So you want to work in advertising, huh? The intern process is definitely a great career move, but getting said internship, and more importantly what you do once you have it, is what really matters. Every Spring at Connelly, we get hundreds of resumes of aspiring copywriters, designers, brand managers and all the creative sort, but the majority of the cover letters and resumes are just, well, the same. Plain Jane. Here at Connelly we are far from plain. With the loud music bumping everyday, the ping pong, the Summer softball team and well, the bar in the middle of the office, we like to think we know how to have some fun.

So if you want to be plain on paper, it makes no sense that you want to go into advertising. Think about what makes the best ads? Originality and understanding your audience. This goes for internship applications as well.

While reading through a stack of these cover letters, I was waiting to laugh. I was waiting for someone to take a risk or make me want to meet them. If you want to be a copywriter, prove it! If you think your college courses and your experience in ad club were invaluable, tell us how.

What about the interview? Stand out! Show your quirkiness, tell us what unique ideas you have and don’t be afraid to lay it all out there.

Want to know more? Two of our current interns Sadie and Abby weigh in on their experiences here:

Sadie Bagdon

Emerson College/ Major: Marketing Communications and Writing, Lit. & Publishing

Department at Connelly: Social Media/PR

Abby Pender

Bentley University/ Major: Marketing

Department at Connelly: Brand

1. Why were you looking for in an internship? 

 Abby: I wanted an internship where I would be exposed to various disciplines in an advertising agency and gain hands-on experience with real-time projects.  As soon as I interviewed at Connelly, it was a no brainer; I knew this opportunity was exactly what I was looking for.

2. Why Connelly Partners?

Sadie: I chose Connelly because I previously worked at MOTT (Mass. Office of Travel and Tourism), which is one of Connelly’s biggest clients, and I liked the work Connelly did for them.

Abby: I originally heard about Connelly’s unique culture and atmosphere from a Bentley alumnus, and my interest only grew from there. I was familiar with their work for clients such as Tufts Health Plan, Babson College, and New England Aquarium, and I was extremely interested in learning more about the process behind developing and creating campaigns such as these. When I came in to interview I was immediately impressed by everything Connelly had to offer.

3. What type of role do you hope to have in the advertising world in the future? 

Abby: When I first began at Connelly, I was pretty confident that I wanted a career in advertising, and this internship definitely confirmed that in my mind. I hope to obtain a position on the Brand team of an agency that will allow me to leverage what I have learned here. Working at Connelly Partners has set the bar high for what I hope to get out of future positions, and I’m certain this experience will help me achieve my future career goals.

Sadie: Ideally, I would like to be a copywriter, but really anything in the advertising side of things would be fine with me. For the time being, though, social is pretty fun.

4. What are some interesting things you have learned? 

Abby: One of my biggest takeaways from this experience has been learning about the internal processes at an ad agency. While working with the Brand Team to launch an SMS campaign for a key client, I was able to gain hands-on experience in what goes behind creating a text campaign. I was also able to hone my analysis and research skills through various competitive review projects.

Sadie: I have learned a lot about social media analysis, and I have gotten a lot of practice in more commercial writing than I’m used to doing, as well as more efficient ways to research and build lists.

5. What is one piece of advice you would give to a new intern at CP?

Sadie: Do every company activity you have the chance to, and make sure you know when the fruit gets in.

Abby: Break out of your comfort zone! There are so many great opportunities to take advantage of during an internship at Connelly; if there is a project you find interesting and want to be involved in – ask! If there is a company event or an activity that you think would be fun – do it! The people here are great, and the culture will be unlike any company you’ve previously worked for.

We welcome anyone to apply for an internship at CP. We just hope your cover letter and resume stands out the way you do. 

So what’s so fun (801) about working on American Tourister? First of all, fun is part of our brand philosophy (“Travel should be fun.”) and our tagline (“Pack more fun.”) (804). Secondly, and most importantly, we have a client who trusts us and gives us a lot of freedom to have, yep, fun (805) with the brand.

That means we get to do stuff like this:

#MarchBagness Update: Our underdog, #8 Turquoise Splash lives to see another day. #UpsetCity marchbagness.com/fun4.html

— American Tourister (@AmTourister) April 3, 2013

#MarchBagness Update: Despite Purple Pop’s cool as ice demeanor, Honeysuckle iLite spun by for the win. marchbagness.com/fun4.html

— American Tourister (@AmTourister) April 3, 2013

Yesterday, a user posted a touching story about how his family went to Olive Garden after a recent fire at his parents’ house. Their 3-year-old daughter blurted out that “Grandpa’s House Had a Fire” and much to the surprise of the family, they received a completely comped dinner.  The picture of the receipt shows that the dinner was free, and it is placed perfectly next to the unobstructed logo of the Olive Garden. After some research by fellow Redditors however, this story was deemed as false advertising.

