The Best A Man Can Get

Wow, what a long, crazy week. Here goes.

I officially started as an Associate at BBDO (Batten Barton Durstine and Osborne - four dead white guys) working on Global Disposables and Emerging Markets on the Gillette account. And honestly, officially starting wasn't that great. It involved an orientation session for new hires that was trying it's hardest to put me to sleep, despite the girl in HR trying hard to keep us awake. It didn't help that I didn't sleep at all the night before (much like the night before campaigns started...crazy). And it seems that they didn't really expect us to 1) know what BBDO was, and 2) have read through the offer packet. So I had to relearn about all the different benefit packages to pick from, and all the non-disclosure/confidentiality agreements, and everything else that goes with it.

And with that, I'll tell you what I do (or, what I'm allowed to tell you...). Currently, the big thing I'm working on is the Quarterly Review. Basically, we have to present all the worldwide creative work that's been done on our part of the account to the client at the end of the quarter. But for some reason it wasn't done last time, so I'm putting together the presentation for everything since January. It's really good because it's allowing me to get acquainted with all parts of the account. Just a little frustrating with having to clarify things in China and Russia and Turkey and Latin America and India and other random areas around the world. Basically, cuz of the time, I normally can't hear anything back until the next day.

Besides the quarterly review, I'm also working on status updates (another way to learn all about what's going on on the account). I'll be handling the budgets and purchase orders and such as soon as I get acquainted with that and all the job numbers. And any adaptation work between different regions will begin to start going through me soon.

But I've also been involved in some really cool stuff. I got to sit in on a meeting between a couple of my superiors, the global creative director on the Gillette account, and the account director for Gillette in Moscow (he was on the phone), discussing new creative concepts. I also got to listen in on our pitch to the client in Boston (I got to stay behind) where we showed different campaign ideas and stuff. Only problem w/ the timing of that is that it made me miss out on this really cool music brainstorming session. Oh well...there will be another that I'll go to probably.

So my account team is great. The guy right above me, Colby, has been a great help getting me situated and everything. His direct superior, Helena, is pretty sweet. She's from Barcelona. And then her superior, our account director, is Marcela. She's awesome, too. And that's basically our team. There's another guy named Sean that works on it, too (hence me being dubbed Sean 2.0), but I'm basically taking over some of his responsibilities so that he can focus on a different part of the account now. The there's other cool people that work on different parts of Gillette, too, like Cody's office-mate, Emily, who rivals Julio for her Facebook stalker-ness. But yeah, this account team is really close-knit apparently, so I'm really excited to be a part of it. Colby actually lives somewhat near me, as do a few other people on Gillette. I hear that once a month, Marcela takes our team out to somewhere nice for lunch. I'm excited! We're adding this girl from FHV BBDO in Amsterdam to our team in a few weeks, which is exciting, as well. Then I won't be the new person on the team anymore!

And I've got my own desk, which is cool. Doesn't really have any decorations or anything to make it really mine (besides the little post-it notes Liz leaves when she comes by and I'm not there). But soon enough I'll probably give it a little orange and blue or something. Sarah and I were discussing it when she stopped by for a few minutes after her interview. A big poster of Timmy might be in the works.

Well, that's it I guess for now. I'm sure there's even more I could say about my first week, but this is pretty much the gist of it. I could go on and on about the office, how, despite the dreary walls that everyone complains about, it's actually pretty cool. Central Filing, the full-service bar, is open 5-7ish (I've heard you can talk Joe, the bartender, into keeping it open a little later). We've got Red Strip and Guinness (including Smithwick's!) since they're clients. And the drinks are really cheap! And since FedEx is a client, we've basically got a FedEx in our office. I've had to ship a few things around the world already - I wonder if personal use is allowed...I'll find out...after all, there are tons of perks when you have cool clients...I've already gotten a free razor...and since we have Pepsi, there's free Aquafina EVERYWHERE! And we have Cheetos in the bar cuz Frito Lay is a client. Just don't get caught dead with a coke I've been told!

Well, signing out, here's some pictures Liz came by and took while I was working late one night. I've clearly got that embarrassed look on my face. Oh well. And I'm overdressed for work...my team told me they've already decided I'm going to be the best dressed in the office - I told them just give it time. Ok. For real...I'm out. Work tomorrow.