MS&L Intern Challenge Day

Last friday I had the opportunity to attend the MS&L Intern Challenge Day in Atlanta.  This is an event that is put on by MS&L at their office locations in Atlanta, Chicago and New York.  The application process consists of a resume, 2 writing samples, 8 short answer questions, and an essay.  After reviewing the applications, ten lucky applicants are invited into one of these offices were they have a chance to compete for the top three coveted intern positions.  

I was fortunate enough to make it to the top ten where my next assignment was to create a video introduction of myself.  Following the video, the next step was to attend the event....and so my journey began...

When I first stepped off the elevator I was greeted by three people who already knew my name and where I was from.  They immediately took my picture and then escorted me through the maze of the colorful cubicles to a back 'lounge area' that overlooked downtown Atlanta.  The first portion of the morning was spend getting to know each other (including the other candidates and the employees).  Each candidate was asked to bring in an 'introduction item' that would tell something interesting about themselves.  I thought this was a very clever and fun way to get to know the competition.  I brought in the first purse that I ever made (which was created using a deck of cards and clear mailing tape).  I thought this would show something interesting about myself and show off a bit of my creativity. 

After the introduction part, we were escorted to the main conference room where we watched everyone's videos and voted on the best one.  Just like Donald Trump's Apprentice, there were prices for each competition, in this case MS&L gave out itunes gift cards to the winners. 

One of my favorite parts of the day was the headline writing competition.  We were given a brief on a new product that McDonald's is coming out with during the summer and then had about 2 minutes to write a creative headline, choose the best media outlet, and create a tweet.  This was fun for me because a) it challenged me to think fast and creatively on my feet and b) we got to work a product that no one knows about it yet!  

After the headline challenge we had lunch full of pizza, salad and Coke products (of course!).  Lunch was another great opportunity where we got to meet more employees and ask them questions about life at MS&L.  After lunch was the individual interviews where we were given a more formal one-on-one interview.  

The most challenging part of the day was the group challenge.  We were divided into groups and then given a two page creative brief about Porsche (I also learned how to pronounce it properly).  The challenge was we were only given 45 minutes to create a PR campaign that incorporated the objectives and reached the target market given on the brief.  The challenge was the time constraint that we were under because all of the groups had really good and unique ideas, but none of them where complete in terms of details. 

I throughly enjoyed MS&L Intern Challenge Day and I am very honored that I got the chance to compete with other top PR students.  It was a full day that was challenging yet fun.  When asked if I would do it again, most definitely!