This morning I sent out the following tweet: “I entered the Bonobos/Tucker Blair Wardrobe Giveaway! for a chance to win 5 pants/5 belts/5 polos: http://wfi.re/1sy9s.” (By the way, you can follow me @willyf.)I usually get annoyed when I see tweets like that, but every person who enters through my link gives me another entry, and I want to win. I also wanted to take it as an opportunity to learn a little bit more about Wildfire Interactive. They are a Palo Alto, CA based company that has built an amazing web-based software platform to enable “interactive promotions for brand marketing.” For a very affordable price, you can use Wildfire to run sweepstakes, contests, give-aways, incentive-based surveys, and more. I’ve struggled putting together online contests in the past, and Wildfire is exactly the kind of app that would have made my life a lot easier. They’re like a self-service, web 2.0 Don Jagoda Associates (and they shouldn’t be confused with WeTheCitizens which renamed itself to Wildfire Platform).

Spread Like a Wildfire

The key to Wildfire is virality, although they prefer the equally scary analogy of spreading like a wildfire. Usually people don’t want to tell their friends about contests because more people entering will decrease your chance of winning. Wildfire solves this problem by increasing your odds every time that you refer someone. I did run into some confusion when I entered the contest, since there’s no way to verify that the link I’m sending out is actually attached to my entry (and there’s also no way to monitor how many entries I’ve gained by sharing the link. These are key features that Wildfire Interactive needs to add, but I’m sure they’re working on it. Otherwise Wildfire is stupid simple, although there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.

If you are really interested in the company, you’ll probably want to take a hard look at How Wildfire Works. Simply, you can leverage any sort of social network to spark interest in nearly any type of promotion. It’s a brilliant product, and it’s timed perfectly. No wonder Wildfire Interactive can claim names like Pepsi, Facebook, Sony, AT&T, and Unilever as clients. If you have a burning desire to intern for Wildfire, then you should check out their Careers page. However, you should know that they don’t have any internships posted right now. I was able to find some evidence of past internships at Wildfire through some Google Kung Fu, so I think that your best bet is to use their form to describe your perfect job.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• WildfireApp.com
• Careers at Wildfire Interactive
• About Wildfire Interactive
• Wildfire Interactive’s Team
• Wildfire Interactive’s FAQ
• Wildfire Interactive in the News
• Wildfire Interactive’s Media Kit
• Wildfire Interactive’s Blog

Have you entered any contests through Wildfire?

You know what One Day, One Internship is all about? It’s you, the audience. Maybe for you, it’s all about learning about cool companies, but for me it’s the fact that every day you bring these posts to life by researching the companies we feature and applying for their jobs. I love it when I get e-mails from employers telling me how excited they were about the surge of talented applicants that they got from being featured on One Day, One Internship. When it comes to the world of advertising, it’s kind of the same. It’s all about the audience. They’re the ones who see the ads, and then hopefully take the desired action—usually that means making a purchase. Collective is a New York City based media company that is entirely audience focused. They are “the leader in understanding and delivering audiences. With the premium inventory that attracts them. The innovative technology that delivers them. And the insights that define them.” By finding the “intersection of the right ad, targeted to the right person, in the right environment,” Collective is able to maximize the effectiveness of any advertising campaign.

Will You Join the Collective?

What Collective does isn’t easy. It requires a ton of data and some extraordinary technology to translate that data into actionable advertising strategies. Collective works with ad agencies, brand advertisers, and publishers to help all of them make the most of audiences, which is why Collective calls itself “The Audience Engine.” If you want to get a feel for what Collective actually does, you should take a look at their What Worked This Week page. It allows you to see what kind of ad campaigns they’ve been running and how well it has worked. Pretty cool for them to be so open with their success stories (although I’d love to see some of their failures too). You kind of have to dig in to really understand what Collective is all about, so I guess their messaging could be a little tighter, but it’s hard when you’re taking such a technical approach to an area like advertising. If you like what you see with Collective, you can check out their Internship page. Right now they have a bunch of jobs posted, but only one internship: Account Management Intern. The position is paid, and it looks exciting, so check it out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Collective.com
• Internships at Collective
• About Collective
• Management at Collective
• Collective News

What have you heard about Collective?

I’m an unabashed Groupon fan. How can I not support the Chicago based company that started the group-buying frenzy? Moreover, I’m just flabbergasted at the amount of value that they’ve been able to build in such a short time. The only problem with creating an extremely lucrative new market when you have little or no IP is that the competitors come out in droves. There are a lot of Groupon wannabes. A lot. Many of them will fall by the wayside as they realize that they’re not capable of building out the kind of sales/business development team needed to grow a group-buying business, but there are a few competitors that seem to be doing quite well. One of them is LivingSocial, which is based in Washington, DC (maybe they should focus on group-bribing of politicians, or is that called lobbying?). They now offer daily deals in 52 cities, and they have nearly $50 million in venture funding. They weren’t profitable yet as of March, but you have to think that they’ll get there soon.

Are You LivingSocial?

LivingSocial isn’t all that different from other group-buying sites. Their biggest point of differentiation (besides the deals that they offer and the cities that they’re in) is that they you get your deal for free if you can convince three friends to buy in. I guess that’s what it means to be LivingSocial. The thing that I love about startups in the group-buying space is that they provide fantastic opportunities for young talent. They need people in a variety of areas, and they offer the ability to learn by doing. LivingSocial is no exception. Right now they only have one internship posted on their Jobs page, and it’s for a paid Design Intern. My guess is that there are plenty of other types of internship opportunities available at LivingSocial, but that they’re just not hiring for them right now because it’s the end of July.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• LivingSocial.com
• Internships at LivingSocial
• About LivingSocial
• LivingSocial in the News

Do you use LivingSocial?

It’s story time today! Let’s go back three years to when I was still job searching. I was getting extremely frustrated with the recruitment process, and I was starting to think about how I could make online job search better. Beyond my typical job searching, I was reading everything that I could about the online recruitment industry. I was generating new ideas, and trying to find a way in so that other job searchers wouldn’t have to go through what I went through. I took an especially strong interest in Indeed, not only because they provide an excellent job search engine, but also because they were an innovative and successful startup located in Stamford, CT—just 20 minutes from where I was living at the time (they also have an office in Austin, TX). They were still small, and they didn’t really have any job postings that were suitable for me, so I e-mailed the CEO. I told him why I wanted to work for him and what I thought that I could bring to the table. It worked, and I got an interview (going straight to the top is an underrated job search method). After clearing the phone screen, I got invited to the office to meet with some people on the team, and, to my surprise, that included the CEO whom I had e-mailed my initial “cover letter” to. The interview was kind of a disaster. It went well at first, but I had already started working on One Day, One Job, and telling a potential employer that you’re starting a company in the same space isn’t typically a good idea. I didn’t get offered the job (nor did they ever formally reject me), but I think it all ended up for the better.

Yes, Indeed

Indeed’s business model looks a lot like Google’s. Scour the Internet for information, organize that information in a coherent fashion, and spit it back to users in a relevant way with ads mixed in with the content. While Google does it for everything, Indeed only focuses on jobs. You probably already know all about Indeed, because if you’re job searching and not coming across Indeed at least occasionally, you’re either not searching very hard or using an ultra targeted, networking approach (which I approve of highly). If you don’t have a problem with getting meta about your internship search by looking for a position at a job search company, then take a look at internships at Indeed. They have a bunch of opportunities, and a number of them are either listed as internships or described as such. The one definitive internship is for a Sales Intern at the Stamford office, while there are a number of positions in Austin, TX with descriptions saying they’re looking for a current student. These include positions like Country Marketing Associate – Native Australian, Country Marketing Associate – Native Canadian, Country Marketing Associate – Native Spanish, and Marketing Associate. I’m still a fan of Indeed, even if they didn’t offer me a job, so go see if you can do better than I did with them. There’s no word on whether the positions are paid, but my guess is that they are.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Indeed.com
• Internships at Indeed
• About Indeed
• Indeed’s Blog
• Indeed News

Do you use Indeed?

