campaign. The annoying thing is that they already received the compensation for taking part in the campaign even though they did not send their pictures yet. Maybe in the future it would be good to change the procedure and only send out the compensation after we receive the pictures.
Other than that, I was on my usual task of searching for more sampling partners. It is a tough task as it is a lot of work with only minimal success but every new partner is important for the company. It requires a lot of tenacity because 90-95% of research and emails/phone calls come to no result in the end. So, despite a lot of knock downs one always needs to continue to look further and develop new ideas.
After a busy day yesterday, today was a lot more quiet. Most of the time I continued the task of calling sports centers and reminding them to send us the pictures of the ambient campaign. The annoying thing is that they already received the compensation for taking part in the campaign even though they did not send their pictures yet. Maybe in the future it would be good to change the procedure and only send out the compensation after we receive the pictures.
Other than that, I was on my usual task of searching for more sampling partners. It is a tough task as it is a lot of work with only minimal success but every new partner is important for the company. It requires a lot of tenacity because 90-95% of research and emails/phone calls come to no result in the end. So, despite a lot of knock downs one always needs to continue to look further and develop new ideas.
07/27/2016 Busy day
Today started with me doing some more PR work for my colleague, who is on holiday. He had set up some raffles for different sports offers to be raffled off on radio, and I was in contact with the radio stations to get the audio for the sport centers that provided the offers the radio stations could raffle off. Also, I contacted a few stations we worked with in the past to ask whether they were interested in future raffles. This actually is quite interesting because I get to see the way the radio stations work, what is important for them as well as seeing what the factors are for our sport centers that make them interested to participate in raffles. A lot of time the sport centers as well as the radio stations look for similar things. The target audience has to be right for both sides. So, the sports offer has to suite the people that listen to the specific radio station. In addition, for the sports centers the reach of the radio station is very interesting because the more people in their target market they reach, the better. Also the timing is interesting for both sides, as some of the outdoor sports are only suitable for raffles during the summer and raffles for indoor sports are better for the fall and winter or on short notice for spells of bad weather (and we had a few of those in Germany this summer).
After that, I had to create a list of Austrian sports centers we have in our network. We potentially found a new sampling partner. however, they would only be interested in sampling Austrian sports centers. With the big majority of our network being in Germany, our list of Austrian sports centers is not as big yet, but we still hope it is enough to win over a new sampling customer/partner. In addition to creating the list for the possible Austrian partner, I was busy contacting other potential partners for sampling.
Furthermore, I started on contacting centers that took part in an ambient campaign because we need pictures for our partner. Every ambient campaign need photos for the documentation since our partner wants to see that the advertising materials are displayed in the sports centers like it was agreed. The sport centers have to sign ahead of the campaigns and know they need to send pictures but a lot of them forget about the pictures. This is a little annoying because it means we have to call them again and remind them to send us the pictures.
Finally, we published another interview on our blog with another member of the German team for the Olympics. As always the interview is in German, but it can be found here.
Today started with me doing some more PR work for my colleague, who is on holiday. He had set up some raffles for different sports offers to be raffled off on radio, and I was in contact with the radio stations to get the audio for the sport centers that provided the offers the radio stations could raffle off. Also, I contacted a few stations we worked with in the past to ask whether they were interested in future raffles. This actually is quite interesting because I get to see the way the radio stations work, what is important for them as well as seeing what the factors are for our sport centers that make them interested to participate in raffles. A lot of time the sport centers as well as the radio stations look for similar things. The target audience has to be right for both sides. So, the sports offer has to suite the people that listen to the specific radio station. In addition, for the sports centers the reach of the radio station is very interesting because the more people in their target market they reach, the better. Also the timing is interesting for both sides, as some of the outdoor sports are only suitable for raffles during the summer and raffles for indoor sports are better for the fall and winter or on short notice for spells of bad weather (and we had a few of those in Germany this summer).
After that, I had to create a list of Austrian sports centers we have in our network. We potentially found a new sampling partner. however, they would only be interested in sampling Austrian sports centers. With the big majority of our network being in Germany, our list of Austrian sports centers is not as big yet, but we still hope it is enough to win over a new sampling customer/partner. In addition to creating the list for the possible Austrian partner, I was busy contacting other potential partners for sampling.
Furthermore, I started on contacting centers that took part in an ambient campaign because we need pictures for our partner. Every ambient campaign need photos for the documentation since our partner wants to see that the advertising materials are displayed in the sports centers like it was agreed. The sport centers have to sign ahead of the campaigns and know they need to send pictures but a lot of them forget about the pictures. This is a little annoying because it means we have to call them again and remind them to send us the pictures.
Finally, we published another interview on our blog with another member of the German team for the Olympics. As always the interview is in German, but it can be found here.
07/26/16 12 hour day with 10 hours of logistics
sampling, konzepte gomo, funsport guide kleben und packen
Today ended up being a very long day. I came at my usual time (8:30am) but did not leave until 8:30pm. The day ended up quite normal working on some sampling and discussing ideas for ambient marketing/tailor made marketing for a customer I acquired.
However, I then got asked by Nicole (a fellow intern) to help her out. She was in trouble because in one day she had to put barcodes and special price stickers on 1,700 of our funsport guides. The stickers only came in this morning (instead of last thursday) and that left us with no time at all and made us change plans. nitially, it was planned to put the stickers on thursday, friday, and then finish up packing on monday and tuesday, so that we could have the finished product delivered to the customer wednesday morning. However, with the stickers and barcodes being delivered this late, we had to do all of this in one day and Nicole will drop of the delivery at the customer tomorrow morning at 9am. For us this meant placing 1,700 barcodes in the left corner of the backside, and 1,700 special price stickers in the right lower corner of the frontside. Then we had to pack up 10 guides and a dispenser per box (the small boxes we folded the past days), and then pack these smaller boxes in bigger boxess for the delivery. Everyone in the company chipped in and helped out when they had a few minutes to spare. However, Nicole and me had to get finished today and so we had to stay longer than usual to finish up. On the bright side, Ingo (my supervisor) told us that for staying long and finishing up this task we might be allowed to take friday off.
sampling, konzepte gomo, funsport guide kleben und packen
Today ended up being a very long day. I came at my usual time (8:30am) but did not leave until 8:30pm. The day ended up quite normal working on some sampling and discussing ideas for ambient marketing/tailor made marketing for a customer I acquired.