Olive Garden is a culprit:

As is Taco Bell. 

So, one has to wonder: if advertisers are starting to admit to this sketchy scheme, does it matter?

Well, some could argue yes, simply because it’s not Reddit’s “modus operandi” to be an advertising platform:

“No matter how subtle it may seem, post it here, and watch as Reddit becomes filled with overt and despicable cowardly corporate advertising, sad shilling, voracious viral marketing, arrogant astroturfing; and general, rampant consumerism as companies harness the persuasive power of social media.”

Some could argue no- it doesn’t matter because it’s “obvious” these are fake, and it may just prove to be negative for the brands, such as Cheesecake Factory seen here:

One company blatantly admits to their crime:

“I am part of an advertising company. My team has manufactured numerous front page posts over the past 2 years. Already, we are prepping for the Dark Knight Rises campaign. …In order to do this, we need to maintain plenty of “average” accounts. This means having an account that’s been active for 6+ months, posting semi-regularly, gaining karma steadily, so it’s not rejected by the community when “they” submit their advertising..”

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1b3wfu/that_olive_garden_receipt_is_fake_its_free/ 

So you may question the ethics of advertising… when is honesty most important? When do advertisers need to know their place and what is NOT their place? And what should be done about this? Whether or not this “conspiracy” turns out to be true, regardless, it still shows that more and more brands are utilizing Reddit for their own good… or bad.

Here are a few things we’ve learned to be critical for success in defining and launching a new client/agency relationship — agencies should:

1. Shut up and listen: listening is a lost art in this business. Clients appreciate it, agencies benefit from it. Do it.

2. Ask smart questions: show that you’ve done your homework and that you’ve listened.

3. Set realistic expectations: don’t overpromise just to keep the love alive. It won’t work, and the immediate appreciation you get will be dwarfed the first time you under deliver. Along those lines, set process and procedure expectations. Whether you have a little or a lot (a blog post for another day), communicating how things will and should go gets everyone on the same page from the get-go.

4. Be honest: stop telling them what you think they want to hear and tell them the truth (in a respectful and constructive way, of course).

5. Show you care: make an effort; really get to know your client’s business.  They’ll appreciate it, and it’ll make the work and relationship better.

Most importantly, take a minute to appreciate the new relationship and all the potential it has to offer. There will never be as much hope and opportunity as there is in the first 30 days; so raise a glass, toast to it and then get after it.

The art of the “elementary school” comeback: ever since we are little, we’re taught to stand up for ourselves — when you fall, get up, and when someone doesn’t believe in you…prove them wrong.

In case you live under a rock, over the past week or so, we’ve been in the midst of what could quite possibly be a first of its kind, dating-meets-marketing campaign called: “First Date Fooled.”

Scripted, perfectly planned, and often times, fake, the pitch process and dating are very similar. And when we started to look at our current win & loss column, it became apparent — we’ve lost quite a few, but seven of those lost pitches, in particular, were interesting in that the brands came back to us for work down the road.

The agency initially chosen by the client turned out to be (gasp!) a little different than expected. Maybe they had a lot in common; maybe they said all the right things; maybe they were the wrong kind of different. Point in case: they were fooled.

Sure, we’re all easily fooled, and anyone can lose a pitch, but mastering the comeback is an art.

Here are our top 10 favorite comebacks from the past decade:

1. Obviously, the Red Sox in the 2004 World Series. No explanation needed.

2. Britney Spears 2007 VMAS. Hey, at least she tried.

3. Martha Stewart. After five months in federal prison for conspiracy, she’s added 7,000 new products to her name, published her 71^st book, runs four magazines, and has four new television shows. Calm down, Martha!

4. Miley Cyrus. Ok maybe she doesn’t deserve to make the list, but from Hannah Montana to causing an insane cult following from this terrible haircut… we felt it necessary to say something.

5. Spice Girls. Reuniting for the Olympics last year…doesn’t this just make you want to “Slam it to the left If you’re havin’ a good time, shake it to the right If ya know that you feel fine!”

Ok, maybe not.

6. MySpace. Purchased from News Corp. by Justin Timberlake and a group of investors last year, MySpace now presents itself with a sleek, new video touting an inviting design.