Sometimes I get annoyed when I go to YouTube to watch a video and get forced to watch an ad or when a video overlay pops up on a site I want to visit. Then I remind myself how awesome it is that I get access to so much free content. As a content producer, I’m especially aware of how hard it is to make a profit off of quality content. I’m never going to bombard you with stuff that you’re not interested in, which is why we only take on sponsors who have awesome internships to offer or at least make sense for college students. I guess that means that we’re editorializing in our acceptance of advertising. ScanScout, which has offices in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago, targets ads a bit differently. They’re a “technology-driven video ad network that delivers precise audience targeting and superior brand results by capturing and synthesizing billions of content and user interaction data points to match the right ad to the right video, at the right time.” That doesn’t mean that their video ads won’t annoy you, but at least they’ll be way less likely to annoy you—and might even interest you. The whole targeting process is automated, which is really impressive considering these aren’t contextually targeted text ads.

Scout’s Honor

ScanScout already has a lot of major advertisers working on their platform. They have brands like Bing, JC Penney, Jaguar, Oreo, and Axe. You can take a look at some of the ads on the ScanScout home page or you can take a look at their ad gallery. To learn more about ScanScout, you’ll probably want to take a look at how they convey their brand message to both advertisers and publishers. Additionally, you’ll want to know whom they’re partnered with and what kind of technology they’re using. Once you have a feel for ScanScout’s business, you’ll want to check out their Careers page. They don’t have any internships posted on there right now, but a little LinkedIn research showed that they’ve offered internships before. My guess is that you could probably score an opportunity in an area like Business Development, Account Management, or Web Development.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• ScanScout.com
• Internships at ScanScout
• About ScanScout
• Management at ScanScout
• ScanScout’s Ad Gallery
• ScanScout’s Partners
• ScanScout News

Have you noticed any ScanScout ads on the web?

Everybody acts like social media and social networking is a new development, but it really isn’t. Even 15 years ago there was a web service that enabled you to create profiles, connect with friends, engage with communities, and communicate instantly or asynchronously. It was called Aol, and there’s a good chance that you used it. I feel bad for Aol. They had it all. They were the behemoth of the social web before anyone knew what the social web was, but they were too big and not agile enough. They continued to act like an ISP, and their market share eroded as people transitioned to high-speed connections. Today most people think of Aol as irrelevant, but the NYC based company is doing their best to make a comeback. The good news is that they aren’t living in the past. They’re not trying to win at social networking or being an ISP—they’ve repositioned. They now describe themselves as “a leading-edge web services company, with an offering of premium and niche content sites, world-class tools and platforms.” The focus is on content, and in some ways that’s what Aol was always about—making great content easy to access for the masses. The tough thing for Aol is that they’re already a huge company, so they’re going to have to swing for the fences if they want their new business model to work.

You’ve Got Mail!

The only reason that I actually decided to feature Aol today was because they have an amazing internship contest going on right now. It’s focused on their new Lifestream service which aggregates all of your social profiles in one place (apparently Aol hasn’t completely given up on social networking, but I think that they probably should). It’s not your typical internship, but it looks pretty awesome. It’s paid, you get direct access to Aol’s CEO Tim Armstrong, and you get some serious responsibility. Oh yeah, and the most important thing is that your main duty is to live an awesome life and share it through Lifestream. The only downside is that only one person can get it. You can find all of the details here. After looking at that opportunity, I decided to hit up Aol’s Career site and look through their job openings for internships and co-ops (which you can search for specifically). Of Aol’s 749 vacancies, 36 are for internships. I won’t go through each one, but they’re offered in areas like Editorial, Customer Service, Software Development, Customer Service, Finance, Advertising, Sales, Travel, Music, Media/Content, Information Technology, Real Estate, and more. They don’t mention whether most of the positions are paid or not, but the large majority are in New York City with a bunch in the Dulles, VA area and a few scattered across Lancaster, PA; Atlanta, GA; San Francisco, CA; Baltimore, MD; Denver, CO; and other locations.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Aol.com
• Aol Corporate Site
• Internships at Aol
• About Aol
• Leadership at Aol
• Aol Products and Services
• Aol News
• Aol’s Values
• Aol’s Investor Relations Site

What do you think about the new Aol?

I’m consistently surprised that I am able to continuously find marketing agencies that I’d never heard of before. I always imagine that large companies have large marketing departments, but the truth is that a lot of marketing gets farmed out to agencies. Differentiating between agencies as an internship seeker is tough once you get away from the biggest names in the industry. I always like to look at client lists as a quick proxy for agency quality, but then again it continues to surprise me how many agencies there are with awesome client lists. Chicago based TargetCom is one of them. They’ve worked with names like the Atlanta Braves, Hooked on Phonics, Allstate, Audi, and Citi. Marketing is all about growing revenues, so TargetCom does well to describe themselves as “an integrated marketing agency that practices the art and science of generating, executing and measuring great ideas for clients who are serious about growth.”

Make TargetCom Your Target

Unfortunately TargetCom is like many other integrated marketing agencies in that their website is built entirely in Flash. This means that I’m not able to link you to specific sections of the site to learn more about the details of who they are and what they do. If you do browse around on your own you’ll come across case studies for projects with companies like Harley-Davidson, TrueCredit, and Cancer Treatment Centers of America. You’ll also get an inside look at their culture and their people. This is the important stuff that you should really look at when you’re deciding which marketing agencies you want to apply to (or if you want to apply to any), so take some time to browse TargetCom’s website. You won’t find a Jobs or Internships page, but you will find a note on their Contact page saying that they’re “always looking for enthusiastic, talented people” along with an invitation to reach out to them at tcomjobs@targetcom.com. Additionally, I came across this posting for a paid Design Intern on a third party site. Judging from TargetCom employees’ LinkedIn profiles it looks like they do take interns on full-time, so there’s definitely room to grow.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• TargetCom.com
• TargetCom’s Fact Sheet

What have you heard about TargetCom?

This morning I was reading a blog post about why interns should be paid (which goes nicely with my article on the legality of unpaid internships), and I noticed that the guy who wrote the post happens to work at an ad agency that pays its interns. Since paid internships in the ad industry are always in demand, I figured that GSD&M Idea City was worth a look. I learned that they’re based in Austin, TX (I feel like a lot of companies that are hiring right now are based in Texas), and that they are one of the bigger names in the industry. In fact, from 1987 until 2007 they were “one of two agencies that held the Wal-Mart account” according to Wikipedia. That means that they helped “build Wal-Mart from $11 billion in sales to $312 billion.” The agency has since moved on, but their client list continues to impress.

Live in Idea City

Another cool thing that I learned from Wikipedia is that GSD&M stands for the agency’s founders’ initials or “Greed, Sex, Drugs, and Money,” which all can be key factors in an advertising campaign. There isn’t much detail about the company on their website, but you can take a look at the work that they’ve done for clients including AT&T, BMW, American Red Cross, John Deere, Southwest Airlines, and quite a few others. It’s great stuff, and if you’re an ad nerd, you’ll love it. Assuming that you do love their work, then you’ll probably want to check out the GSD&M Idea City Careers page. Right now they have 12 internships posted, and they’re all for Fall 2010. That’s right—getting a highly sought after internship requires planning ahead. That doesn’t mean that you can’t find a last minute Summer internship, but if you want the best opportunities, you should be looking at the Fall already. The internships at GSD&M Idea City include opportunities in: New Business Development, Studio Art, Information Technology, Account Service, Broadcast Production, Communications, Creative, Creative Project Management, Graphic Design, Marketplace Planning, Media, and Media (Chicago, IL). You can apply for all of the positions online, so get to it before it’s too late to apply for a Fall internship.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• GSDM.com
• Internships at GSD&M Idea City
• About GSD&M Idea City
• GSD&M Idea City News
• GSD&M Idea City’s Clients

Have you been to Idea City?