However, I then got asked by Nicole (a fellow intern) to help her out. She was in trouble because in one day she had to put barcodes and special price stickers on 1,700 of our funsport guides. The stickers only came in this morning (instead of last thursday) and that left us with no time at all and made us change plans. nitially, it was planned to put the stickers on thursday, friday, and then finish up packing on monday and tuesday, so that we could have the finished product delivered to the customer wednesday morning. However, with the stickers and barcodes being delivered this late, we had to do all of this in one day and Nicole will drop of the delivery at the customer tomorrow morning at 9am. For us this meant placing 1,700 barcodes in the left corner of the backside, and 1,700 special price stickers in the right lower corner of the frontside. Then we had to pack up 10 guides and a dispenser per box (the small boxes we folded the past days), and then pack these smaller boxes in bigger boxess for the delivery. Everyone in the company chipped in and helped out when they had a few minutes to spare. However, Nicole and me had to get finished today and so we had to stay longer than usual to finish up. On the bright side, Ingo (my supervisor) told us that for staying long and finishing up this task we might be allowed to take friday off.
07/25/16 PR and following up on ambient projects
With our intern in charge of PR projects being on holiday for the next two weeks, I have taken over his responsibilities and followed up a few things for him this morning. I followed up with a few radio stations that had done raffles or competitions in cooperation with us. We always have sport centers that want to get involved with radio as this helps get their name out. So, we use our contacts to sports centers and radio stations to bring them together and organize raffles and competitions where the prices are coupons or free entry to the sport centers. For example one of the radio stations had a raffle for 1 hour of free wake boarding + a day at the beach for up to 5 people. With us coordinating between the sport centers and radio stations I had to get the name of the winner and a special code that the winner will then use when contacting the sports center. Furthermore, I had to request a recording from the raffle we could send to the sports center so that they could hear that all their requests regarding the short information spot about them was met.
After this I could use my skills on the phone again as our project for the sports exhibition requires us to send documentation to our customer. In this case, we sent out all the advertising material via mail and the centers had to place magazines and post cards advertising the exhibition. So, now we needed pictures where one could clearly see the advertising materials being layed out in the centers. As a cupple of centers had not sent us the photos yet, I had to go through our data base and call all the centers that had not sent us their photos and ask them to do so. As all of those centers had already received the compensation it was annoying t see that some of them still had not sent us their photos. There currently is a discussion on-going whether to change our process and only send out the compensation after we received the necessary documentation from the centers.
Finally, we continued wih the logistics and packed some more packets of compensation for the participating centers in the campaign for the military.
With our intern in charge of PR projects being on holiday for the next two weeks, I have taken over his responsibilities and followed up a few things for him this morning. I followed up with a few radio stations that had done raffles or competitions in cooperation with us. We always have sport centers that want to get involved with radio as this helps get their name out. So, we use our contacts to sports centers and radio stations to bring them together and organize raffles and competitions where the prices are coupons or free entry to the sport centers. For example one of the radio stations had a raffle for 1 hour of free wake boarding + a day at the beach for up to 5 people. With us coordinating between the sport centers and radio stations I had to get the name of the winner and a special code that the winner will then use when contacting the sports center. Furthermore, I had to request a recording from the raffle we could send to the sports center so that they could hear that all their requests regarding the short information spot about them was met.
After this I could use my skills on the phone again as our project for the sports exhibition requires us to send documentation to our customer. In this case, we sent out all the advertising material via mail and the centers had to place magazines and post cards advertising the exhibition. So, now we needed pictures where one could clearly see the advertising materials being layed out in the centers. As a cupple of centers had not sent us the photos yet, I had to go through our data base and call all the centers that had not sent us their photos and ask them to do so. As all of those centers had already received the compensation it was annoying t see that some of them still had not sent us their photos. There currently is a discussion on-going whether to change our process and only send out the compensation after we received the necessary documentation from the centers.
Finally, we continued wih the logistics and packed some more packets of compensation for the participating centers in the campaign for the military.
07/22/16 A lot of logistics
Today I spent most of the day helping out with logistics. As our company is pretty small we have to do all the logistics for our projects on our own. Today this meant packing packages with compensation for centers who take part in our campaign for the military. Additionally, we needed to fold small boxes which will be used next week to send out the Funsport Guide. For this particular example me and another intern had to fold 170 small boxes. It is work which has to be done and even Christian who is the CEO sat down with us for about an hour to fold these boxes as it is for an important customer. We have a big retail franchise which bought the guides of us to sell them to their customers. They initially purchased 1,700 guides with the option to buy more if they sell well. So, as this is a very big order for us we are making sure everything is done nicely so they are happy.
Before that, I was putting in a few more hours into researching potential future partners/customers and reaching out to them. I have been relatively succesful in acquiring new partners/customers for us so for me researching is a task for whenever there is nothing else to do. Another thing was, that today with our email system and data base not working it was the ideal day to use it for logistics as a lot of the other daily tasks involve emails and our data base. However, since that was not possible today we used the day for other things like logistics and research that could be done without the data base and email. But it was quite interesting to see how much we need email and the database and how helpless you are when both of these are down.
07/21/16 Interesting day
Today was quite an interesting day. One of the formers interns had been working on a project for a betting company who had placed flyers including coupons in 5 soccer centers and wanted to see whether this would help them gain new customers. It was an online company, so they offered a coupon for 5€ starting balance for everyone who opened up a new betting account along with a free beer in the center where they got the coupons. With the project having been concluded recently we had to create the evaluation for the customer. On the positive side all of the flyers had been handed out however there was only a very small number of new customers and only coupons for the free beer had been claimed. So, we had to conclude that the idea sounded good but that the activation of the coupons did not happen. For the future we would not do a project like this again because it was a lot of work for very little reward.
