As an International Relations (IR) student heading into my final year at the University of Exeter this September, my goal for the summer was to step out of my comfort zone and dive into the tech industry. I joined VIOOH at the end of June, and fast forward to today, I am already halfway through my nine-week internship.While I was initially nervous about grasping the complexities of ad tech and programmatic digital-out-of-home (pDOOH) advertising, the welcoming culture at VIOOH immediately put me at ease. Everyone has gone the extra mile to answer my questions and help me settle in.
Over the past month, I've had the incredible opportunity to split my time between the Marketing and Commercial teams. Coming from an IR background, I’ve quickly learned how to apply my understanding of complex global networks and cultural nuances to a fast-paced business environment. I began with the Marketing team, diving straight into the dual worlds of communications and product marketing. As I mentioned previously, one of my biggest challenges to begin with was understanding the technical side of pDOOH, but luckily that is what made working in Product Marketing so rewarding. I was understanding how to translate highly technical ad tech capabilities and turning them into clear, compelling value propositions for media owners and buyers. This was complemented by my time with the Communications team, where I drafted social content, built out campaign effectiveness case studies, and researched regional market trends to help shape VIOOH’s position as a thought leader in the space.
More recently I have shifted my focus towards the Commercial Enablement team managing deals throughout the entire sales lifecycle and equipping sales and customer-facing teams with the tools, training, and content they need to effectively engage buyers and drive revenue growth. So far I have concentrated on making internal workflows more efficient by utilising Google Gems. Building out these custom AI assistants to streamline repetitive tasks and organise information allowed me to contribute towards the efficiency of the team. It feels great to leave a tangible and tech-forward impact that others can use regularly saving them time on other day to day operations. I have also been building my commercial acumen by monitoring and pacing active deals ensuring campaigns deliver exactly as promised, developing my analytical skills and getting great exposure to the revenue-driving side of the business. Building on my analytical skill set further, VIOOH offers specified growth time throughout the week to develop personal skills. I have focused on my SQL and Google Sheets proficiency which in the long run will help me to better understand the backend data that drives these campaigns.
As I move into my second half of my internship, I am continuing to branch out my work across other commercial teams such as the Demand Side and Business development teams. I am really looking forward to getting more hands on with client campaigns and seeing how the deals I have been pacing are actually built from the ground up, allowing me to be exposed to a more client facing role, helping to price deals and campaigns. Alongside this, I will also play a tangible role in orchestrating our upcoming internal training event: the Commercial Power Up Day, helping cover our Non Media Services work by developing slides and interactive elements.
With four weeks down and five to go, my time at VIOOH has already given me a much sharper commercial awareness to take back to Exeter. I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer brings!