7. Furby. Yes, seriously. Hasbro revived the 14 year old, creepy toy with high tech add-ons like LED lit eyes, touch sensors, and adaptable personality traits, along with a companion iPhone app. Apparently, they sold extremely well during the 2012 holiday season.

8. Burger King. After having recently been Twitter-hacked on Monday (re-skinned to look like McDonald’s), they responded quickly, closing the account and putting out a direct message to mashable.com. Unfortunately, there was still some backlash.

9. Tiger Woods. That is all.

10. Manti Te’o. Details: pending.

Losing isn’t fun. Comebacks are. We’ll continue to pitch, and as needed, we’ll continue to comeback.

Can you think of a comeback worth mentioning? Tell us in the comments below or Tweet us @ConnellyAgency.

www.firstdatefooled.com

Here’s the thing about first dates – that’s as good as the person sitting across from you is ever going to look. Ever. The clothes are perfect, the speech rehearsed, the hygiene impeccable, the breath is minted, and the meal was chosen before the menu was opened.  With all that choreography, you can understandably be fooled into thinking the rehearsed person is the real person. And you get First Date Fooled.

We’re Connelly Partners. And we are losers. As is everyone in this business. Advertising is a business of pitches and presentations. Some you win, some you lose. But no matter what the pitch, what the presentation, we are who we are. Honest with our opinions, sincere in our perspective, and genuine in our interest. Some people hire us on the spot for that, some don’t. But the funny thing about our agency is not how many times we lose pitches, it’s how many times we lose a pitch and the client ends up hiring us later. Frankly, no one loses pitches like we do.

We are who we are, what we create and how we think. Some people see that right away, and some a little later. We may not be the sexiest of first dates. But in business as in life, love generally wins over lust. And Connelly Partners generally wins over clients.

Sometimes it just takes us a little longer.

I’ve been a label reader for about as long as I can remember. I check the “numbers” before I buy just about anything, or give anything to my kids — and to that note, I’ve become a more scrutinizing label reader in the last nine years, since my first was born. But I believe that most moms do that; especially when it comes to food allergies or sensitivities.

So, today when I learned that nutrition labels have been around since only 1990, I found it hard to believe.

So much has happened in the past 23 years in terms of nutrition information and dieting; in the late 80s and early 90s, we paid attention to lower fat content; then came the carb watching phase and high protein diets; then sugars; then trans fats; then fiber…

It’s become so confusing that it’s no wonder we all reach for the nearest comfort foods. But somewhere along the way, did we forget common sense? To not cut any one macronutrient, but to simply make sure we get our nutrition from real, whole foods?

It wasn’t truly until we worked with Stonyfield Farm, one of our first CP Wellness clients, that we put ingredient lists under a microscope, and recognized the passion that companies like Stonyfield have for making products so pure.

Now, that’s the conversation we get into with our kids; not fat free or low carb/high protein — real vs. fake. We want to eat as many whole and real foods as we can. The less processed the better. But even if your kids get it, it’s hard to compete with school lunch boxes filled with Oreos, fake pink yogurt, and chocolate milk.

Our next true ‘aha’ moment came from Core Performance, a fabulous and interesting start-up that we helped to brand as an offshoot of Athletes’ Performance in Arizona run by Mark Verstegen. We learned what to focus on in the “numbers.” Looking for high quality fats (no trans fats), at least a 3 in the fiber column, and below 8 in the sugar column. Protein numbers were relative, depending upon what you needed. For instance, after a workout you have a small window to replenish your protein.

Then came the Institute of Integrated Nutrition, which taught us so much it’s hard to list it all here. I’ll never forget one quote by the headmaster of the school, “It is our job to teach you everything, so that when it feels so confusing, you base decisions on your gut and what makes the most sense for your individual clients.” Common sense and moderation: that’s what he was talking about. It was telling when he held up a bunch of kale and said, “I don’t care if you need to put chocolate sauce on this, get your kids to eat it.” Again, moderation: it’s not about eliminating anything; it’s about getting in what’s good for you, and crowding out what’s bad.

We’ve all been a part of this nutrition speak for so long — navigating through all of the info overload — that we forget labeling has only been around for 23 years.

How is that possible? What did we know about the food we ate before that? What didn’t we know? It baffles me to think that someone who suffered from food allergies would have to dig much deeper to get the information they needed.

How would we know how much fiber and protein and good, quality carbs we got? Without a nutrition degree, you couldn’t possibly figure all of that out. In a time where there is so much conflicting information about nutrition, that feels like a very freeing thought. We had to base our decisions on instinct, and what our grandmothers ate. That’s a simple and refreshing notion.