As one of the companies who up to now has been suppliying us with samplings that we could place in the centers was interested in some tailormade marketing me and our project manager Anna came together and brainstormed to get a few ideas what we could offer them. Before starting, we defined the target market along with other criteria we had to consider when coming up with ideas. After that we came up with some ideas, and in the coming days/weeks we will look which of these ideas fit best and then present them to the client.
With one of the other interns being on holiday the next two weeks, he filled me in on his projects and what needed to be done while he was away so that I can take care of his things while he is enjoying his holiday.
Today was quite an interesting day. One of the formers interns had been working on a project for a betting company who had placed flyers including coupons in 5 soccer centers and wanted to see whether this would help them gain new customers. It was an online company, so they offered a coupon for 5€ starting balance for everyone who opened up a new betting account along with a free beer in the center where they got the coupons. With the project having been concluded recently we had to create the evaluation for the customer. On the positive side all of the flyers had been handed out however there was only a very small number of new customers and only coupons for the free beer had been claimed. So, we had to conclude that the idea sounded good but that the activation of the coupons did not happen. For the future we would not do a project like this again because it was a lot of work for very little reward.
As one of the companies who up to now has been suppliying us with samplings that we could place in the centers was interested in some tailormade marketing me and our project manager Anna came together and brainstormed to get a few ideas what we could offer them. Before starting, we defined the target market along with other criteria we had to consider when coming up with ideas. After that we came up with some ideas, and in the coming days/weeks we will look which of these ideas fit best and then present them to the client.
With one of the other interns being on holiday the next two weeks, he filled me in on his projects and what needed to be done while he was away so that I can take care of his things while he is enjoying his holiday.
07/20/16 Slow day with mainly research
Today I just spent most of the day looking for new partners and contacting them. Additionally, I helped with the logistics of our ambient campaign. We packed the posters and sent them out to our distributors who in the coming days will drive to all the participating fitness centers and place the posters in the lockers and document everything. After so many days on the phone a day without phone acquisition was nice for a change.
Today I just spent most of the day looking for new partners and contacting them. Additionally, I helped with the logistics of our ambient campaign. We packed the posters and sent them out to our distributors who in the coming days will drive to all the participating fitness centers and place the posters in the lockers and document everything. After so many days on the phone a day without phone acquisition was nice for a change.
07/11/16-07/19/16 Acquisition again
A new week and a new start to an ambient campaign meaning back to the phones. This time we had to find 166 fitness centers in the 20 biggest German cities where we could place adhessive posters in the lockers. This campaign was advertising a career in the army which in some cases meant the feedback we received was not too positive as in Germany the army is seen critically. However, it was easier than we thought it would be as it seems the current political situation has seen the acceptance of the army increase.
Additionally, we were doing some work for Reebok. They gave us a list of centers that are participating in a campaign for their new running shoe and want to install an extra roll-up banner in those centers. however, those were only 22 centers, and all but one agreed to install the extra roll-up banner. Another positive note is that our boss was so happy about us finishing up this campaign 3 days before the deadline that he treated us to some sushi.
After a lot of campaigns and a lot of work in the phone in the recent days we are all pretty happy that hopefully now we can have a break from acquisition over the phone. It is a part of the job that obviously has to be done but nobody likes it.
Futhermore, on 07/11 we published another interview on our blogg, which you can find here (as usual it is in German).
A new week and a new start to an ambient campaign meaning back to the phones. This time we had to find 166 fitness centers in the 20 biggest German cities where we could place adhessive posters in the lockers. This campaign was advertising a career in the army which in some cases meant the feedback we received was not too positive as in Germany the army is seen critically. However, it was easier than we thought it would be as it seems the current political situation has seen the acceptance of the army increase.
Additionally, we were doing some work for Reebok. They gave us a list of centers that are participating in a campaign for their new running shoe and want to install an extra roll-up banner in those centers. however, those were only 22 centers, and all but one agreed to install the extra roll-up banner. Another positive note is that our boss was so happy about us finishing up this campaign 3 days before the deadline that he treated us to some sushi.
After a lot of campaigns and a lot of work in the phone in the recent days we are all pretty happy that hopefully now we can have a break from acquisition over the phone. It is a part of the job that obviously has to be done but nobody likes it.
Futhermore, on 07/11 we published another interview on our blogg, which you can find here (as usual it is in German).
07/08/16 Fixing problems
After we all thought we had finished the ambient campaign for the sports watch a problem occured. We were instructed to find 117 centers to place a rollup banner. We got to the number of centers we needed and placed all the banners, documented everything, and then sent out the compensation for the participating centers. However, we were notified that a number of centers had received an additional and smaller stand-up display advertising the sports watch, which in the contract was not mentioned. So, we needed to phone all the participating centers asking if they had received the additional material and who had sent it. Since our contract with the centers only involved the rollup banner we had to make sure all the participating centers knew that we did not send the additional material. In the end we found out, that the producer had used our list of centers and sent the additional material themselves because the rollup banner did not include a promotion code. Most centers were really relaxed about the situation as the small stand-up display added to the rollup and did not take up a lot of space. However, for us it meant another day on the phone trying to figure out what was going on and making sure the centers were not angry towards us.
After we all thought we had finished the ambient campaign for the sports watch a problem occured. We were instructed to find 117 centers to place a rollup banner. We got to the number of centers we needed and placed all the banners, documented everything, and then sent out the compensation for the participating centers. However, we were notified that a number of centers had received an additional and smaller stand-up display advertising the sports watch, which in the contract was not mentioned. So, we needed to phone all the participating centers asking if they had received the additional material and who had sent it. Since our contract with the centers only involved the rollup banner we had to make sure all the participating centers knew that we did not send the additional material. In the end we found out, that the producer had used our list of centers and sent the additional material themselves because the rollup banner did not include a promotion code. Most centers were really relaxed about the situation as the small stand-up display added to the rollup and did not take up a lot of space. However, for us it meant another day on the phone trying to figure out what was going on and making sure the centers were not angry towards us.
