Name: Josie McLachlan

Course: Advertising BA Hons

Placement Company: Bright Blue Day

Placement Job Title: Account Intern

Placement length: 7 Months

Placement company website: https://www.brightblueday.com/

My LinkedIn account link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josie-hannah-m-80006095/

BBD, BU AND I.

That’s not just a jumble of letters above, it’s one of the many, many reasons I am loving placement life.

I’m not sure if it’s something in the sea air, but Bournemouth definitely seems to have a magnetic affect where you can’t seem to leave for too long. You can try and go back to London, or in my case the Midlands (but not many people want to go there…) but you will find yourself back traipsing along that beach eventually!

Well, maybe this isn’t for everyone, but I like to think there is evidence of this effect at Bright Blue Day, especially when you focus on the BU Alumni. I know Bournemouth University isn’t the sole reason they came back – but it was in most cases what introduced them to Bournemouth.

So, my name is Josie McLachlan and I have managed to wriggle myself into the team at Bright Blue Day in Bournemouth as an Account Intern. Following my successful fortnight of work experience, I am the first placement student they have had in the client services team. Thankfully, a great first few months lead to another extension of my contract! I don’t want to get too cheesy about how grateful I am but I really am so thankful – and plan to keep working as hard as I can for this agency!

The team and I work with a range of clients and there’s even ranges within the clients. For instance with Visa, although it is one client, the number of sectors you may dabble in is incredible; you can be working on anything from their products (my favourite being Visa Checkout) to their promotions in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Poland, the list goes on.

I also work a lot with the internal BBD projects team – I have been able to help organise internal events as well as set up their Instagram which you can view at: https://www.instagram.com/brightbluedayltd/.

Bright Blue Day is also a fabulous place for me to be spending my placement year as it is filled with BU and AUB Alumni. This doesn’t just mean we can compare who had what lecturers and who did what crazy (pretty dumb, accident prone) stunts following a Lollipop Friday. Oh no, it’s much more than that.

I have been able to learn from them about their experiences following university and their journey to BBD. Or about how they’ve gone straight from BU to BBD, like Rachel Carosin, who has just graduated from Advertising BA Hons (my course) and is now showing me the ropes at work! They all act as great mentors alongside the rest of the team, teaching me what it means to excel (and kinda kick-ass) within client services.

In fact, without the BU Alumni at Bright Blue Day, I don’t think I would have even got to where I am now. I met one of the founders of BBD, Jonathan Clark (BU Alumni) at Bournemouth University as he was helping us on a live brief for the charity Get Kids Going, and fortunately I grabbed his business card.

He was able to then put me in touch with Jessica Williams – another BU Alumni, who is head of the client services team. This lead to my work experience where I not only worked closely with Jess but also Tanya Walker, another BU Alumni, who set me up with challenges for the week where I was able to prove my worth.

So, as you can see the Alumni support system is important and you have to appreciate it! All in all, getting to work in such an incredibly talented environment that is sprinkled with Alumni is a big part of what is making placement life so great, and possible! Thanks again to both Bright Blue Day and Bournemouth University for the best start I could ask for in my advertising career.