A Day In The Life Of A Digital Apprentice
I can guarantee as a Digital Marketing Apprentice no day will be the same!
My morning starts with that dreaded sound! After a few snoozes and some orange juice I’m up and ready to walk out the door, on my lovely way to work down open country lanes I listen to my favourite feel good songs to start the day.
I have been working as a Digital Apprentice for Cunning Plan Marketing since September 2019 after attending a bootcamp day at The Juice Academy in Manchester and getting recruited by James, our Managing Director, on the day!
Arriving at my desk I begin to check my emails for Google Alerts; to help me spot new trends, inspirational stories and of course news about our current clients that we may have to react to on social media. My Google alerts include Digital Marketing, Creative Campaign and Altrincham; this is a great way to keep up with the very latest industry trends in addition to things happening on our doorstep.
As a Creative Agency, we all like to share things that inspire us to get our creative juices flowing! When I come across a piece of work or article that I love, I’ll share it on our #InspirationalThings Slack chat to discuss later on with the team.
On this particular day, we were shooting for our tech client, Energizer. I’ll always make sure all the camera equipment is prepared for the shoot so that everything goes smoothly. On this shoot we were capturing social media content to communicate the brand’s message of durable and long-lasting mobile phones and accessories, as well as ensuring the Instagram feed is aesthetically pleasing!
It’s my job to assist the shoot and make sure that everything is prepared, but I also love getting involved with the creative side and sharing my opinions on how the shots should be directed, whilst sticking to the creative brief. Our shoot location was in the lovely Cheshire countryside, where we took an array of product shots in several different scenes at an outside location. I was even on standby ready to jump into the shot when needed.
Once we wrapped up the photoshoot, it was back to the office to edit the photos. Growing up in the digital era I can filter photos in my sleep, so learning to edit photographs in Photoshop has become second nature.
Finally, with the slight enhancements to make those colours pop, it was time to schedule the posts for social media, creating catchy copy to grab the audience’s attention. I then tweaked the copy slightly for each social media platform to optimise its reach and engagement, as well as any relevant hashtags that can be added where needed. When it comes to choosing a time for posting, I think about the target audience that I want to reach and think about what times of the day will they be most active. I then check the social media insights of each platform change to give me the times that our audience is most active and schedule each one to suit that time. Once all of the content is approved by my colleagues, I can schedule everything into Loomly, the content posting system that we use.
Before I know it, it’s the afternoon and time for the usual Cunning Plan creative ideas session! Each Creative session we have one client in mind to discuss anything and everything from long term to short term campaign ideas, no idea is too big or too small. By openly communicating our ideas, this allows us to interpret concepts in different ways that can lead to a range of executions. After our session we all take a key idea and develop it further to outwit the ordinary creative and make it Cunning.
By Ruby Mae Bretherton, Digital Apprentice