07/04/16-07/07/16 Acquisition for another ambient campaign
With another ambient campaign it was back to the phones to find centers where we can place post cards and magazines advertising a sports exhibition. Most of the centers in this case were pretty cooperative and happy to help. However, due to this campaign being regional and involving Hamburg again there were a few centers that were a little annoyed about being contacted again for another campaign so short after we contacted them regarding the campaign for the sports watch. These days can be a little dreary but campaigns like these are important for the company so the work needs to be done. The faster those things get done the more time we have working on the projects that are more exiting. Also, I think it is a good exercise to get in contact with people and to maintain contact with the sports centers so that everyone involved is happy.
With me using my contacts to athletes, we published another interview on our blog (German like all posts) which can be found here. I also wrote a small piece ahead of the European Track and Field Championships that are taking place in Amsterdam 07/06-07/10 which can be found here.
With another ambient campaign it was back to the phones to find centers where we can place post cards and magazines advertising a sports exhibition. Most of the centers in this case were pretty cooperative and happy to help. However, due to this campaign being regional and involving Hamburg again there were a few centers that were a little annoyed about being contacted again for another campaign so short after we contacted them regarding the campaign for the sports watch. These days can be a little dreary but campaigns like these are important for the company so the work needs to be done. The faster those things get done the more time we have working on the projects that are more exiting. Also, I think it is a good exercise to get in contact with people and to maintain contact with the sports centers so that everyone involved is happy.
With me using my contacts to athletes, we published another interview on our blog (German like all posts) which can be found here. I also wrote a small piece ahead of the European Track and Field Championships that are taking place in Amsterdam 07/06-07/10 which can be found here.
07/01/16 New tasks
As today marked the first day without the 3 interns that left we had a small meeting to decide how to split up their projects between the three remaining interns. I took over two projects from one of the other interns that left and spent a lot of my time going through her notes for the project and talking to my boss to get familiar with the project and talk about the next steps with him.
One of the projects I took over involved a campaign for an online betting company. Towards the end of the domestic soccer season and Euros currently going on, they asked us to place flyers including coupons in soccer centers. My task will be to keep them updated on how many flyers have been passed out and how many of the coupons have been used. All the flyers had QR-codes we can track how many of them have actually been used. This project is almost done and in the coming weeks we will need to prepare an evaluation and analysis for the customer.
The other project is quite simple as I am just wrapping things up. One of our partners has a game during the soccer European Championships, where people guess the outcome of the games and get points for each result they get right and at the end the 5 people with the most points will win different prices. My task will be to wait until the winners are announced and then contact them and send them their prices.
Also, as one of my fellow interns was involved in finding partners for sampling I took over from her as I am already familiar with sampling and ambient marketing by now. She had an interested company and I will take over the communication with them. Additionally, I also worked some more on contacts I founf for possible partners.
As today marked the first day without the 3 interns that left we had a small meeting to decide how to split up their projects between the three remaining interns. I took over two projects from one of the other interns that left and spent a lot of my time going through her notes for the project and talking to my boss to get familiar with the project and talk about the next steps with him.
One of the projects I took over involved a campaign for an online betting company. Towards the end of the domestic soccer season and Euros currently going on, they asked us to place flyers including coupons in soccer centers. My task will be to keep them updated on how many flyers have been passed out and how many of the coupons have been used. All the flyers had QR-codes we can track how many of them have actually been used. This project is almost done and in the coming weeks we will need to prepare an evaluation and analysis for the customer.
The other project is quite simple as I am just wrapping things up. One of our partners has a game during the soccer European Championships, where people guess the outcome of the games and get points for each result they get right and at the end the 5 people with the most points will win different prices. My task will be to wait until the winners are announced and then contact them and send them their prices.
Also, as one of my fellow interns was involved in finding partners for sampling I took over from her as I am already familiar with sampling and ambient marketing by now. She had an interested company and I will take over the communication with them. Additionally, I also worked some more on contacts I founf for possible partners.
06/27-06/30/16 Getting the job done
Our deadline to get the 117 centers together for the ambient campaign was 06/30 so almost everyone was involved in this somehow. Reasearching more centers that weren't in our database before, contacting centers, trying to convince centers and recording all of those steps. With time being very short everyone pulled together and we finally got the job done and even surpassed 117 centers meaning we had to notify some of those centers they wouldn't be able to participate as our customer only needed 117 centers. We had our usual team meetings during the week as well but other than that almost everything centered around the big project. There were some other minor tasks to do but nothing more.
Furthermore, the end of the months marked the last day for 3 of my fellow interns, meaning the number of interns will drop from six to three. This also means that me and the other two remaining interns will have to step up and take some more responsibility as there are no new interns coming in. On 06/30 we gathered together for a team lunch, where everyone brought something small to eat and we ended up having a really nice lunch.
Our deadline to get the 117 centers together for the ambient campaign was 06/30 so almost everyone was involved in this somehow. Reasearching more centers that weren't in our database before, contacting centers, trying to convince centers and recording all of those steps. With time being very short everyone pulled together and we finally got the job done and even surpassed 117 centers meaning we had to notify some of those centers they wouldn't be able to participate as our customer only needed 117 centers. We had our usual team meetings during the week as well but other than that almost everything centered around the big project. There were some other minor tasks to do but nothing more.
Furthermore, the end of the months marked the last day for 3 of my fellow interns, meaning the number of interns will drop from six to three. This also means that me and the other two remaining interns will have to step up and take some more responsibility as there are no new interns coming in. On 06/30 we gathered together for a team lunch, where everyone brought something small to eat and we ended up having a really nice lunch.
06/24/16 A day on the phone
With time already being short to find 116 centers to participate in the ambient-campaign our client increased the number to 117 fitness centers. We decided to split up the centers between us based on the region, and my task now will be to contact centers in Hamburg. The emails with all the information has already been sent out, but with time being short we have to call the centers and make sure we receive their feedbacks in time.
After already pulling in a cupple of commitments yesterday, today was a really tough day and we did not really move forward. A lot of the contact persons were not available today, and some of the emails that should have been sent out in advance somehow got lost, so that in many cases we had to resend the emails.