Consultants are typically seen as hired mercenaries. Sometimes they get a bad rap, but at least they’re compensated well for it. I have to think that those who work at The Advisory Board Company have at least a somewhat better reputation since their company’s clients are all mission driven. What does mission driven mean? Well, most of The Advisory Board Company’s clients are in the healthcare industry (think hospitals and health systems, not insurance providers), but they’ve recently moved into working with universities too. I hadn’t heard of The Advisory Board Company until a One Day, One Job reader e-mailed me (you can reach me at willy@onedayonejob.com if you want to share a tip or success story) to tell me that he recently received a job offer from them. Apparently they do a ton of entry level hiring (along with some interns), and they’re continuing to grow well beyond the 5 employees that they started with in 1979. Since then they’ve grown to more than 1,000 employes, and they’ve served “more than 2,800 leading healthcare and higher education organizations.” Additionally, they’ve grown beyond their corporate headquarters in Washington, DC to having offices in Chicago, IL; San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; Portland, OR; Nashville, TN; London, UK; and Chennai, India.

Join The Board

Introducing The Advisory Board Company as a consulting firm wasn’t fully accurate. They actually operate quite differently from most consulting practices. Instead of serving clients on an engagement basis, they do most of their work as a membership organization. Hospitals or universities can become The Advisory Board Company members and gain access to the company’s different offerings, which include things like Strategy Research, Clinical Research, Leadership Development, Business Intelligence Analytics, and more. They also provide Management and Consulting services, but it seems that those aren’t the main focus. Still, if you’d consider a career in consulting, The Advisory Board Company could be a nice alternative. Their Careers page goes into a lot of detail about the company’s culture and benefits, and obviously it also has the job listings. Right now there are just over 40 jobs posted and quite a few are entry level. Oddly enough, there’s only one internship posted: Recruiting Intern (it’s paid). Usually companies have lots of internships and not many entry level jobs, but I guess it’s reversed here. If you’re interested in something more closely tied to The Advisory Board Company’s core businesses, I guess you’ll either have to keep checking their job postings or reach out to them and ask about other internships.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• AdvisoryBoardCompany.com
• Careers at The Advisory Board Company
• About The Advisory Board Company
• The Advisory Board Company’s History
• The Advisory Board Company’s Offerings
• The Advisory Board Company News
• The Advisory Board Company’s Investor Relations Page

What have you heard about The Advisory Board Company?

I swear that half of all college students want to work in sports and entertainment. Unfortunately most of the job and internship postings you’ll find in those industries are actually scam internships. Getting a position at a legitimate sports and entertainment company is not easy, but with AEG you have a shot. They call themselves “one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world,” and although that sounds broad, it’s a good description. AEG operates in a number of business areas including Facilities, Sports (Teams and Events), Music (Events), and Merchandising. They own/control arenas like the STAPLES Center, Conseco Fieldhouse, and the Prudential Center, while also owning professional sports teams like the LA Kings and Los Angeles Galaxy (can you tell that AEG is based in Los Angeles?). They’ve also “promoted tours by artists including Britney Spears, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Christina Aguilera & Justin Timberlake, The Dixie Chicks, Yanni, Paul McCartney, Usher, Kanye West, Prince, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, Nickelback, and PopTarts Presents American Idol.” And that’s not even half of it. AEG is a major player in sports and entertainment, and a great place to start a career.

Join AEG’s Team

Describing AEG’s business in a few paragraphs isn’t easy, so I guess that the best way to put it is that if it has to do with sports or entertainment, they’re probably involved in some way. That means that AEG offersinternship opportunities in a wide variety of areas. They actually have a halfway decent job search function on their site, so you can narrow things down by AEG Company, Area of Interest, Location, or Facility—they also let you sort the jobs so that you only see internships. Right now they have 18 internships posted in areas like Communications, Community Relations, Graphic Design, Hispanic Grassroots Marketing, Charitable Foundations, Sales & Marketing, Marketing, Mascot Marketing, Player Development, Premium Services, Special Events, Sponsorships, Production, Public Relations, Sales & Marketing, Ticket Operations, Video Production, and Youth Development. All of these positions appear to be unpaid, and you can apply for any that you find on their site through their online application process.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• AEGWorldwide.com
• Internships at AEG
• About AEG
• AEG News
• AEG Facilities
• AEG Sports
• AEG Music
• AEG Merchandising

What have you heard about AEG?

I got a tip on this one from a fellow Cornellian (which is cool because a few of my friends from Cornell work at Rosetta). If you ever find a company that you think that we should feature, e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com. We feature a lot of interactive marketing agencies because they’re usually pretty big on hiring young talent whether it be at the intern or entry level. Rosetta stands out because of their size and sophistication—they almost seem more like a consulting firm than a marketing agency, at least in the way that they present themselves. For instance, they recently become a “top ten interactive agency” by means of an acquisition. That seems so different from the image that most agencies try to portray, but it’s working. Through “dedication to client work within Consumer Products & Retail, Healthcare, Financial Services, Consumer Technology & Media, B2B, and Travel & Hospitality industries” Rosetta “has created enduring partnerships with [their] clients including Scholastic, Coach, Borders, Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Nationwide, Marriott and Microsoft.” Those are huge names, so you know Rosetta, which is headquartered in Princeton with offices in New York, Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, and Denver, is capable of delivering results.

Relationships Matter

One of Rosetta’s key offerings is their suite of Relationship Marketing Services, which are focused on helping clients segment customers and offer “intelligent, personalized interactions across all online and offline channels.” This is just one part of the story, though. To get the full story on Rosetta’s offerings, you should take a look at this diagram. It shows how Rosetta walks clients through the marketing process—from creating the top-level strategy to using analytics to measure results. This means it’s not surprising that Rosetta’s internship offerings are as varied as their service offerings—their Careers page is titled “Graphic Design Careers, SEO Jobs, and Financial Services Consulting Opportunities at Rosetta.”

As I mentioned in the beginning of the post, Rosetta seems to have a strong connection with Cornell (and probably quite a few other colleges) based on campus recruiting. Interestingly enough, Rosetta doesn’t really have a campus recruiting page—just a former intern. From there you can find their job search function, which is pretty terrible. It does appear to let you search specifically for internships; however, your best bet is to look at their full list of job openings and scan for the word intern. There are currently five positions posted: Associate Consultant Intern, Account Executive Intern, Technology Associate Intern, Business Associate Intern, and Human Resources Intern. Rosetta also apparently offers co-ops, although I didn’t find anything about them. The way that Rosetta lists their jobs and internships is really a mess, so you need to take note that different internships with the same title may be in different practice areas. Additionally, single internship postings may be for multiple locations. They do have some nice pages on their Careers site like Meet Our People and Fun at Rosetta, but the whole thing is disorganized. I expect a lot better from a top ten agency. You can apply online for any of these positions, so forgive Rosetta for the lack of usability on their Careers site and see if you can help them move further up the top ten. Finally, there’s no word on whether Rosetta’s internships are paid, but it’d be a travesty if a company as big as they are didn’t pay interns.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Rosetta.com
• Careers at Rosetta
• About Rosetta
• Culture at Rosetta
• Leadership at Rosetta
• Rosetta in the News
• What Rosetta Does
• Rosetta’s Industries
• Rosetta’s Clients

Were you looking Rosetta Stone’s internships?

