Our day began with a rainy walk to Battenhall, a communications agency specializing in social media. The company was founded by Drew Benvie, who noticed the need for an agency focused on the digital world. After starting the company 6 years ago, the agency has grown to over 50 employees with international staff and partners. A few of their clients include Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.
One thing I really loved about Battenhall was their relationship with their employees. They focus on giving their employees independence in the sense that they offer unlimited holiday (vacation time), flexible work schedules, and free time during their work hours to learn and grow within their crafts.
After listening to many employees at Battenhall in various departments such as PR Executives, Senior Account Executive – Data and Insights, Influencers, and Design, I feel like we were presented with a lot of different avenues available within a communications agency and many different tools used in each. From social media audits to newsjacking, these were both new terms I was exposed to at this visit and found really interesting!
After a quick lunch break, we headed off on another walk to our next media visit: Burson Cohn & Wolfe. The company is an international communications and public relations firm, recently merging Cohn & Wolfe with Burson-Marsteller and renaming to BCW. Burson Cohn & Wolfe has 138 offices in 42 countries with over 4000 employees globally. They recognize that PR, in more recent years, has been changing and they are adapting to those changes through creative support and training for brands.
I loved the work style BCW presented, as they do not run on a typical creative pairs structure, rather working collectively in a writer’s room. While at BCW, they “Hub Team” presented us with the challenge to complete a creative brief from start to finish, implementing the twist of switching briefs with another group to finish and pitch. I really enjoyed how interactive the employees were with us throughout the visit and I liked the challenge they gave us, much like real-world industry experience.
After finishing up our media visits for the day, the trio (Angela, Kayla, and myself), found a little Italian restaurant to have dinner. We each had a margarita pizza and they were delicious! On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a gelato place and enjoyed a nice treat to end our busy media-filled day.
Here’s to another full day of media visits tomorrow!