With this being a major project and the time pressure being so big all the other projects we have been working on had to take a back seat for now.
With time already being short to find 116 centers to participate in the ambient-campaign our client increased the number to 117 fitness centers. We decided to split up the centers between us based on the region, and my task now will be to contact centers in Hamburg. The emails with all the information has already been sent out, but with time being short we have to call the centers and make sure we receive their feedbacks in time.
After already pulling in a cupple of commitments yesterday, today was a really tough day and we did not really move forward. A lot of the contact persons were not available today, and some of the emails that should have been sent out in advance somehow got lost, so that in many cases we had to resend the emails.
With this being a major project and the time pressure being so big all the other projects we have been working on had to take a back seat for now.
06/23/16 Big project, little time
With a new ambient-marketing project coming in, I spent most of my day on the phone today talking to fitness centers that might participate. The producer of a sports watch wants us to place roll up banners in 116 fitness centers in 3 major German cities (Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich). After the information already had been sent out to the centers we are now tasked with getting in replies pretty soon, as the campaign already starts on the first of July. Talking to people on the phone probably has been one of the things I have improved most so far just because it is essential to the day to day job. The first few days I tried to avoid actively calling people but now I am actually at a point where I even prefer calling someone over sending an email. On the phone it is so much easier to get the feedback you need and emails often just get ignored or get automatically sent to spam. So, quite often a short phone call can do miracles.
With a new ambient-marketing project coming in, I spent most of my day on the phone today talking to fitness centers that might participate. The producer of a sports watch wants us to place roll up banners in 116 fitness centers in 3 major German cities (Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich). After the information already had been sent out to the centers we are now tasked with getting in replies pretty soon, as the campaign already starts on the first of July. Talking to people on the phone probably has been one of the things I have improved most so far just because it is essential to the day to day job. The first few days I tried to avoid actively calling people but now I am actually at a point where I even prefer calling someone over sending an email. On the phone it is so much easier to get the feedback you need and emails often just get ignored or get automatically sent to spam. So, quite often a short phone call can do miracles.
06/22/16 A new project, and more interest in ambient-marketing
After having a tough time with getting replies on the ambient-marketing, this week has been going really well as I got another feedback of a interested company. So, together with Christian and Anna we created an offer for the company to use our centers as a channel for their advertisements. Additionall, I did some more researched and contacted further companies in the hope to get some more positve feedback.
Also, I got a new task. Quite simply I need to scroll through the lists of Top10 Berlin (a website giving tips for different things to do in Berlin), and see how many and which of our member centers are listed. We might want to try and give away some coupons for the listed centers. I worked on another interview (this time with the German number 1 in the decathlon) but before being able to publish we need a copyright for the picture he sent me. With his Olypic trials coming up this weekend it might be really hard to get that copyright before the weekend.
After having a tough time with getting replies on the ambient-marketing, this week has been going really well as I got another feedback of a interested company. So, together with Christian and Anna we created an offer for the company to use our centers as a channel for their advertisements. Additionall, I did some more researched and contacted further companies in the hope to get some more positve feedback.
Also, I got a new task. Quite simply I need to scroll through the lists of Top10 Berlin (a website giving tips for different things to do in Berlin), and see how many and which of our member centers are listed. We might want to try and give away some coupons for the listed centers. I worked on another interview (this time with the German number 1 in the decathlon) but before being able to publish we need a copyright for the picture he sent me. With his Olypic trials coming up this weekend it might be really hard to get that copyright before the weekend.
06/21/16 Nothing special
Today, was a really quite day. Christian and Anna were visiting some of the centers that are members of our network to discuss the further partnership. So, in the office things were really quiet. I continued working on my usual tasks with ambient-marketing and the school project. I also had to take a few more phne calls than usual with Anna and Christian being out of the office. Also, as we had recently started a blog and I had asked our boss about interviewing some athletes for the blog, the first interview was published to the blog. I used my contacts and sent my questions to Thomas Röhler, who currently is the world leading javelin thrower. He was kind enough to take the time and answer 10 short questions. The interview (in German) can be found here. I also asked a few more athletes to answer questions so that we can post interviews every now an then.
Today, was a really quite day. Christian and Anna were visiting some of the centers that are members of our network to discuss the further partnership. So, in the office things were really quiet. I continued working on my usual tasks with ambient-marketing and the school project. I also had to take a few more phne calls than usual with Anna and Christian being out of the office. Also, as we had recently started a blog and I had asked our boss about interviewing some athletes for the blog, the first interview was published to the blog. I used my contacts and sent my questions to Thomas Röhler, who currently is the world leading javelin thrower. He was kind enough to take the time and answer 10 short questions. The interview (in German) can be found here. I also asked a few more athletes to answer questions so that we can post interviews every now an then.
06/20/16 Positive steps
The week started with a very pleasant surprise. One of the companies I had contacted last week about sampling and ambient-marketing actually responded to our enquiry. Even better they were interested in sampling. However, since their budget for the year only offers little room to work with they are only interested in small projects where they can reach a very specific target market. After Brainstorming with our boss Christian and the senior project manager Anna we came up with some ideas for smaller projects that would be interested for the company. We sent them 3 possible projects they could sample and hope they are interested in at least one of those.
Other than that, the number of centers participating in the guide for the schools rose to eleven which means we now only need one more center to make it twelve. There still are a few interested centers and we are working to get one of them to commit.
The week started with a very pleasant surprise. One of the companies I had contacted last week about sampling and ambient-marketing actually responded to our enquiry. Even better they were interested in sampling. However, since their budget for the year only offers little room to work with they are only interested in small projects where they can reach a very specific target market. After Brainstorming with our boss Christian and the senior project manager Anna we came up with some ideas for smaller projects that would be interested for the company. We sent them 3 possible projects they could sample and hope they are interested in at least one of those.
Other than that, the number of centers participating in the guide for the schools rose to eleven which means we now only need one more center to make it twelve. There still are a few interested centers and we are working to get one of them to commit.