After a week of cold weather in Florida, I’m headed back to Chicago. Since I wanted to enjoy the last night of my vacation, I decided that I’d try to get this post to you from 31,000 feet. I’m flying on AirTran (maybe we’ll look at their internships another time), and all of their flights offer Gogo Inflight Wi-Fi, which is a service provided by Itasca, IL based AirCell (I used this promotion to get a free access coupon code). The business of Internet Service Providers was a big one in the 90s, but as we’ve become more accustomed to broadband, we’ve mostly started using major telecom companies to feed our Internet addictions. Now, the business opportunities are all about providing Internet access in locations with captive audiences—hotels, convention centers, airports, and now airplanes, although 3G card providers are offering some fierce competition. Luckily for Aircell, that’s not an option in the air, which means that, for now, Gogo has a dominant market position with their because of their FCC sanctioned rights to be the “exclusive provider of Wi-Fi communications to airlines, business aviation, military, government, and specialty aircraft across North America.”

Gogo Get an Internship

Who knows what the future of Gogo will be? It’s pretty obvious that Internet access will soon be expected on all but the smallest planes, but how will that play out? Will the FAA allow us to start using cellular devices so that we can use 3G or 4G cards? Will airlines continue to nickel and dime us (ok, we know the answer to that one)? Will we continue to pay for in-flight Internet access or will there be an ad supported option? There are a lot of questions to be answered, but it seems that Gogo is well positioned to take advantage of the current market opportunities. They received a significant venture capital investment, and their Jobs page seems to indicate that they’re continuing to grow. Additionally, Aircell isn’t a business solely based on Gogo; in fact, they’re much more. They are “the world’s leading provider of airborne communications.” That means that what they do goes well beyond allowing you to watch stupid YouTube videos on a cross-country flight. I couldn’t find any information on internships with Aircell, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have any. One of the best ways to land great internships is to reach out to companies who aren’t advertising their positions. You’ll face less competition, and you may even be able to convince them to develop an internship tailored to your interests. To reach out to someone about internships at Aircell, e-mail recruiting@aircell.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Aircell.com
• Internships at Aircell
• About Aircell
• Aircell News
• Aircell’s Solutions

Have you ever used wi-fi on a plane?

I hope the title of today’s post didn’t make you hungry, because we’re not talking about internships in organic food. Organic is a San Francisco based interactive marketing agency with a brand that has gained a lot of keyword competition over the past 16 years. Yes, people were eating organic back in 1994, but the word wasn’t nearly as common as it is today. Doing research on Organic is tough because the organic search results (excuse my SEO pun) have all kinds of other stuff in them (at least they own Organic.com). Either Google needs to get inside my head to discern my intent, or Organic is going to have to hope that artificial packaged, processed foods go back in vogue. Ok, enough of my ripping on their name—Organic was ranked by AdWeek as the #1 interactive agency in 2007. That fits in perfectly with my impression of Organic from browsing their website and looking at their work. In fact, I’m blown away by how good Organic’s website is. It’s easy to use, it’s full of information, and it’s gorgeously designed. Their corporate mantra is “Exceptional Experience,” and they certainly live up to it.

Live Organic

I’ve found that interactive agencies sometimes go too far with their websites. They get too fancy and end up making an unusable piece of garbage. The way Organic has built their website shows that they’re good at what they do. Beyond San Francisco Organic also has locations in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Toronto. The company’s clients include Bank of America, Jeep, Nike, Guitar Center, and plenty more. I could tell you more about Organic, but you’re much better off visiting their website, because it does a great job of telling their story. Organic even does a great job with their Careers site—they even make a usually crappy applicant tracking system look good. The interesting thing about Organic is that most of their 40 job openings are at pretty Senior levels, but they do have a number of postings (one for each location) for their paid Summer internship program called “The Farm.” There are opportunities to work in areas like Delivery / Project Management, Creative, Technology, Strategy, Media and Marketing Intelligence, and the whole program looks awesome. They only want rising college seniors and recent grads, but if you fit the bill, go ahead and apply online.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Organic.com
• Internships at Organic
• Organic’s Work
• People at Organic
• Organic News
• Organic’s Fact Sheet
• Culture at Organic
• Organic’s Expertise
• Organic’s Threeminds Blog

What do you think of Organic’s name?

I know that it sounds like a place to buy illicit substances, but Dealer.com is a legal operation as far as I know. They may operate in the underworld of search engine optimization, but so do I, and I’m not a sleaze bag or spammer. Dealer.com is a Burlington, VT based company that “has become the global leader in online marketing solutions for the automotive industry.” They provide a platform for car dealers to generate leads online. I’d imagine that Dealer.com is a direct competitor with Cobalt, a company that we featured back in January. It’s no surprise that automotive online marketing is a growing industry. Most car dealerships don’t have the resources to do online marketing themselves—cheesy tv commercials don’t translate to the web. So how do they reach the masses of people who are using search engines to aid in car buying decisions? They either build an internal online marketing division, hire a local agency that doesn’t know anything about the industry, or go to Dealer.com. Which decision do you think will sell the most cars?

See What You’re Dealt

The thing that really stands out about Dealer.com is their culture. They’re aiming to be the “most sought after automotive web solutions provider in the world,” and it’s very clear that they think that treating their people well will help them get there. Their “brand-new Green Certified Corporate headquarters has a 35,000 square foot fitness facility and in-house organic cafe,” and they offer half-off ski passes at local mountains. It’s the epitome of a cool place to work, which is why they probably keep racking up awards. This attitude is also reflected in the way that Dealer.com does recruiting. I randomly came across the company’s website last night, and it turns out that they’re having a big recruiting event today at the Sheraton in Burlington. I realize that you probably won’t be able to make it, but you can watch the event live at 6 PM EST today on their Careers page. It’s a recruiting tactic that I haven’t seen before, and I really like it. You can tell that they’re serious about talent. I don’t know if it’s meant for potential interns, but I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be worth your checking out. Dealer.com doesn’t have a specific Internships page, but they do have an Accounting Internship and an Account Management Internship posted on their site. You can apply online for any of these positions, and I’d bet that there will be more internships posted in the future. There’s no word on whether or not these positions are paid.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Dealer.com
• Internships at Dealer.com
• About Dealer.com
• Leadership at Dealer.com
• Dealer.com News
• Culture at Dealer.com
• Dealer.com Videos
• Dealer.com’s Showcase

Have you seen any companies run live events for recruiting like Dealer.com?

Yesterday I mentioned that I hopped on a plane on Saturday. My destination was Aruba. I’m here now, and I’m enjoying 90 degree temperatures, lots of sunshine, beach volleyball, and hopefully some excellent fishing opportunities. It’s not hard to be convinced to head for a tropical destination in December, but choosing the right place can be a tough decision. That’s why it’s no big surprise that resorts and tourism boards invest a lot in public relations. Competition for tourist dollars is fierce, so firms like New York City based MMG Mardiks are often in high demand. They work with names like the Colorado Tourism Office, Sarasota and Her Islands, Hertz, Regent Hotels & Resorts, and The Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino (not where I’m staying). MMG Mardiks also has locations in Kansas City, Ft. Collins, St Louis, and South Florida, which probably allows them to better serve clients in various locations.

