DAY 1

Well, it was what I expected, plus miles of walking. Making coffee would be a blessing compared to the hot sweaty uncomfortable treck to buy the coffee, stirrers, plastic coffee cups, sugar, and whole milk (from 3 different grocery stores I might add...come on Cannes, get it together!).

I think I assumed I was in a better position.

Lesson 1: Never assume with a job. It is probably never as it seems.

You see, before my boss, Clay, came to Cannes he gave myself and Kirsten (the other intern) a great assignment. We were compiling research to create a grassroots marketing campaign to fight video piracy. We were also pretty heavily involved in using social media websites to promote a film that the company is selling at the festival. Thus, I let myself assume I might be doing real work at this internship.
These were great projects as they immediatly threw us into the two major elements of marketing: research and implementation. Working on the video piracy campaign showed me how to do truly exhaustive and extensive research, and how to use the many sources on the Internet to my advantage. I was able to find both scholarly articles and industry professional takes on the subject matter, while also taking into account the most elementry of websites and blogs to hear what consumers had to say about the matter. The Cherrybomb project pushed me to really elaborate my understanding of social media and it's impact. We promoted the material online not only by bring in 'friends' through direct requests, but through interactive viral outreach initiatives such as online petitions, videos, and pictures.

However, instead of expanding on these projects, we set up the office. Let me tell you, manual labor in a pencil skirt is NOT easy for the record. It was a lot of organizational work, using a creative eye to create a nice office space and show off the products (posters, promotional kits, etc.) in a nice way.