06/17/16 Nothing Special
Just like yesterday today was a pretty slow day and I just did my usual research work and tried to contact some more possible Partners for sampling and ambient-marketing. Additionally, I talked to some sport centers about their offers for the school classes and the next step to creating the guide for the schools will be to get the logos from our centers along with some Pictures so we can create an appealing page/voucher in the guide that school classes can use.
Just like yesterday today was a pretty slow day and I just did my usual research work and tried to contact some more possible Partners for sampling and ambient-marketing. Additionally, I talked to some sport centers about their offers for the school classes and the next step to creating the guide for the schools will be to get the logos from our centers along with some Pictures so we can create an appealing page/voucher in the guide that school classes can use.
06/16/2016 Really slow day
Today was a really slow day. I came in at my usual 8:30am time. However, in the morning things went very slow. Most the Sport Centers I needed to contact did not open until 2pm or 3pm so I spent the morning doing some more research on possible partners for sampling and ambient-marketing. In the afternoon, I caught up with some sport centers that might participate in the school project. Unfortunately, today nobody commited but some of them are still weighing their options and considering the investment. Like mentioned before today was really slow and I only did some more research and contacted possible partners for sampling and ambient-marketing before leaving at 4:30pm.
Today was a really slow day. I came in at my usual 8:30am time. However, in the morning things went very slow. Most the Sport Centers I needed to contact did not open until 2pm or 3pm so I spent the morning doing some more research on possible partners for sampling and ambient-marketing. In the afternoon, I caught up with some sport centers that might participate in the school project. Unfortunately, today nobody commited but some of them are still weighing their options and considering the investment. Like mentioned before today was really slow and I only did some more research and contacted possible partners for sampling and ambient-marketing before leaving at 4:30pm.
06/15/2016 Just another day in the Office
After Meeting the customer yesterday, today was a pretty routine day. We had our usual team meeting at 9:15am where we gave updates on each project. Our booklet/guide for the school classes is starting to take shape with already 10 partners found. the funsport guide is being produced right now and we have started contacting possible distributors and already have one pretty big distributor interested. Sampling and ambient-marketing is still very tough and frustrating. However, when we are not busy with other projects we are still looking for partners and trying to get some answers from the companies we already contacted. Out of the about 20 companies I contacted so far only 2 got back to us. They were not interested but at least they answered which is nice considering most companies just do not answer. So, right now every answer makes me happy even it is a no. There is nothing more frustrating than getting no response to our enquiries.
Other than that, we are still in talks with possible sport centers regarding the school project. We are hoping to have 12 Partners by the end of the week meaning we still Need to find two more. There are several sport centers that are interested so now we hope that two of them will decide to participate in the project.
After Meeting the customer yesterday, today was a pretty routine day. We had our usual team meeting at 9:15am where we gave updates on each project. Our booklet/guide for the school classes is starting to take shape with already 10 partners found. the funsport guide is being produced right now and we have started contacting possible distributors and already have one pretty big distributor interested. Sampling and ambient-marketing is still very tough and frustrating. However, when we are not busy with other projects we are still looking for partners and trying to get some answers from the companies we already contacted. Out of the about 20 companies I contacted so far only 2 got back to us. They were not interested but at least they answered which is nice considering most companies just do not answer. So, right now every answer makes me happy even it is a no. There is nothing more frustrating than getting no response to our enquiries.
Other than that, we are still in talks with possible sport centers regarding the school project. We are hoping to have 12 Partners by the end of the week meaning we still Need to find two more. There are several sport centers that are interested so now we hope that two of them will decide to participate in the project.
06/14/2016 Experiencing a Meeting with a customer
Today I started my day slightly later than usual at 8:40am. Most of the morning I was on the phone again following up with sport centers. Then we had our weekly group meeting where all the interns and our senior project manager Anna met to discuss our progress on the current projects and the tasks on hand for the rest of the week. After that it was back to the phone and the computer. In the afternoon the CEOs of a sport center visited to discuss their involvement in the school project. Our CEO Christian and I were in this meeting, and it went really well. They agreed to participate in the school project, and they are interested in a bigger partnership and working together on future projects. So, that meeting went really well, and it was nice to get the experience of being in a meeting like that and get away from the phone for a while. After the meeting I was on the phone a little more before finishing my day at 5:10pm. Overall, the school project is starting to look pretty good as we only need three more sport centers to partcipate and already have two very interested centers.
Today I started my day slightly later than usual at 8:40am. Most of the morning I was on the phone again following up with sport centers. Then we had our weekly group meeting where all the interns and our senior project manager Anna met to discuss our progress on the current projects and the tasks on hand for the rest of the week. After that it was back to the phone and the computer. In the afternoon the CEOs of a sport center visited to discuss their involvement in the school project. Our CEO Christian and I were in this meeting, and it went really well. They agreed to participate in the school project, and they are interested in a bigger partnership and working together on future projects. So, that meeting went really well, and it was nice to get the experience of being in a meeting like that and get away from the phone for a while. After the meeting I was on the phone a little more before finishing my day at 5:10pm. Overall, the school project is starting to look pretty good as we only need three more sport centers to partcipate and already have two very interested centers.
06/13/2016 Back in the Office
After being sick on thursday and friday I was back in the office again on monday. I had to follow up on emails from the days I was sick and had to get back up to speed with our projects. The rest of the day was pretty much business as usual, phoning a lot of sport centers, doing research, and emailing potential partners for sampling and ambient-marketing. Finding partners for sampling and ambient-marketing still is very difficult and there are very few responses from companies. Also, most of the bigger companies do not give out contact details for their marketing department whereas smaller companies quite often do not have the budget for sampling and ambient-markeing.
For our funsport guide we are looking for distribution partners. The goal is to get Close to all 10,000 guides in circulation. Some will be handed out to our Partners, some will be used in exchange for media volume with our media Partners, and the rest is intended to be sold via extern Distributors or through our website http://www.weg-vom-sofa-guide.de/. The goal is to make revenue of 10,000 Euros. We defined our target market and now we are researching distributors that have a good reach within that target market. In this example some of the things I learned in Marketing classses at TU was used in this process.