Travel Public Relations with MMG Mardiks

Travel public relations and communications seems like a pretty cool field, and MMG Mardiks does it all. They provide “expert strategic counsel in traditional and digital media relations, branding, event marketing and crisis communications.” If you’d like to get beyond the buzz words and see some actual work that MMG Mardiks has done, you need to look no further than their case studies. You’ll get a good feel for how they operate and what kind of placement they can achieve for their clients. If the idea of interning in Travel PR excites you, then take a look at MMG Mardiks’ Internships page. I’ve heard that their paid internship program is excellent with real work opportunities that lead to full-time employment and that the company employs a lot of people in their 20s. Additionally employees get to travel to great places relatively often, so maybe you’ll get to make a trip to Aruba too. Right now their site is a bit out of date as it still mentions Fall opportunities, but you should probably act quickly if you’re interested in Summer or Spring opportunities. You can apply by e-mailing a cover letter and résumé to Carla Brown at cbrown@mmgworldwide.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• MMGMardiks.com
• Internships at MMG Mardiks
• About MMG Mardiks
• MMG Mardiks’ Case Studies
• MMG Mardiks News
• MMG Mardiks’ Client List

Which of MMG Mardiks’ clients do you most want to visit?

Want a crappy job? You’re in luck. Today I came across WhatACrappyJob.com, which is actually the internship site for Bozell, a Omaha, NE based full-service public relations and advertising agency. There’s nothing extraordinarily special about the site beyond the domain name, but it’s well designed and informative, which is rare when it comes to Careers websites. I guess that’s what you should expect from the agency behind the “Got Milk?” mustache campaign and the “Pork. The Other White Meat.” slogan. Bozell’s history includes quite a few mergers, acquisitions, and buybacks. As of 2001 Bozell has moved away from Wall Street and returned to it roots as “an independent, client-focused, employee-owned agency.” They have an impressive portfolio of work and seem like a pretty cool place to work.

Got Bozell?

Going back to WhatACrappyJob.com, I have to say that I love their sarcasm. They obviously pay a lot of attention to their internship program, and it shows. They’re offering the opportunity for real work experience and $8.50 an hour. Their internships are offered in Account Services, Art Direction/Design, Copywriting, Interactive, Media, Social Media, and Public Relations, which are all key areas of their business. All of the details including the application form can be found on WhatACrappyJob.com, so check it out and see if one of their positions is right for you. You have until March 1st to apply for this summer.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Bozell.com
• WhatACrappyJob.com
• Jobs at Bozell
• About Bozell
• Bozell’s Team
• Bozell News
• Bozell’s History
• Bozell’s Work
• Bozell Insights (Blog)

What have you heard about Bozell?

Text 100 is a global, high tech public relations agency. They call themselves the world’s only “global boutique PR consultancy” or “big agency 2.0.” Like the public relations industry as a whole, Text 100 prides itself in constantly evolving to meet its clients’ needs. Speaking of clients, I recognize nearly every name on their client list, which includes PayPal, MTV, IBM, Adobe, eBay and more. This year, Text 100 took home two awards, including the 2009 Holmes Report “Best Agencies to Work For” where it ranked #6. The other award, also from Holmes Report, was “Best Campaign” for its work with Cisco.

Be a Driver of Innovation

Text 100 offers the typical agency services, but what sets them apart is the sectors they serve, which includes clean technology. This is definitely an area which will continue to grow in importance over the coming years and even decades. Text 100 is currently seeking public relations interns in San Francisco and New York City. You can expect to perform work at the level of an Account Coordinator (although there’s no word on whether the positions are paid or not). What will put you over the top of other candidates? “Creativity, writing experience, ability to work as part of a team, sense of humor, initiative and flexibility.” Interested? Submit your cover letter and résumé online. I also recommend familiarizing yourself with their blog, hypertext.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Text100.com
• Internships at Text 100
• About Text 100
• Text 100′s Services
• Text 100′s Sectors of Expertise
• Text 100′s hypertext Blog

What have you heard about Text 100?

I think that e-mail is still the king of social media. We have all of these fancy social networking accounts, but they all send their notifications to our inboxes. If you want someone’s attention, e-mail is the way to go (assuming your message doesn’t look like spam). Heck, you’re probably reading this in your e-mail. That’s why e-mail marketing continues to be a rapidly growing industry. Over on One Day, One Job we’ve already taken a look at jobs with Constant Contact, Aweber, and e-Dialog, and now we’re going to look at an industrial strength e-mail marketing company, ExactTarget. They’re based in Indianapolis, and since 2000 they’ve been focused on “providing the most powerful on-demand software for email communications and finding the best and brightest marketers on the planet to revolutionize the way people think about email.”

Target Your Internship Search Exactly

ExactTarget offers a wide array of e-mail Products, Services, and Solutions that are used by clients like CarMax, Expedia, The Home Depot, and other huge brands. If you’d like to join ExactTarget at the forefront of e-mail marketing, then you should check out their Slingshot Internship Program, which is “a 3-5 month paid internship program that provides driven students with at least two ‘resume-worthy’ job experiences.” Here’s an introductory video on the program (e-mail readers click through to watch):

If you like what you just saw, then there are two tracks that you can take. The ExactTarget Business Track will allow you to gain experience across departments like Marketing, Accounting, Solutions Consulting (SolCon), Account Management, Deliverability Services, Strategic Services, Training, SMB/Renewals, Partnerships, Human Resources, and Sales, while the ExactTarget Technical Track will have you working in Solutions Consulting (SolCon), Customer Support, Integration, Product, Quality Assurance, Deliverability Services, Training, Implementation, Design and Deployment. You may be able to meet up with ExactTarget recruiters on your campus, but if they’re not recruiting at your school you can get the run down on how to apply for the program here. ExactTarget has done a fantastic job with their internship recruiting program, and I bet that reflects how much they value young talent.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• ExactTarget.com
• Careers at ExactTarget
• ExactTarget’s Slingshot Internship Program
• About ExactTarget
• ExactTarget’s Blog
• Leadership at ExactTarget
• ExactTarget’s Case Studies
• ExactTarget News
• ExactTarget in the Press

What do you think of the Slingshot Internship Program?

What was the first book that you ever read? Mine wasn’t actually a book—it was a Super Mario Bros. comic book. My parents had decided that it would be fun to take Amtrak to Florida to visit Grandma and Grandpa instead of flying. And it actually was. I spent a lot of the time struggling through the comic book, and then I was suddenly reading. That wouldn’t have happened on a 3 hour flight. Do you have as vivid of a memory of reading your first book as I do? First Book hopes so. They’re a Washington, DC based non-profit that “provides new books to children in need addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books.” In 16 years they’ve provided more than 65 million books, so you have to call First Book a huge success.

Open a New Chapter with First Book

Considering the fact that you’re probably someone who enjoys reading (since that’s what One Day, One Job is all about), you have to have a strong understanding of how powerful reading skills can be. It all starts when you’re 5 or 6 with a single book, yet many kids just don’t have access to age appropriate books. First Book solves that problem. They also have an awesome way to market their story. By asking you “What book got you hooked?” they’re getting right at an emotional memory. You have to agree that “there are some stories no child should grow up without.” If First Book already has you reminiscing about your early days of reading, then you should check out their internships. They don’t mention their internships on their Jobs page, but they do have a Strategic Alliances Marketing Internship posted on Idealist. It looks great, so give it a look.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• FirstBook.org
• Careers at First Book
• About First Book
• First Book’s FAQ
• Staff at First Book
• First Book’s Financials

What was your first book?

For nearly 30 years (they’ll be celebrating their anniversary in 2010), Schneider Associates in Boston has been helping clients ranging from small entrepreneurial firms to some of the nation’s largest corporations launch products, shape opinions, define and re-define companies, promote events, generate awareness and produce results. Although these smaller agencies (Schneider has approximately 20 employees) typically don’t make daily headlines in the PR industry publications, I truly believe they are an excellent environment in which to launch your career. If you want to learn a lot about the profession—and fast—you’ll surely be able to do so at a shop like Schneider.

