I can’t believe my time at Make Happy has come to a close! The seven weeks I spent here have flown by. Although I only had a short amount of time at Make Happy, I got a good taste of what agency life is like, was able to attend client meetings, learned how to construct a Business Model Canvas, and saw how playing with Legos can bring businesses very real results.
My favorite project to work on during my time at Make Happy was definitely assisting Planning Associate Adrian with the research phase for a project involving a leading London architectural practice. As an advertising major, I am fascinated with the process of how an agency, through in depth and thorough research, is able to find solutions to big brands’ problems. In my time here, I was lucky enough to be able to contribute to this process. Prior to working at Make Happy, I had never seen the research and strategy phase of a project first hand, and I was very interested to see how much work truly went in to this project. I was able to help out Adrian on the project by working with my fellow intern Magali to put together a competitive analysis, analyze the competitors’ websites and communications messages, and helped transcribe internal and external interviews.
I was happy to work on this project over an extended period of time because I feel that I have learned so much about the client, its competitors, and the architecture industry in general. I enjoyed watching the project unfold and seeing how our research compared to the opinions of architectural practice’s employees, as well as external figures in the architectural industry.
Make Happy often uses workshops to problem solve, determine strategy, or to launch an internal communications campaign. The concept of a client workshop was new to me, and Jonathan was kind enough to take the afternoon to teach Magali and me the basics of facilitating a workshop. I learned how to engage a group in a workshop through creative problem solving, which was interesting.
On December 15, I leave for America to complete my last semester at my university, and will begin looking for jobs in advertising almost immediately. My time at Make Happy has given me experience and knowledge that will definitely come in handy wherever I am able to start my career in advertising. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to work and learn in London, and am especially thankful to everyone at Make Happy for all I have learned from them!