After being sick on thursday and friday I was back in the office again on monday. I had to follow up on emails from the days I was sick and had to get back up to speed with our projects. The rest of the day was pretty much business as usual, phoning a lot of sport centers, doing research, and emailing potential partners for sampling and ambient-marketing. Finding partners for sampling and ambient-marketing still is very difficult and there are very few responses from companies. Also, most of the bigger companies do not give out contact details for their marketing department whereas smaller companies quite often do not have the budget for sampling and ambient-markeing.
For our funsport guide we are looking for distribution partners. The goal is to get Close to all 10,000 guides in circulation. Some will be handed out to our Partners, some will be used in exchange for media volume with our media Partners, and the rest is intended to be sold via extern Distributors or through our website http://www.weg-vom-sofa-guide.de/. The goal is to make revenue of 10,000 Euros. We defined our target market and now we are researching distributors that have a good reach within that target market. In this example some of the things I learned in Marketing classses at TU was used in this process.
06/08/2016 Great day
Today was a great day in the office. I started out at 8:15am, and had the first positive result a few minutes later as I had secured another sport center to participate in our booklet for the schools. At 9:15am we had our weekly team meeting, where everyone came together and we talked about the status quo regarding all the current projects and discussed the upcoming tasks and projects. It was pretty cool to get an idea where we are at with everything and how the projects are coming along. After that I was busy following up with a number of sport centers I had contacted earlier this week, and it was really awesome as two more centers joined the project. I also set up a meeting with another center for next tuesday as they are interested in participating as well. I am really excited as I will get to be at the meeting together with our boss, and hopefully we can agree a deal with the sport center next week. After today we have agreements with 8 sport centers, and the meeting on tuesday along with a cupple more interested centers that still need to get back with us the next cupple of days. But after today we are a lot closer to reaching our goal of 12 participants than yesterday. Today was pretty awesome as I got a lot of things done, so a day like today makes up for those days in the office where you just do not get a positive result at all. A lot of the work was done before today, and today things just came together and made it a really good day in the office.
Today was a great day in the office. I started out at 8:15am, and had the first positive result a few minutes later as I had secured another sport center to participate in our booklet for the schools. At 9:15am we had our weekly team meeting, where everyone came together and we talked about the status quo regarding all the current projects and discussed the upcoming tasks and projects. It was pretty cool to get an idea where we are at with everything and how the projects are coming along. After that I was busy following up with a number of sport centers I had contacted earlier this week, and it was really awesome as two more centers joined the project. I also set up a meeting with another center for next tuesday as they are interested in participating as well. I am really excited as I will get to be at the meeting together with our boss, and hopefully we can agree a deal with the sport center next week. After today we have agreements with 8 sport centers, and the meeting on tuesday along with a cupple more interested centers that still need to get back with us the next cupple of days. But after today we are a lot closer to reaching our goal of 12 participants than yesterday. Today was pretty awesome as I got a lot of things done, so a day like today makes up for those days in the office where you just do not get a positive result at all. A lot of the work was done before today, and today things just came together and made it a really good day in the office.
06/07/2016 Just a regular day in the office
Today was just a regular day in the office. I continued my research for possible partners for sampling and ambient marketing, as well as following up with the other projects. I spoke to a cupple of interested sport centers that might be interested to participate in the booklet for the school classes, and sent out some information via email. We had a meeting about the problems we are facing with finding companies for sampling and ambient marketing. We are all having a lot of problems getting answers from the companies or even getting a response at all. We have contacted over 140 companies, and so far only one of those companies is cooperating with us. Most companies did not even respond to our enquiries. So, in the next days and weeks we will try to at least get some more answers and maybe get a few of those companies interested. This particular project so far is really frustrating because we spend a lot of tme thinking about companies who would benefit from a partnership with us, and then there is almost no form of feedback and most of the little feedback is negative. I guess this is a good experience to learn how to stay motivated and persistent through a project even though it is really tough.
Today was just a regular day in the office. I continued my research for possible partners for sampling and ambient marketing, as well as following up with the other projects. I spoke to a cupple of interested sport centers that might be interested to participate in the booklet for the school classes, and sent out some information via email. We had a meeting about the problems we are facing with finding companies for sampling and ambient marketing. We are all having a lot of problems getting answers from the companies or even getting a response at all. We have contacted over 140 companies, and so far only one of those companies is cooperating with us. Most companies did not even respond to our enquiries. So, in the next days and weeks we will try to at least get some more answers and maybe get a few of those companies interested. This particular project so far is really frustrating because we spend a lot of tme thinking about companies who would benefit from a partnership with us, and then there is almost no form of feedback and most of the little feedback is negative. I guess this is a good experience to learn how to stay motivated and persistent through a project even though it is really tough.
06/06/2016 First moments of success
The week started with me being asigned a new task. We are creating a booklet with special sporting offers for school classes to use. The research on possible partners was already done, so it was my task to contact sport centers and other possible partners. I talked to several centers and managed to get two centers to take part in this project, and a few other companies are considering the offer we sent and will get back to me during the rest of the week. One center was a trampoline center, and the other was an indoor climbing center. I was pretty excited about this as these will be great, fun options for school classes to use and get active. It also was very nice to actually get some positive feedback as some of the other projects I am working on do not have as much positive feedback. But I really like this project and the whole idea of it and sport centers seem to be really keen and interested to create a great offer for school classes which obviously for them goes along with gaining customers (the school classes) for their centers.
The week started with me being asigned a new task. We are creating a booklet with special sporting offers for school classes to use. The research on possible partners was already done, so it was my task to contact sport centers and other possible partners. I talked to several centers and managed to get two centers to take part in this project, and a few other companies are considering the offer we sent and will get back to me during the rest of the week. One center was a trampoline center, and the other was an indoor climbing center. I was pretty excited about this as these will be great, fun options for school classes to use and get active. It also was very nice to actually get some positive feedback as some of the other projects I am working on do not have as much positive feedback. But I really like this project and the whole idea of it and sport centers seem to be really keen and interested to create a great offer for school classes which obviously for them goes along with gaining customers (the school classes) for their centers.