I sometimes wonder what’s better, knowing all of that information or not knowing? Clearly, to people who are physically affected by the ingredients, it matters completely. But for the rest of us, I’m not sure. Speaking for myself, have we become so obsessed that we sometimes forget to lean on instinct?

I’ll leave you with this one question: What kind of a label reader are you?

We’ve taken the time to identify how people read and react to labels. How does it affect you? How do you base your decisions? We at CP Wellness are curious where the numbers fall, so please reply by telling us which one you are.

Label scrutinizers. You build in extra time for exploring foods, reading labels and making decisions based on numbers and ingredients first. Taste is important, but eating “useful food” is the most important thing for you.

Label scanners. You care about the nutrition label and might give it a good glance, but buy it because of taste and emotional connection first.

Label aware. You know it’s back there and might take an occasional peek, but for the most part, you don’t let it rule your decisions.

Label apathy. You don’t even look. Not once.

For an interesting read on nutrition labels, check out this opinion piece in The Washington Post.

Being a parent this time of year usually means giving your children the perfect gift. This year, being a parent means giving your children hope. Where will you find it?

On the shortest, darkest day of the year, coming on the heels of one of the darkest days in our country’s recent history, all we can do is look for the light.  We know it will come — days will get longer, our moods will get brighter. Things will get better. But right now, it feels really dark.

I like to run in the early morning. As the sun rises and the streets are quiet, I think about things I want to think about (without someone asking me for something RIGHT NOW!!!) On December 12^th, I spent my run thinking about the winter holidays and what they have in common. I started to reflect on how the holidays — whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Repeal Day — all speak to a sense of optimism and hope for something better ahead. When things are bleak, we need and are given a reminder that miracles happen and life can be pure and good.

Then, two days after that run, Newtown was rocked by unfathomable horror.

I couldn’t think about the holidays without looking through the lens of Newtown. But rather than change how I thought about the holidays, it brought that message of hope into sharper focus. Especially this year, we need to be reminded that our darkest days won’t be dark forever.

I have the pleasure of knowing an amazingly astute 8-year-old girl named Avery who processed the Sandy Hook shootings by equating the situation to Pandora’s Box. She reminded her mom that when all the fury and evil had been released from Pandora’s Box, a beautiful butterfly remained. Avery remembered that when the darkness lifts, we can still find something lovely.

It’s hard to remember that lesson when it’s really dark.

More than ever, the holidays need to break through the darkness for us.  We need to look for proof of goodness and hope to remind ourselves, and our children, that the world isn’t always so scary and terrible. We need to make an effort to do good and be good to each other. We need to be the light that breaks the darkness, the beautiful butterfly in Pandora’s Box.

As parents, we feel that need even more acutely. Some monster stole 20 of our children. We feel the obligation to hold those still here with us more tightly and show them more of the light. And you can see people doing that — food, gift and snowflake drives to benefit those in Newtown; the town of Norwell, MA rallying around a young girl who was recently diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor; and (very close to my heart) the good people at Connelly Partners dedicating their time and immense talent to help find a cure for a little girl named Sienna who has a disease that is slowly turning her muscles to bone.

The good, the light is there. Find it and show it to your kids. Be the holiday for them this year.

If you want to spread some hope of your own, please join Connelly Partners in its fight against FOP and donate to Sienna’s Flower Garden. Then show your kids your flower of hope in Sienna’s garden.

We’re told that this content needs to be as unique, topical, thought provoking and sharable as possible. This way, thousands of people will read your post, share it, then revisit your website. Easy enough, right? Wrong.

Go ahead and type your title into Google Blogs. What happens? Inevitably, you’ve found hundreds of posts with similar titles, description and content. At this point, there’s some soul searching to be done. I’m going to assume you are not an industry thought leader, so realize that you need to get as much value as possible out of your post. How can you be sure that this masterful post of yours is being properly indexed and appreciated? More importantly, how do you ensure that crafting this content isn’t a colossal waste of time?

With these 3 simple SEO tips, you can easily increase the value and visibility of a blog post:

1.   SHARING IS CARING

It is clear that the impact of “social signals” on SERPs across all verticals is growing. Unique, sharable content is quickly becoming the most results-driven offsite SEO initiative, and that begins and ends in the social realm. While Matt Cutts (via Barry Schwartz) tells us that links are still the most vital ranking factor, SEO’s everywhere realize that the more “Likes,” RT’s, +1’s and shares the content receives, the better it performs in search results. In addition, this sharing can directly increase the amount of those links, strengthening your content, as well as the site it lives on.

