A Little About Work

Today I realized that I had been mostly writing just about my traveling and drinking escapades. It made me think that I was avoiding a huge part of my trip, my internship after all that is the reason why I am here.

So what’s been going on at work? Well so far I’ve just been learning. You really have to know a lot to be a successful media buyer. That includes knowing the client, the different mediums, and the software. Last week was one huge training session that my mind has just combined into one long day. I learned how to used three different programs Pegasus, which is used to clock hours and bill clients. Asteroid, this giant database that can tell you almost anything about consumers and different demographics, and Arianna, this is an AGB Nielsen product that deals with TV ratings and campaign monitoring.

So I learned about all those programs, and with that my boss is teaching me about New Zealand and the ad industry here. So last week we spent and hour talking about TV. Pretty cool huh? Lol When working in the ad industry though you need understand all the mediums. So we talked about the different channels in New Zealand, who owns them, and what’s their target market. I was baffled when I found out that the New Zealand Government controls channels 1 and 2, but I guess they don’t abuse that. They pay people to be unbiased when it comes to news and content. Personally I don’t think that would work in the U.S.

By the time Thursday came around I was ready for the weekend, crazy to think that I’m that dependant on a 4-day workweek. Anyways, I get to work and I find out that Steve, Matt, and I are being taken out to lunch. So I’m pretty stoked, I usually eat a sandwich everyday for lunch. So I did the work I had that morning and at 12:00 we left. We didn’t come back until 3:30, and that was after 5 of us drank three bottles of wine, and I had two rum and cokes. The two guys who took us out where from some company in Auckland that is like the equivalent of Clear Channel. These guys were pretty hilarious. They gave me the nickname Capone because I’m from Chicago. One of the better nicknames I’ve had.

I guess media planners get taken out to lunch like that a lot. That’s not even the end of it though; we got back to the office at 3:30. I had no work to do so I’m waiting for Matt to give me something to do and he tells me that we have to go downstairs to the café for another “meeting.” So that was the rest of my day, at least until 6:00. Then I find out that the reason that we have two of these in the same day is because there were all these media reps down from Auckland that day. There were two parties that night for media planners in Wellington, so I went to one with Matt. It was at this bar, that I can’t remember the name of, but it was sweet because it was an open bar. So I talked to a few people, as soon as they found out I’m American they all wanted to get to know me. That’s making me sound way too cool, it was only about two or three people I met at the party before I left. This was all on a Thursday too, and there was another party going on too. I can’t believe all those people went to work the next day. I wonder if that’s an industry thing or a Wellington thing.