Tia and Tiana’s Work Experience at KW

Meet Tia and Tiana, two Year 12 students from Caistor Grammar School. Having spent three days with team KW, we took the opportunity to check in on their last day to hear their reflections on their time with us, presenting their findings on how they saw the marketing world before their work experience as well as afterwards…

What is marketing?

Then: We thought that marketing was a way to promote businesses and make sure that they are able to thrive. This could be through social media, website development or events.

Now: We think that marketing is a diverse industry that offers businesses many ways to promote themselves and what they do. These include design, PR, client relations, website development and social media management. It is also key to maintain a positive client relationship while being realistic and knowing what you are able to achieve for your client.

What do you think an agency does?

Then: Before, we thought Knapton Wright had many marketing agents with the same roles, who collaborated to produce work for clients.

Now: Having done work experience with Knapton Wright, we have learnt that a marketing agency works with many companies simultaneously. We also now know that a marketing agency involves many people with different specialities. This can include web design, branding and more. Staff will work together while harnessing the strengths of each individual.

What are the different roles within a marketing agency?

We have been privileged enough to have one-to-one time with each member of the KW team to gain insight into the requirements of each of their roles and how they are important to making the company work smoothly.

There can be a variety of roles:

• Website developers
• PR + content creators
• Client services
• Assistants
• Social media specialists
• Technological experts

What have we learned at Knapton Wright?

At Knapton Wright, we built a campaign for Caistor. We were able to work collaboratively and use our creativity to come up with various ideas. Using our ideas, we were able to experiment with tools like Canva and Procreate to create various pieces of work linked to marketing; this showed us how broad marketing can be. 

We created social media posts, blogs, logos and branding. We were able to achieve this because of our opportunity to observe industry experts and learn from what they have been creating.

We have also learnt that the marketing industry is extremely fast-paced and requires people who thrive under pressure and who can, often, generate great results quickly. This can be assisted by the use of organisational tools, such as Notion. We had a brief introduction to the use of Notion and how it can be essential to keeping on track and being able to communicate with your co-workers, even if they are on the other side of the world!

After everything you have learnt and experienced, does marketing still appeal to you as a potential career path?

I believe marketing appeals to me more so than it did before. I came into this experience unsure about my future and what I wanted to do as a career. Since doing my work experience at Knapton Wright and talking to all of the team members about their pathways into this, I believe my eyes have been opened a lot more, and I now understand how many different routes into the industry exist. Working on a campaign and being able to use my creativity for promotion and marketing has made me realise how much I enjoy working in this way!  Now I definitely think that marketing is my top choice.

Tia

I still think marketing is the right career for me. I have learnt during this work experience that the industry is very fast-paced and every day is different. This suits me well as I thrive on staying busy and like to be constantly challenged. This work experience has also shown me the variety of roles in the marketing industry- social media, PR, events, website development and more. This wide number of options makes it more likely I will find the exact part of the industry that excites me the most. I am also a very creative person, and I like the fact that most roles in marketing incorporate creativity in some way. I also like the idea of being able to swap between different marketing roles in a future career, to keep things interesting.

Tiana