When I first applied to become part of the student cohort with the students+startups internship program, I could never have imagined all of the great opportunities that would come out of it. Looking through the 44 different companies and trying to find the perfect match for a summer internship turned out to be much easier than I thought after I read about a marketing and advertising agency called Tribu. I remember reading that Tribu believed in “breaking stuff and pushing boundaries, productively.” This immediately caught my attention, because I knew I wanted to work with a company that would push me outside of my comfort zone, force me to be creative, and teach me a new set of skills.
Once things with COVID-19 began to pick up around March, I got nervous that my summer internship at Tribu would be canceled. When I received a call offering me a virtual internship experience instead, I was still more than happy to accept. Tribu is an advertising agency that translates brands into a digital environment, and that is becoming increasingly important as events and other marketing opportunities go online due to COVID-19.
Working virtually with Tribu this summer has been an enlightening experience and listed below are just a few of the things I experienced and learned that I’ll be able to apply in school, work, and life.
Walking into a marketing and advertising agency as a management major was daunting at first, but the Tribe has been welcoming and encouraging every step of the way. Every morning we meet as a Tribe to establish our priorities for the day and when I joined the first zoom meeting and saw the CEO herself engaging with everyone, I could tell how engaging and important company culture was at Tribu. A company’s ability to create the same culture digitally as it had in office was significant in keeping everyone motivated through these trying times.
A company’s culture truly affects the way you work and the results you produce, and I found that at Tribu, I was always being challenged in positive ways. Giving and receiving feedback is a hard thing to do at times, but it was welcomed and encouraged at Tribu because it made the tribe better. I was surrounded by the most positive and hard-working people and it would shine through in the amazing sales, website design, graphic design, and digital marketing content created for partners. Even through a virtual internship, I was able to see that Tribu cared about building strong relationships amongst the tribe and exceeding the partners’ expectations.
One of the most beneficial parts of working virtually with Tribu was being able to see first-hand how the strategists, web designers, graphic designers, and sales reps came together to navigate the marketing world. I was afraid that working virtually would be difficult with so many moving parts however, I found that the virtual aspect is what pushed everyone to communicate even more. Because we couldn’t be collaborating in the same room at the same time, over-communicating was essential.
As a strategist intern at Tribu, I worked with the other strategists, web designers, and graphic designers to create blog posts, social media posts, and brainstorm innovative ideas for Tribu’s partners. They stressed to me that collaboration and teamwork within the tribe would be important, especially in a virtual environment where we didn’t have the luxury of being together like in a traditional office setting. The sales team was amazing and seemed to be closing new deals every week, so I had the opportunity to see projects starting from the ground up. As different tasks were given to me I became more familiar with the flow of things and how everybody’s job came together to get content out for a partner. Working online is a challenge, but zoom meetings, slack messages, and flow tasks kept everybody on the same page.
Working virtually with a marketing and advertising agency provided me with the opportunity to utilize different marketing tools and platforms in a real work setting. Every day at Tribu looked very different and challenged me in a different way. One day I could be writing a blog post for an escape room and the next I could be doing SEO on the backend of a website for a shipping container company. Tribu showed me how important it is to be well rounded and prepared for any job. The virtual experience taught me that I need to be flexible and still be able to make an impact through this rapidly changing environment.
The experiences and knowledge I gained from my time at Tribu was something I never could have achieved in the classroom. I am thankful to have still gotten the opportunity to complete a virtual internship at Tribu even through the craziness of COVID-19.
If you are looking for the marketing and advertising agency to take your business to the next level, contact Tribu today!
