24/04/2016
(3/3)
"I applied for Volkswagen Group Ireland's INTRA placement. I chose to work with Audi because I think it is a really cool brand and I also felt the technological side of this brand was very relevant to the course material we learn in MINT, because their motto is "Vorsprung durch Technik" meaning Progress Through Technology. Seat, Skoda and numerous other brands fell under the same umbrella in the application process and lots of people applied for more than one car brand but I decided to focus on one, Audi. In my interview, they questioned why I did this and I explained how I felt Audi were the main brand that aligned with the technological side of our course . When I got the job, they told me that the way I explained the relationship between Audi and MINT really stood to me in the interview. The job required a full driving licence qualification as there was lots of driving involved.
For my INTRA year, I was driving around the country in 151 Audis and S5 Jeeps. INTRA was really brilliant! There was 7 on my team. My first weekend on the job, my manager told me that I had to drive to Cork as part of the My Audi Loyalty Programme. One of my roles was to create the newsletter every month, which was distributed to 12,000 people. I designed most of the newsletters and I also got the opportunity to work in partnership with an advertising agency for the final design. The first newsletter was quite challenging but by the last publication, it had become second nature to me.
As part of this project, I had to gather prizes and promotions. We had an agency to aid us with this called a "brand dating agency". This concept involved picking luxury brands that were similar to Audi for partnering with, for example, Nespresso coffee or Rachel Allen's cookery school in Ballymaloe, Cork and Miele . These prizes and promotions were included in the newsletter. I organised the agency to get competitions running, for example, a cookery class with Miele or a cookery workshop in Rachel Allen's cookery school in Ballymaloe. There are 11 dealerships nationwide and I had to create an offer for each Audi dealership which had to be customised. For example, Miele was for Dublin, Naas, Athlone and Rachel Allen's promotion was for Cork as it was linked with the dealership's geographic location close to their loyal customers. I also had to run these events and I really enjoyed this aspect of INTRA. All the celebrities were great to work with and the Audi customers were very appreciative. Through the Loyalty Programme, they feel part of a family or club which is strictly for Audi drivers only. In this sense, it was really cool to work for a luxury brand and it was a great experience. We also worked at the Web Summit , promoting Audi. We got to try out lots of new and innovative technologies such as the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset device and we used this as part of a simulation for driving an Audi TT Sports Car to enable customers to experience driving around a race track at the Web Summit.
I was part of the Marketing and Product team. Audi is different in that sense. Normally product team members work with the planning team in all the other brands. It was really useful to have them on our team for promoting online in particular. When I was promoting the Audi vehicles on Facebook and Twitter, it was great to have them on hand to explain in detail to me about each car's features and functions. There were two product team members in our group. One looked after the high-end models and the other saw to the low-end models. I was the digital marketing intern but I was also responsible for all the other marketing activities. Another role in our group was Events and PR and he had a really cool job. He liaised with all the motor journalists. He instructed me on which model to focus on a weekly basis, for example, one week I would have to drive an A7, take pictures of it and write an article, the next week I could be driving a TT. This involved developing my time management skills.
We had an agency called Automotive who delivered the cars, cleaned, prepped and fuelled them while my team and I tended to the logistics side of things. The odd time I got to deliver our model cars such as the TT sports cars and A7s to our brand ambassadors which included celebrities such as Catherine Thomas and Rob Kearney. When I delivered the car to Rob Kearney's house,(which had heated seats!) he gave me tickets to see a Leinster game that was on the following weekend as a way of saying thanks! It was awesome and these kind of perks were so fun! We also worked with an events agency called Pluto who were really helpful. Another team member was in charge of National Communications which was predominantly advertisements(both print and tv). As Audi is a global brand, we often got sent three mock up versions of different potential adds from Germany, where the head quarters are based, and our marketing team would analyse each ad. We would then pick one that we felt best applied to the Irish market. Sometimes, our marketing team members and our product team members would deliberate and challenge each other on which add to pick. There was also an intern on the Sales Team. This intern was in charge of selling to dealerships, not general customers. She also had to deal with the fleet sales and the stock of cars for use during test drives. There is also an after sales department which looks after the additional features, for example, servicing. I worked a lot on Audi's Customer Relationship Management software also. I learned how much stages are involved in the decision making process in industry and how many different levels of management and functions one needs to get approval from before running with an idea.
When I applied for INTRA, I specified that I wanted Audi digital marketing. Audi's marketing department is very active. I designed an online campaign with other team members which promoted women working in the motor industry. It involved a mother driving her child in a car. The child in the back is sighing because his Mam is driving, but when you clicked on the video, it brought you to a special portal on the Irish Times website with articles about women driving their industry. It gathered lots of PR and publicity for the brand. I had a great amount of responsibility on my INTRA placement even though I was an intern which was brilliant. It really plunged me into the working world. I also was in charge of using leftover money from 2015 for project suggestions in 2016. I was doing jobs that other people were not. I was really made feel that my services and skills were valued and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience".
