A two-week intensive internship in the position of a creative marketer is over. How did our team manage to launch an internship program for this vacancy? We have simply realized that the concept of a creative marketer is very vague, and professionals are urgently needed. That's why we’ve decided that a paid intensive under the mentorship of Diana Voloshchenko, Creative Marketing Specialist, would allow our candidates to see all facets of this profession and try themselves in it.
Did everything work out? What stereotypes were dispelled, and what has elicited a WOW effect? Five interns shared their experience for the blog.
Elizaveta Onyshchuk
SMM manager at an English-language theater, applied for the internship to develop and gain new skills and experience
I would describe my internship with three words: sincerity, challenges, practice.
The unexpected (but very pleasant) thing was the understanding that a significant part of the work of a creative marketer is analytics. Initially, I was afraid to apply here because I considered myself "not creative enough" since it's challenging to come up with something from scratch. But almost all ideas here are based on previous research and analysis. This significantly eased my perception and eliminated my prejudice about my "lack of creativity."
Within two weeks, I managed to complete the full range of tasks for a creative marketer: analyzed the weak points of the audience, dealt with metrics, came up with "hooks" for new creatives, made variations, generated creatives from scratch, and even had time to write briefs for designers, which were shot and launched in tests.
I have noticed my full development. Due to the feedback from mentor Diana, who had checked all my tasks, I worked intensively on myself, improving skills and enhancing creativity.
The main advice to future interns is to dismiss all doubts. "Not creative enough," "not sure if I can" and a bunch of other thoughts should not stop you. Just apply, come, learn, and develop. It's a great opportunity not only to gain experience in the creative field but also to meet new talented and motivated people!
Anna Rudzinska
A student majoring in "Marketing", worked as a creative writer in a NGO and as a marketing manager
These three words accurately reflect my impressions of the internship:
Challenge. Changes are always stepping out of the comfort zone for me, but with all following practical tasks, I felt more confident.
Insights. I’ve learned many "tricks" of performance marketing, which I immediately applied in real launches of creatives.
People. Everyone is inspired by its work and is ready to communicate. So even during lunch in the kitchen, you can get a valuable experience.
It’s a myth about creative marketing that it's always about generating ideas. In reality, it's a very detailed research of competitors and the audience. You have to test!
During the internship, I went through the flow of a creative marketer in IT: from research to the launch of my own creative and analysis of key metrics. I am satisfied with the result and now I see the opportunities for the development.
The development area I managed to level up is being open to any ideas. During the internship, I have realized that all thoughts should be written down; don't rush to discard them.
I highly recommend future interns to seek opportunities, projects, internships, and try. Do not be afraid of mistakes (call them growth zones) and boldly voice your ideas.
Anna Minyu
A business economics student, an event manager at the Diia.Business center at Kyiv National University
Three things that impressed me a lot: people, development, and insights.
The Universe team is very friendly, believing in each other, inspiring, and supportive. I felt this during the internship. Every lecturer tried to convey information as detailed and clearly as possible.
Development. During the internship, I have significantly improved my hard skills, thinking, and perception of performance advertising. If you compare my first creative with the last one, the difference will be great 🙂 Insights. Creativity is based on the analysis of various metrics, trends, and tendencies. They show where to move and what works. People are very irrational, and their behavior is impossible to understand and predict. This is another insight.
And the biggest insight is that all ideas can work, even the craziest ones.
During the internship, we worked on the applications Cleaner Guru and ScanGuru. We dealt with searching for the troubles of the audience, analyzing creatives, generating hypotheses, making briefs for creatives.
I’ve significantly leveled up my idea generation. I started doing it faster and better. Of course, there was a clear systematization of existing and new skills, I understood the creative making process, the way how to find ideas, what to pay attention to, how to analyze performance, and so on.
My top tip: don't be afraid of your own ideas!
Christina Makoda
A student at Taras Shevchenko National University, volunteered in projects related to image marketing
I can characterize these two weeks of the intensive program as community, persistence and initiative.
The environment and energy within the company significantly influenced work and productivity. At Universe, I felt support at every turn.
Diana, our wonderful mentor, has constantly provided feedback and clear advice. The rest of the team was open to coffee breaks as well as to questions 😃.
Persistence lies in moving forward despite everything. Is there a failure? Quickly generate a new idea. Don't know what other approaches to come up with? Brainstorm and research – enjoy the found solution.
Initiative matters, as every crazy (in your opinion) idea can be genius and significantly boost the product.
The unexpected fact was how differently the audience reacts to various creatives. Also, how much some seemingly inconspicuous details affect sales and metrics in advertising.
I am totally satisfied with my result because I achieved the perfect balance of theory, practice, and communication while working on the applications Cleaner Guru and Scan Guru.
I completely improved my development areas! Before the internship, I was discouraged by the analytics of concepts: how to analyze them better, what to change for high download, click-through, and subscription rates.
With each new task, this became clearer and easier. So I can easily compare myself slightly shocked in the first week to more focused and confident in the second.
My advice for those who wish to join the Universe internship is to ask questions. There are no stupid questions, so it's better not to hesitate to ask. This way, you will better understand the task and cope with it more efficiently. You need to improve communication skills because a creative marketer deals with various departments.
Maryna Menshikova
A student at Taras Shevchenko National University, worked as an analyst and in a startup
To describe the internship in three words I’d mention: united team, new challenges, and daily discoveries.
The most unexpected thing was that a creative marketer most often generates ideas from already created ones rather than creating new and unique ones. The main work is in analytics and constant search for insights from already existing creatives, breaking down the concept into the smallest details.
Constant improvement of my skills is my life motto, so it was very cool to upgrade my idea generation skills, team communication, and understanding of user behavior in such an intensive format. I also enjoyed testing my ideas on users.
Advice for future interns: even if your previous experience is not directly related to the internship specialization, you will definitely discover many insights and broaden your horizons. Also, you will have the opportunity to talk and be inspired by people who create products themselves.
Diana Voloshchenko
Creative Marketing Specialist, mentor of the internship
The position of a creative marketer is noticeably gaining popularity in the market, but we’ve encountered the problem of a limited number of experienced specialists. And "switchers" don't quite understand the specifics of the profession. So we decided that we are ready to invest in the development of specialists and provide practical knowledge for those who have basic marketing knowledge but lack practice.
For our interns, it was an intense period: a symbiosis of theory and practice with daily feedback and working on mistakes. In just 2 weeks, they managed to work with experts from other teams, make creatives, participate in the production process, analyze the effectiveness of their own video creatives, and come up with new hypotheses.
It feels like the girls found it interesting and useful. Internship is a cool opportunity to start your career. For example, some of our former interns are now our colleagues!
