I’ve spent this past summer as an intern at the highly respected digital marketing agency, Anvil Media. During my experience, I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about the digital marketing world and what it takes to succeed in this fast-paced field. When I first started, truth be told I had no idea what digital marketing actually was. I am currently a Digital Communications major at Oregon State University (Scoo Beavs), and SEO, PPC, and analytics are topics that never came across my text books or my mind. Until my experience here at Anvil of course. After a couple of weeks, I slowly started to realize the bigger picture behind marketing. I started to learn that digital agencies, like Anvil, are important behind-the-scenes key players within the marketing realm. They help other companies, businesses, and brands build their online personalities and make sure their messages and products are seen by the right people.

Research and design were part of my daily tasks as an intern at Anvil. Also, they trusted me with a few of their social media channels. On these social platforms, I tried out some non-traditional methods to try boosting Anvil’s social efforts. The social platforms I spent most of my time with were Snapchat and the constantly evolving Instagram. During my short reign as a social media guru, I got a better understanding of how organic and paid media work together to increase conversions and lower the cost of acquisitions. Also, I got to see firsthand how this was implemented with our clients.

I would say one of my favorite projects I worked on, was creating a Snapchat Geofilter for the annual SEMpdx Rooftop Networking Party most of the Anvil team attended. Design is definitely one of my passions and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

I was also impressed by the President and CEO Kent Lewis and the highly intelligent and smooth working for Anvil team. They taught me what it takes to be a digital marketing specialist and how to succeed in this fast-paced industry. Most notably, they taught me how to keep up with ever-changing digital trends and how to effectively use those strategies to bring worth to clients. I was lucky enough to learn the basics of SEO, keyword analysis, and paid media strategies as well. Trying to digest all these terms was a challenge for me initially as I had trouble trying to keep up with the agency lingo during my first few weeks. But, like everything, you learn as you go and I have taken away a significant amount of information from my experience here at Anvil. From ad league softball games to helping clients, you can easily tell this group of individuals are very passionate and proud of their affiliation with Anvil and the work they do. I am extremely grateful that I was able to intern and learn from these talented, friendly, and hardworking people. They’ve taught me lessons that will forever stay with me, and I couldn’t be happier with the solid foundation they have built for me as I look to begin my professional career.

– Josh Wise, Oregon State University Class of 2017