Enjoy “Quality of Life” at Schneider Associates

Schneider’s four key areas of practice include consumer marketing, corporate communications, public affairs and “Launch Public Relations.” Under each practice area is a wealth of services for the agency’s clients. Although their Web site needs some updating, Schneider is currently seeking unpaid Fall 2009 interns. You can expect the typical agency environment—faced-paced, working on multiple tasks at once, strong writing skills required, etc. To get the full rundown, check out Schneider’s Internships page, and if you’re interested, submit your cover letter and résumé to internships@schneiderpr.com.

Interested? Submit your cover letter and résumé to jobs@schneiderpr.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• SchneiderPR.com
• Internships at Schneider Associates
• About Schneider Associates
• Schneider Associates’ Consumer Practice
• Schneider Associates’ Communications Practice
• Schneider Associates’ Public Affairs Practice
• Schneider Associates’ Launch PR Practice

Need help with your cover letter and résumé—or your entire job search? Heather offers low-cost coaching packages specifically for students and recent graduates seeking careers in public relations. Click here to learn more.

Sometimes I don’t completely get advertising. Take McDonald’s for example. How many people in the US have never heard of McDonald’s? Not many. So what’s the point in advertising? Maybe you can convince some more people to come in to buy off of the Dollar Menu or get more kids to beg their parents to buy them a happy meal, but it seems like McDonald’s would be just fine without any advertising at all. That’s something that the folks at Dallas’ Moroch will disagree with strongly because they are an ad agency that happens to do a lot of work with McDonald’s. And since Moroch’s About page says that they’re really all about helping their clients make more money (usually through advertising), I’m going to take a wager that all of the Mickey D’s advertising that you see has a significant effect on the bottom line. Beyond McDonald’s, Moroch also works with huge brands like Verizon, Walt Disney Pictures, Monster (yuck), and Make-A-Wish. That may sound cushy, but that means that there’s always a constant pressure to deliver spectacular results.

Your (Personal) Brand Wins

If you’re looking to learn a lot about the Advertising industry, Moroch looks like a fantastic place to do that. I wish that I could intersperse links throughout this post, but Moroch uses Flash for their website. That means that we can’t link directly to the pages, so you’ll have to do some browsing to read case studies, check out their client list, read their story, and see where they have offices. The good news is that we can link to their Internships page (even if it is a kind of crappy Applicant Tracking System). There you’ll see quite a few opportunities for Fall internships. There are Account Services Internships in Denver, CO, Charlotte, NC, and Salt Lake City, UT, as well as a Publicity/Promotions Entertainment Internship in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and a McDonald’s Account Service Internship in Richmond, VA. Additionally, you can submit a general application for an internship at their Dallas, TX office in Public Relations or Advertising/Marketing. There’s no word on whether the internships are paid or not, so you’ll have to do some digging to find that out; however, you can apply online quite easily for any of these positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Moroch.com
• Internships at Moroch

Do you think McDonald’s advertising is effective?

“Go Local” is a pretty common buzz phrase these days. You’re supposed to eat local, shop local, and even study local. To some people this is a new idea, but businesses like Travers Collins & Company have been focusing on working locally for a long time (in their case since 1995). They saw a void in the Buffalo, NY area when it came to advertising, public relations, interactive and investor relations, so they filled it. Judging from the number of times “Buffalo” shows up on their client list, that seems to have been a smart move. They’re now “one of Buffalo-Niagara’s largest locally owned and operated integrated marketing communications firms,” as they have more than 40 employees.

Buffalocal

It’s always hard to differentiate between marketing communications firms, as they all kind of look alike. The easiest way to get a quick read on whether one of these companies is right for you is to take a look at their portfolio. It also can’t hurt that the “Buffalo-based agency won 24 of 63 Excalibur awards, which were presented by the Buffalo/Niagara chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.” If you like what you see, you’ll want to check out Travers Collins’ Jobs and Internships page. Their internship listings barely have any detail, but they do list points of contact in Public Relations, Advertising Account Management, Investor Relations, and Creative (there’s also a contact for Interactive on their Contact page). There’s no word on whether these positions are paid or not, and according to Travers Collins’ Twitter account, the deadline to apply for Fall internships is July 15th. Get moving!

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• TraversCollins.com
• Internships at Travers Collins
• Travers Collins’ Clients
• People at Travers Collins
• Travers Collins’ Portfolio
• Travers Collins on Twitter

Do you know anything about Travers Collins & Company?

Do you have a short attentions span? Too short to spend an entire summer interning with a single company? Ok, that’s probably not something that you’d usually want to admit to, but it might be ok just this once. Colaboratory is an Portland, OR internship program that allows you to work at 3 different companies over the course of the summer. It’s a collaboration of ad agencies (members of the Portland Ad Federation) that otherwise might be competitors in an effort “to make each other better and, by doing so, make Portland a better place to live, work and grow.” There are supposed to be 10 companies participating, but I only count 9 on the Partner Agencies page. They include The New Group, Grady Britton, Ascentium, Anvil, HMH, Fish Marketing, Leopold Ketel & Partners, Xhang Creative, and Pop Art. This is one of the cooler things that I’ve come across since I started looking at dozens of internships every day, so you should really keep reading.

Kill 3 Birds with One Internship

Colaboratory is not only one of the coolest internship programs that I’ve come across, but it’s also one of the best described internship programs that I’ve come across. The Colaboratory website does a fantastic job of spelling out all of the details of what the program entails. Here’s the quick rundown:

COLABORATORY takes place over 6 weeks in Portland, Oregon. 10 participants are selected and individually paired with 3 of the 10 agencies based on their strengths and interests. Interns spend 2 intensely focused weeks at each agency learning from all disciplines.

During the 6 weeks working at agencies across Portland, Interns also form 2 competing teams to develop a campaign pitch for local (and we think pretty friggin’ cool) client. All we’ll say is it’s not Nike. There are other cool businesses in Portland, you know.

The internships are paid at $8.40/hour for a 37.5-hour work week, and you need to bring your own laptop. The internships are offered in “writing, design, interactive, multimedia, account management, production, strategy, public relations and … kicking ass.” The application deadline is April 10th, and you can apply here. There’s plenty more information on the website, so check it out.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• PAFColaboratory.com
• Internships Through Colaboratory
• Colaboratory’s Partner Agencies
• Colaboratory’s Internship FAQ
• TheNewGroup.com
• GradyBritton.com
• Ascentium.com
• AnvilMediaInc.com
• ThinkHMH.com
• Fish-Marketing.com
• LeopoldKetel.com
• XhangCreative.com
• PopArt.com

What do you think about concepts like Colaboratory?

I really wanted to play a gag on you this year. I wanted to post a ridiculous sounding internship with a ridiculous application process, but I couldn’t bring myself to have fun at your cost. The job search is stressful enough. You don’t need someone messing with you even if you should know better than to believe anything that you read on April 1st. It’s going to be hard to top last year’s April Fools’ Day internships with Motley Fool, and unfortunately I wasn’t smart enough to save internships with The Onion for today, so we’re going to go with CollegeHumor, which “was founded in 1999 by two high school friends from Baltimore, Maryland who went to different colleges as a way to share all of the pictures, videos, and links their friends would IM and e-mail each other.” Somehow, a completely childish and immature website turned into a real media company over the past 10 years; in fact, IAC recently bought a majority share in CollegeHumor’s parent company. College, just like April Fools’ Day, is a time to have fun – often at the expense of others. I guess it makes sense that CollegeHumor, now based in New York City, has become a real business, with real employees, and real unpaid interns (ok, you don’t need to be a real business to have those).