Here’s what Search Engine Watch’s David Harry had to say: “We can surely say that regardless of Google, engaging in social channels would certainly have a direct or indirect effect on the world of search optimization. In many cases the activity results in wider visibility which can lead to links and other signals.”

2.   METADATA

Implementing proper metadata is crucial to the success and visibility of your content. It’s amazing how many blogs I visit that simply leave out the metadata for individual posts. One thing I ask my clients to do is to set up a URL structure where each post is linked from a main feed, but can be accessed via its own page with its own unique URL.

Start with proper keyword research, making sure to find a targeted phrase that has fairly lower search volume than the broader, more popular phrases. After you’ve settled on the URL using a targeted keyword/phrase within, these are the next most important things to include before publishing:

Title tags – the most essential ranking factor for metadata.

Meta description – this is where you can take advantage of your creative genius, writing a unique description (with keywords) that can really draw a reader in and separate your blog from the hundreds of competitors.

H Tags – H tags are an important formatting indicator for search engines. Be sure to properly use an H1 tag for the title of your blog feed. Within that same feed, be sure to make each blog post title an H2. If you use the URL structure mentioned above, be sure to give proper H1’s and H2’s to the post’s individual landing page.

Meta keywords – less important, unless you consider your post newsworthy. In that case, read Google’s explanation of the return of meta keywords for news articles.

3.   SHOUT-OUTS

We’ve already discussed how vital links can be when it comes to visibility, so why not take advantage of the linking opportunities within your blog post:

Be sure to mention any blogger or article that influenced your writing.

Make sure to link to your own previous blog posts.

Don’t leave out a chance to link to some other area of your site that has relevant information and/or commentary.

Request links to your post on relevant sites/blogs.

The name! If only you could remember the damn name!

Enter Faceboogle.

Here’s what would happen: you click on the Facebook app, find the search bar, and type in “London pub bangers and mash.” What pops up? At this point, we can’t say for sure. Considering the endless personal information and data that Facebook has at its disposal, though, it wouldn’t be farfetched to imagine one result being a picture of your friend at The Shakespeare’s Head that he took (and tagged) during his trip in 2008. Maybe another is a link to The Shakespeare’s Head Facebook page; where they have a menu, map, directions — you get the idea. Problem solved. Or should I say question answered?

According to Mark Zuckerberg at the Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Facebook’s ability to answer these ‘questions’ accurately is not only enticing, it’s entirely possible:

Facebook is pretty uniquely positioned to answer the questions people have. “What sushi restaurants have my friends gone to in New York in the last 6 months and liked?” Or “which of my friends or friends of friends work at a company that I’m interested in working at because I want to talk to them about what it’s going to be like to work there?” These are questions that you could potentially do at Facebook if we built out this system that you couldn’t do anywhere else.

If you’re anything like me, you constantly find yourself in the situation of our pretend traveller, maybe a little less intoxicated, and a lot more informed about what you are looking for. With that in mind, Facebook Search becomes even more inviting. Based on the amount of traffic the social network receives daily, it is inevitable that Facebook Search will compete with Google and Bing. It’s senseless to think otherwise, especially considering the existing partnership with Microsoft.

“While Bing has Facebook integrated into its search engine — so that what your friends like on Facebook shows up alongside your Bing search results, and you can easily post to Facebook to ask a question — presumably Zuckerberg’s search team is working on something that would derive a set of answers from Facebook first and wouldn’t require a visit to Bing,” said CNET’s Donna Tam.

I visit Facebook daily. I’m going to assume that you periodically do the same throughout your day, switching back and forth between Facebook and Google when you need to look something up. Well, the question is, if you didn’t have to use Google, would you? I know it sounds simple, but I guess that’s kind of my point. A recent study suggests that Facebook could capture around 22% of the global search market “simply by launching its own search engine tomorrow morning.” It’s important to note, however, that the same study shows 48% of respondents dislike the idea of Facebook launching its own search engine to directly compete with Google and Bing.

No matter what, I don’t see Facebook Search ever upending Google’s superiority in regards to semantic and organic search. And I can’t say that people looking for cheap hats or the state bird of Idaho will do so on Facebook. All I know is that if Facebook can mimic the titanic search efforts of Google and Bing, while providing personalized & highly relative results, you might get the answer — not answers — you are really looking for.

What do you think? Would you use a Facebook search engine?