DigitasLBi Boston Preps The Next Generation
- by Larissa Faw , July 10, 2015
This week, DigitasLBi Boston hosted its 16th annual Eternship program, a weeklong marketing boot camp for 25 local high-school students to live and breathe the creation of an advertising
campaign. Since its launch in 2000, nearly 400 students have participated in the initiative.
This year, however, the program was notably different in three major ways. First,
DigitasLBi launched the dedicated Twitter handle Twitter.com/eternship so family and friends can follow the process. That said, few seem interested.
The account has fewer than 40 followers at the program's end on July 1.
Second, several of the students are coming in through DigitasLBi’s partnership with nonprofit organization Let’s Get Ready that guides
low-income high school students through the process of applying to college. Participants are also attending through Lynn Classical High School and KIPP Charter School.
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Finally, more DigitasLBi Boston employees are involved than years past. This year 150 employees participated in the program.
The initiative's structure remains consistent by providing students with a glimpse
into the lives of ad executives. They spent the first day in meetings, learning about who DigitasLBi is and what marketing is with a focus on social media. Then they went on a short field trip to a
fast food chain client who served as the basis for the program's client challenge.
Team leaders tasked them to create a campaign to increase this chain's afternoon in-store traffic.
The second day found students learning about the current hot digital trend known as wearables, where they were able to experience virtual reality gadget Oculus Riff.
The third
day allowed students to dig into the creative process when they spent most of their time working on teams of six to develop a mock marketing campaign.
On Thursday, DigitasLBi executives provided tips on public speaking and presenting during a mentoring session where each student got to speak
to four different employees about what they do for the company in an hour. Students spent their final day giving their campaign pitch presentations for a panel of judges comprised of mainly of
DigitasLBi executives and then celebrated with awards and cupcakes.
“Our program evolves with each passing year, always leaning on the current digital marketing best practices
within social, mobile and technology innovation, says Melissa York, Vice President/Group Account Director, and chair of the Eternship program. “This is the first year that the students attending
are as old as the program itself."
DigitasLBi executives are already planning for next year's event. Potential changes include making the event longer. They are considering
extending to a week of full work days next year, instead of releasing the students at 3:00PM. DigitasLBi will
also invite former Eternship students to come and talk to the current ones.