CollegeHumor Isn’t a Joke

CollegeHumor isn’t for everyone (back in the day they had a disclaimer saying that anyone over 32 shouldn’t be on the website), but if you are amused by what others deem offensive, then an internship with CollegeHumor might be your jam – especially if you want to work for a company that has a corporate beer pong team. Ok, so it’s not all fun and games. According to CollegeHumor’s Jobs and Internships page, they have two internships available right now – one in Editorial and the other in Marketing/Ad Sales. The descriptions sound cool, but you can’t like applying when the e-mail address is YesIWillWorkForFree@gmail.com. (That’s for the Editorial internship. For the other internship you can apply to steph@connectedventures.com. You can also see the other types of interns that CollegeHumor currently has on their staff by checking out their About page, where they list all of their employees and job titles. If you see an internship that you like that isn’t posted, maybe you should contact CollegeHumor and try to steal the person’s internship. You can say, “April Fool’s! I took your internship. Go find another unpaid position!” Also, I hear that CollegeHumor does pay interns who do an exceptional job – in Busted Tees (one of CollegeHumor’s sister companies). April Fools’! I made that up.

Ok, seriously, there is one more option for internships with CollegeHumor. If you check out the Jobs from Connected Ventures, CollegeHumor’s parent company, you’ll see there’s a posting for an IT intern. You could give that a shot too.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• CollegeHumor.com
• ConnectedVentures.com (CollegeHumor’s Parent Company)
• Internships at CollegeHumor
• About CollegeHumor
• CollegeHumor’s FAQ

What’s your favorite prank on CollegeHumor?

I always say that when it comes to ad agencies, marketing companies, and PR firms, the best way to evaluate the company is to check out their client list and look at the work that the company has done. It’s not going to tell you everything that you need to know, but it’ll give you a solid idea whether or not the company is a place that you might want to work. If you want to work with big brands who are willing to take big risks with their advertising campaigns, then Crispin Porter + Bogusky might be the place for you. The Subservient Chicken is one of their more successful campaigns that started out virally, while the Microsoft campaign with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld was one of their well-publicized flops. CP+B is headquartered in Miami, FL, while they also have major locations in Boulder, CO; Los Angeles, CA; and London, UK. Their client list sits at the bottom of every page on their website – probably because it is so impressive.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky = An Internship for You?

The brands that Crispin Porter + Bogusky have worked with are unparalleled, so if that’s what gets you excited, keep reading. Here’s what CP+B has to say about what they do:

We’re a factory. A factory that makes advertising and branded creative content. But there is no assemly line. All the work is custom desgined and assembled by hand. We don’t have the luxury of knowing the product we build today will be exactly like the product we built yesterday. To be successful, we have to apporach every single day like it will be our defining moment. Because that’s reality.

They’re clearly a company that knows how to tell stories – their own and their clients’. My only issue with Crispin Porter + Bogusky is that their site is in all Flash, so it’s impossible for me to link to all of the interesting things on their website. Luckily, their Internships page is an exception. CP+B’s Internships are offered at their offices in Miami and Boulder in Content Management (Account Services), Cultural and Business Insights (Account Planning), Message Planning and Analytics (Media), Integrated Production-Video, Interactive Production, Interactive-Technical (Programmers, Developers, Quality Assurance), Interactive- Creative, or Creative. The internships last 12 weeks, and you have until April 10th to apply. There’s no mention of whether the internships are paid or not, and they say that you must be a senior in your program to apply (not sure if that means rising senior or new grad). You can apply by sending your materials to internships@cpbgroup.com. They also offer internships in the winter and fall with different deadlines.

Also, check out Crispin Porter + Bougsky’s Employee Handbook, which will give you an inside peek at what it’s like to work for them. You should note that Crispin Porter + Bogusky recently laid off 6% of their staff, so it’s not an entirely rosy picture there.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• CPBGroup.com
• Internships at Crispin Porter + Bogusky
• Crispin Porter + Bougsky’s Employee Handbook

What do you think of Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s work?

How do you feel about the intersection of friendship and marketing? I know that a lot people weren’t happy when Facebook Beacon started telling their friends what they were buying from other sites, and I also know that nobody wants their friends to go salesman on them (like with Cutco knives); however, word of mouth marketing remains one of the most effective vehicles to reach people with a message. That’s because we still seem to trust our friends the most when it comes to making purchasing decisions. But can brands become our friends? According to 22squared, a marketing agency based out of Atlanta, GA and Tampa, FL, “consumers want brands that act more like helpful friends than persuasive marketers.” I think that’s right, but it still sounds a little weird to me. Maybe we should look at Facebook again for the answer. Plenty of people are “Fans” of brands (like ours), which is very much like being Facebook Friends with them.

What’s the Big Deal About 484?

I don’t know where they got the name 22squared, but Google tells me that 22 squared = 484. I’m not sure what to make of that, so let’s get back to talking about how 22squared thinks that “the consumer is your friend.” They’ve actually developed a metric to judge how friendly brands are. You can calculate it like this:

Strength of Relationship + Number of Advocates + Maturity of Relationship = Friendship Factor %

I’m not sure where you get the inputs from, but if you click “The Work” link on 22squared’s Home page (I can’t link because it’s in Flash) and click through the pages, you’ll see the scores of many well recognized brands. Usually you need to divide by something to get a percentage, so I don’t know what this is all about, but I’d love to hear the science behind it. I wonder what One Day, One Internship’s Friendship Factor % is. I’d like to think that we’re a pretty friendly brand.

Anyway, if I want to keep your friendship, I need to get to the internships. Unlike 22squared’s entry level jobs which are posted on their Jobs page, 22squared’s internships are posted on their blog. These are unpaid (yuck!) positions in both Tampa and Atlanta, and you can focus on a variety of areas including Account Management, Media, Creative, Brand Planning, Digital/Interactive (Creative and Media), Broadcast Production, Studio, Information Technology, and Human Resources. You can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to HR@22squared.com with INTERNSHIP/ATL for Atlanta or INTERNSHIP/TPA for Tampa in the subject line. You can find all of the details about the internships here, so be sure to give it a good read before you apply.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• 22squared.com
• Internships at 22squared
• The 22squared Blog
• 22squared in the Press

How do you feel about brands as friends?

I think that I’ve mentioned before that it’s difficult for me to write about Marketing firms, because their stories don’t tend to be very unique. Yes, they all have different strengths and areas of expertise, but I still can’t put my finger on what separates the wheat from the chaff. With that said, I’m impressed with Minneapolis, MN based Colle+McVoy. Their tagline is “Ideas That Activate Brands,” and they claim to be “a 73 year-old agency with the soul of a start-up.” Both of those sound good to me, and I have to say that I’m wowed by their website. It’s gorgeous, and it delivers their message flawlessly. I don’t say it often about corporate websites, but they nailed it. Maybe that’s how I should start judging PR firms.

Colle+McVoy = Internships

Another way to get a feel for Colle+McVoy is to look at their work. They’ve done some pretty cool stuff recently, and if you have an eye for good work, then that’s almost always the best way to evaluate a company and get a feel for what they actually do. We’ll refer you to Colle+McVoy’s website to do some more exploring while we dive into their internships. Colle+McVoy has a post up on their Jobs page (which is a good example of what a Jobs page should look like) for their 2009 Summer Internship Program. It’s a paid, three-month program that will have you working on projects “from new business pitches to client projects to agency events.” The internships are offered in account management, account planning, interactive strategy, interactive production, and media, and they’re apparently reserved for graduation seniors. The application instructions are pretty specific, so check out the internship posting for all of the details. The deadline for applications is March 13th.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• ColleMcVoy.com
• Internships at Colle+McVoy
• About Colle+McVoy
• Colle+McVoy’s Work
• Colle+McVoy News

What do you think of Colle+McVoy’s website?

