Karsh/ Hagan
Caroline Jones, 2010
Throughout the month of January 2009, I had the opportunity to intern at Karsh\Hagan, a highly regarded and innovative advertising agency located in Denver, Colorado. Before beginning my internship, I knew little of what to expect. Because Middlebury does not offer courses in the communications arena, I was relatively unaware of the workings of an advertising agency. Nevertheless, my goal was to work in an industry that would reconcile my interest in business and art with my Psychology major. In the end, I happily believe that this is exactly what I got, and constantly found uses for both left and right sides of my brain. After this brief but incredibly rewarding experience, I think that advertising is a career that I will continue to consider as a future career option.
At K\H, I gained exposure to the advertising business as a whole. Specifically, I interned in the account services/management sector of the company, which is often considered the sales arm of the company. Employees in account services are responsible for meeting with clients, conducting market research, and developing sales goals, among other activities. While interns are often assigned to one person and assist them and only them, I ultimately was an intern that was available mostly to account managers, but also to anyone else throughout the company that needed assistance. As a result, I was able to work on projects in all the different divisions of the company, which allowed me to learn a great deal about all aspects of the advertising industry and greatly enhanced my experience.
Everyday, I spent a portion of my day conducting competitive analyses for different clients. K\H clients that I did work for included Colomer’s hair products (specifically American Crew, a specialty hair product line designed specifically for men), Pinnacle Bank, TD Ameritrade, and Visit Denver. As a result, I was able to spend my time researching and learning about many different industries at the same time, from hair products to tourism trends. This is one of the aspects about advertising that I really came to like-the work is sometimes hard and time consuming, but it is almost never monotonous and I always felt as though I was learning something new. Specifically, I spent much of my day researching Karsh\Hagan’s clients’ competitors, and made several presentations about competitor’s product lines, packaging and distribution information, market trends, etc.
In addition to competitive analysis, which happened to be continuous projects that persisted throughout the month, there were always other smaller assignments that I was asked to do in addition on a daily basis. These included such tasks as leaving the office to visit competitors’ offices and collect collateral (brochures, etc.) or take pictures of products of interest, assist the creative department in photo shoots, research the current AORs (Agency of Record) of potential future clients, among many other smaller responsibilities. In addition to my work, I also had the opportunity to sit in on a few meetings (not as many as I would have liked, unfortunately), which allowed me to get a sense of how account executives actually interact with their clients on a day-to-day basis.
While a month is a relatively short time frame for an internship, I believe that I gained a great deal from this experience. Working Monday thru Friday from 9 am to 5/6 pm, I well exceeded the 100-hour time requirement, and as a result feel as though I delved into the internship as much as I possibly could. Looking back on my time at K\H, there is nothing that I would change. I tried my best to be helpful and enthusiastic in all respects, and went out of my way to form relationships with the many amazing people who work at the firm. I worked hard, was detail oriented in my work, and went above and beyond at every chance I could.
I ultimately learned that there is much more to advertising that I initially anticipated. As I said before, I knew very little entering this internship, and as a result knew little of what to expect. I learned that advertising is an upbeat and exciting field that requires hard work but is also rewarding and enjoyable. Before my internship, I never realized how much research and detail goes into the formation of an ad, from the in-depth research and competitor analysis to perfecting a picture in creative. I now understand much more about this upbeat and interesting industry, and believe that it is absolutely something I can foresee myself pursuing in my future. I am appreciative of all the amazing people that I had the chance to meet and work with at K\H, as well as to those in the Career Service Office for allowing me (and all Middlebury students) the opportunity to have such a meaningful and educational experience.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.