This year marked the first annual Intern Project at
Schneider Associates, and Intern Coordinator and Account Coordinator Joanne Pires
reports it was a great success. Eight interns were broken up into two teams,
and today each team presented their own project. Team A was made up of Nidhi
Makhija (Emerson College),
Jenna Petty (Emerson College), Shannon Dempsey (Emerson College) and DJ Capobianco (Boston University).
Team B included Corrie Colwell (University of Connecticut), Gillian Driscoll
(Boston University), Taylor Hass (Elon University) and Mike Shea (Emerson
College).
In the spirit of
Schneider Associates’ launch expertise, Team A’s project was to re-locate a restaurant
chain from the West to the East coast, while Team B was assigned the
introduction of a new hotel chain. The groups were given eight weeks to strategize
and prepare an entire public relations and marketing campaign for their
prospective clients, as well as adding a social media aspect to promote each project.
For their restaurant, Team A decided to bring In-N-Out
Burger to the East Coast, and developed a comprehensive plan, which included
competitive analysis, creative aspects and a comprehensive new media plan. Team
A positioned themselves as “Crossing Palms PR,” named after a theme in the
favorite movie of Harry Snyder, the founder of In-N-Out Burger.
Team B decided to take an alternate route, and created a new
hotel chain, called Sage Hotel & Spa, which would be located in Plymouth, MA.
The team, posing as “Guesthouse Communications,” walked the audience through
the campaign to launch the hotel, including PR objectives, launch strategies
and details about the restaurant and spa.
After eight long weeks of hard work and commitment, the
teams squared off in a friendly competition in front of a panel of judges
including SA President Joan Schneider,
Ian Chio, Finance and Administration Manager, Patrick Richardson, Integrated
Marketing Manager, Julie Hall, Vice President of the Consumer Group, Jessica
Lappen, Consumer Group Manager, and Ashley DePaolo, Corporate Group Manager.
After much deliberation, the judges picked Team A, or “Crossing Palms PR,” as
the winner.
“Despite the fact that we won, my team learned many skills
that will serve us well in the coming years,” said Team A member DJ Capobianco.
“We worked hard to coalesce as a team - and it paid off in being selected the
winner.”
According to Team B member Corrie Colwell, “It was clear
Team A not only took the time to complete the project, but spent a great deal
of time practicing their presentation. They made you want to try N-Out-Burgers
before they even got to Boston. Our team spent a great deal of time on the
written materials, but in hindsight, we should have practiced our presentation
more to be sure we had more connection between our team members. It was a
lesson well learned.”
Agency President Joan Schneider said, “It was great to watch
these young professionals show us what they’d learned this summer. Both teams were incredible and truly created
enthusiasm and demand for their respective properties. We are grooming real public relations
professionals here at Schneider, and today was a proud moment for me, my team
and Team A and B. We look forward to next semester’s internship program as I am
sure we will learn a great deal from our young mentors.”
SA plans to continue the Internship Project for years to
come, as the program was both fun and exciting for the entire agency.
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