Brand building is a tough business, but Liggett Stashower is a Cleveland, OH based advertising agency that does it well. They’ve done a fantastic job building their own brand (as you’ll see soon), so it makes sense that other companies should trust them to do the same for them. They were named by Crain’s as the coolest place to work in Cleveland, and this video certainly backs it up. Liggett Stashower wins awards for community service and gives college students scholarships. I also hear that they occasionally pull children from burning buildings and are weeks away from the cure for cancer. Seriously, though, as soon as I arrived on Liggett Stashower’s website, I was impressed by them. If you’re interested in marketing, advertising, public relations, or communications, this is a place that you want to intern.

Say Liggett Stashower Three Times Fast

Liggett Stashower has invested a lot of effort in building a great website, but the only drawback is that it was built in Flash, which means that we can’t link to most of the pages on the site. You’re going to be on your own when it comes to finding all of the important information that you should be looking for when you do employer research. Luckily, Liggett Stashower’s website is insanely easy to navigate, so you shouldn’t have a problem finding what you’re looking for. They have made just about everything that you could ever want to know about the company easily accessible from their home page. You can check out information about their internship opportunities, their work, their people, and a lot more.

Liggett Stashower has what appears to be an exceptional internship program. As soon as you land on their Internships page (you’ll have to find it on your own), you’ll be even more impressed than when you saw Liggett Stashower’s home page. Not only do they offer one of America’s Coolest Internships, but they also have one of America’s Coolest Internship Sites. The site even has a game that was built just to waste your time – er – grab the attention of prospective interns. Seriously, don’t get too distracted playing, you need to save your energy for applying for the internships. Every year Liggett Stashower takes on six to ten college students for their internship program. They can choose to work in Program Management (Advertising, Account Services, and PR), Creative (Copywriting and Graphic Design), Connection Planning (Research, Strategy Development, and Media Planning), Interactive, or Financial. Interns get real work, mentors, field trips, and lunch with Liggett Stashower execs. They also get to design a t-shirt for themselves that says, “I worked at Ligget Stashower all summer long and all I got was invaluable career experience and this lousy t-shirt.” Interns are also invited to blog (see what last year’s interns had to say).

Liggett Stashower accepts applications for their Summer Internship program from October 1st through March 2nd, so you still have a lot of time to apply; however, it’s definitely to your advantage to apply sooner rather than later. If you’re looking for an internship in Public Relations, they offer internships year round, not just in the summer. Applicants should have finished their Sophomore years of college before the internship is set to start, and you can apply by sending a cover letter, resume, GPA, and relevant portfolio materials to:

Vicki Kressler
Liggett-Stashower Internship Program
1228 Euclid Ave., Suite 200
Cleveland, OH 44115

If you’re applying for a Creative Internship, be sure that you include three samples. If you have any questions, you can feel free to e-mail internship@liggett.com, but it appears that you have to apply through snail mail. Oh yeah, and if these internships aren’t awesome enough, they’re also paid! Now go apply before you get distracted and play that game all day.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Liggett.com
• Liggett Stashower at a Glance
• Liggett Stashower News
• Liggett Stashower’s Multimedia Gallery
• Liggett Stashower’s Intern Blog

What level can you get to on Ligget Stashower’s Internship game?

They say that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can definitely judge an ad agency by its website. If an ad agency’s website doesn’t impress, it’s probably reason enough not to hire them. Modernista! has a website like you’ve never seen before. Take a look. You might be confused at first. Modernista!’s website gives you an instant feel for what the agency is all about. They’re wacky, quirky, and creative; in fact, their way of thinking has been so off the wall that Modernista! is continually asked to step out of their “comfort zone” (like they really have one) and take on atypical projects. For example they recently directed a U2 video and overhauled the design of BusinessWeek. Find us another ad agency that has projects like those on its resume.

Internshipistas

There’s a great article from 2 weeks ago in USA Today about Modernista! It includes an overview of what they do and also has a few video interviews with the agency’s two founders. If your interest is piqued, this is the place to go to get the whole scoop on Modernista! Their website may be cool, but it isn’t as information packed as most corporate websites are. You should also take note that Modernista!’s current clients list includes Cadillac, HUMMER, TIAA-CREF, (RED), Hearts On Fire, and Discovery Networks/Animal Planet. You can view their portfolio on Flickr. Why don’t they host it on their own website? Because they seem to like to keep their “website” in the cloud. Almost all of its content exists on other web properties. You really need to give it a look to get it.

So what about interning at Modernista? There are a couple options. They’re looking for one General Intern and two Account Services Interns. All 3 Internship opportunities are located in Boston, and are unpaid. You can find more details by going to Modernista’s Jobs/Internships page or you can subscribe to the RSS Feed of their jobs and internships. Their internship descriptions are about as quirky as everything else that they do, so take a look. There’s not too much information about what interns will be expect to do, but you can guarantee that Modernista! will offer some insanely cool experiences.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Modernista.com
• Internships at Modernista!
• Modernista!’s Portfolio
• Modernista! on Flickr
• Modnernista! on Facebook

What do you think of Modernista!’s website?

Score another one for Twitter! This is the 2nd internship that we’ve found on the site in just over a week. We started following Amybeth Hale and reading her blog almost as soon as we found her on Twitter. She’s a Sourcing Specialist and “Research Goddess” for Waggener Edstrom, which means that she uses social networking as a recruiting tool – or as she puts it, she “makes friends for a living.” It’s clearly working for her, as she got us to talk about the PR firm’s internships. She can consider it our birthday present to her (yeah, we found out that it’s her birthday today on Twitter too).

Tweet Tweet

Waggener Edstrom is a major Public Relations and Communications firm that has 5 practices: Consumer, Public Affairs, Corporate, Technology, and Healthcare. They say that they help their clients “tell the stories that alter the way people think, act, and buy.” They have offices around the country, which include locations in Austin, Boston, Dallas, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. According to Amybeth, internships are definitely being offered in Seattle and Portland, and may be offered at other offices as well. She sent us a flyer with details about the internships, which we found was also posted on Waggener Edstrom’s website – although this particular posting was for New York City. A quick search of their Careers site showed that this internship in Account Services is also offered in San Francisco, Boston, and Brussels. There is also a Digital Strategies internship offered in Seattle, which looks like it has a strong focus on the use of social media. It’s actually one of the more intriguing internships that we’ve seen so far. You can go here for a full listing of Waggener Edstrom’s internships.

Be Like Amybeth and Get Your Research On

Interestingly enough, Waggener Edstrom seems to prefer interns who have already graduated college; however, there does seem to be some ambiguity around this. When we think internships, we think of students who are yet to graduate, so this is a little confusing. Internships at Waggener Edstrom are quite similar to their entry-level Account Coordinator position, which is the next step for individuals who excel in their internships. Waggener Edstrom’s internship listings have a lot of information, but it could be presented in a more digestible way. Many college students (new grads or not) might find all of the information in these job listings intimidating and overwhelming. It might help to take your time when you read them over.

Waggener Edstrom appears to work hard to integrate interns into their work processes, so expect a lot of responsibility if you end up spending a summer with them. That’s probably why they tend to lead towards new grads instead of current college students. If you have a strong background in PR or communications, and you like what you see, use the links below to continue your research on Waggener Edstrom. We think you’ll be pleased with what you find.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Waggener Edstrom’s Home Page
• Internships at Waggener Edstrom
• About Internships at Waggener Edstrom
• Careers at Waggener Edstrom
• Who Waggener Edstrom Is
• What Waggener Edstrom Does

Got anything to add about Waggener Edstrom? Leave a comment!