06/03/2016 Third Day: Slow day
Today was a very slow day in the office and there was not a lot to do. I did some more research and contacted some companies that might be interested in ambient marketing and sampling through our network. Other than that I answered a few emails and made some phone calls but all in all it was a very slow. We got briefed on the developments in another project which is a guide that tries to motivate people to try different sports. Together with our network of sport centers we created a small booklet containing special offers for local sport centers that aims to get people more involved with sports. Translated the name of the booklet means Get Off The Sofa Guide, and is a funsport guide. Currently we are close to printing the booklet, and next week we will create a marketing strategy and discuss distribution.
Today was a very slow day in the office and there was not a lot to do. I did some more research and contacted some companies that might be interested in ambient marketing and sampling through our network. Other than that I answered a few emails and made some phone calls but all in all it was a very slow. We got briefed on the developments in another project which is a guide that tries to motivate people to try different sports. Together with our network of sport centers we created a small booklet containing special offers for local sport centers that aims to get people more involved with sports. Translated the name of the booklet means Get Off The Sofa Guide, and is a funsport guide. Currently we are close to printing the booklet, and next week we will create a marketing strategy and discuss distribution.
06/02/2016 Second Day: A lot to learn
On my second day, I started at 8:20am and talked to the project manager who explained details of the project to me and showed me how he wanted me to add information to our database. I told him about the research I did yesterday, and the ideas I had for possible sampling partners. We chose one of the companies I researched as an example and he showed me the step by step process of adding the company tp our database with all the important information needed, and then explained me how they usually go about contacting those companies. Most of the times, we call and ask for an email adress or a telefon number of the marketing department, so we can send the information to the right department, where it is more likely to get noticed. In some cases companies do not give out any information, in which cases we use ther general email addresses and hope for replies. In a lot of case making the first contact is the hardest, but I am really hoping that some of my ideas work out and that I will get some replies in the coming days and weeks.
Additionally, I got a second task along with another intern. A radio station asked for our help as they want to have a competition and give away diving lessons as a price. So, they asked us if we had diving schools in our network that could help with that. As we have a fitting network partner our task will be to give all the necessary information to the diving school and see what they have to offer for the radio station, and then get back to the radio station with the offer. Essentially, we are the people bringing together those two. Projects like that can always come up on short notice, and with this one we have under two weeks to get everything done which will be a good challenge.
Overall, I am still learning the basics of the new job. The good thing is the project managers, as well as my supervisor are pretty awesome and help me a lot while I am figuring everything out. I am looking forward to the next days and weeks and to becoming more familiar with the daily tasks and also hope I will get to be involved in some more projects and see different sides to the job.
On my second day, I started at 8:20am and talked to the project manager who explained details of the project to me and showed me how he wanted me to add information to our database. I told him about the research I did yesterday, and the ideas I had for possible sampling partners. We chose one of the companies I researched as an example and he showed me the step by step process of adding the company tp our database with all the important information needed, and then explained me how they usually go about contacting those companies. Most of the times, we call and ask for an email adress or a telefon number of the marketing department, so we can send the information to the right department, where it is more likely to get noticed. In some cases companies do not give out any information, in which cases we use ther general email addresses and hope for replies. In a lot of case making the first contact is the hardest, but I am really hoping that some of my ideas work out and that I will get some replies in the coming days and weeks.
Additionally, I got a second task along with another intern. A radio station asked for our help as they want to have a competition and give away diving lessons as a price. So, they asked us if we had diving schools in our network that could help with that. As we have a fitting network partner our task will be to give all the necessary information to the diving school and see what they have to offer for the radio station, and then get back to the radio station with the offer. Essentially, we are the people bringing together those two. Projects like that can always come up on short notice, and with this one we have under two weeks to get everything done which will be a good challenge.
Overall, I am still learning the basics of the new job. The good thing is the project managers, as well as my supervisor are pretty awesome and help me a lot while I am figuring everything out. I am looking forward to the next days and weeks and to becoming more familiar with the daily tasks and also hope I will get to be involved in some more projects and see different sides to the job.
06/01/2016 Day One
I started my first day at funpool at 10am today. The normal starting time usually is between 8am and 9am, but my supervisor told me to come at 10am for my first day. Arriving at 10am, I learned that every wednesday morning at 9:15am there is a team meeting where everyone gives updates about their projects. Since it was my first day and I could not contribute to the meeting my supervisor wanted me to be there after that meeting. The first things I learnt were how to access and search the company data base, how to update the data base and how the company is set up technically. After that I got to know what my main project will be for the upcoming three months. The project is to find new sampling partners that want to distribute samples of their products in the sport centers that are in funpool. For the rest of the first day I got to familiarize myself with the project, checking the database to check on the current status of the project as well as research some possible companies to contact about a cooperation in sampling. Additionally, I got to know my colleagues (most of them interns like me), got a tour of the company and mainly was left to familiarize myself with the surroundings and the new situation. Tomorrow, will get a second and more thorough training that will be specific to the project I will be working on. All in all, the first day was very interesting and I am excited to get familiar with my internship and start working on the project more and to gain valuable experience for my future career.
I started my first day at funpool at 10am today. The normal starting time usually is between 8am and 9am, but my supervisor told me to come at 10am for my first day. Arriving at 10am, I learned that every wednesday morning at 9:15am there is a team meeting where everyone gives updates about their projects. Since it was my first day and I could not contribute to the meeting my supervisor wanted me to be there after that meeting. The first things I learnt were how to access and search the company data base, how to update the data base and how the company is set up technically. After that I got to know what my main project will be for the upcoming three months. The project is to find new sampling partners that want to distribute samples of their products in the sport centers that are in funpool. For the rest of the first day I got to familiarize myself with the project, checking the database to check on the current status of the project as well as research some possible companies to contact about a cooperation in sampling. Additionally, I got to know my colleagues (most of them interns like me), got a tour of the company and mainly was left to familiarize myself with the surroundings and the new situation. Tomorrow, will get a second and more thorough training that will be specific to the project I will be working on. All in all, the first day was very interesting and I am excited to get familiar with my internship and start working on the project more and to gain valuable experience for my future career.