Uptree

Research has shown that being well-connected in today's society makes you more employable - 5 times more in fact - so we're delighted to share John Cepeda's story of his journey with Uptree to becoming a media apprentice with Ogilvy , the world's largest advertising agency.

Tell us about your experience with Uptree

I first heard about Uptree when they did a presentation at Dunraven Sixth Form in Streatham, talking all about their amazing opportunities they offered if university wasn’t something you wanted to do. They spoke of the many connections they have in different industries and of the events they organise to help students understand more about job opportunities.

I knew I wanted to get into advertising and so I attended many insight days at advertising and media agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi and also Dentsu Aegis to understand more about the industry and the ways of working.

The great thing about these events were the opportunities to have discussions with employees from the company and be able to ask more specific questions. I also applied for their work experience placements and landed a short work experience opportunity at a creative agency called Ustwo London which was incredible. I finally also went to an insight day at Ogilvy which gave an incredible insight into what the industry is like

What was your work experience day like with Ogilvy?

The day was incredible, it started with a talk from Michael Frohlich the CEO of Ogilvy UK. Then we did some creative and strategy activities to understand how the business works which gave me a real insight into what the advertising sector has to offer.

During that session we also went through our CVs and we were helped by Ogilvy’s team to refine and make our CVs stand out.

John looking professional!

Can you tell us about your current role?

I am currently on an Account Management Apprenticeship role within the Social and Content team at Ogilvy. Throughout my apprenticeship I have been able to move around different departments and team to find what I enjoy doing most. I first started on the influence team that deals with all social media influence collaborations for a number of brands.

My day would involve searching for influencers that would be a great fit for the brand and present them to the client. I would then reach out to the approved influencers to introduce the campaign we had in hand and negotiate a fee and deliverables to have them be part of the campaign. Once the campaign had gone live, I keep track to make sure all content follows specific guidelines we had spoken of and produce an end of campaign report for the client to show what we have been able to achieve through influence.

Currently I am on the paid media team within Social and Content and I now deal with creating and managing all the sponsored posts across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I create media plans for the client to best show how to use the budget they have for their campaign, create the ads for the social platform required, track and optimise campaigns throughout their lifetime and finally produce an end of campaign report to show the client the results we achieved.

In general my role consists of having a good relationship with clients, being able to provide recommendations for a campaign and be able to deliver on the requests they have for their campaigns.

What campaigns have you done in your time with Ogilvy so far?

One of the first campaigns I managed on the influence team was for an airline brand called Level and the campaign consisted of raising awareness for their new direct route from Chile to Barcelona.

This campaign was huge and so I had to work with several influencers and Ogilvy teams to be able to deliver this campaign to the highest quality. The content can be found on the airline's Instagram as well as the Influencers Instagram pages.

@flywithlevel

What advice would you give to students who are interested in a career path like yours?

If you are interested and wanting to get into the advertising sector, experience is incredibly valuable. Having work experience placements on your CV from different agencies will make you stand out tremendously as you already have knowledge in how an agency functions day to day.

In my opinion, for this industry the experience you have far outweighs the subjects you pick in school. I would attend as many insight days and apply to as many short work experience days for them to get a feel of what its like to work in advertising.

Students at a recent Ogilvy work experience day

Whilst on insight days or work experience ask as many questions as you can to better understand how things work. Being proactive shows you are passionate and enthusiastic and willing to learn which are good traits to have as the industry is fast paced and always changing.

A lot of the time things are explained using work environment jargon which can be very confusing, there is no shame in asking twice as things can be very complicated at times.

It was brilliant to catch up with John at a recent Ogilvy work experience day and to see how far he has come since 2016 when he wasn't sure about his options after school! John is a great example of the power of networking, proactivity and focus. Uptree wishes him all the best in his creative future.

John with the CEO of Uptree, Tamsin Dewhurst

Ogilvy resources

• Visit Ogilvy's company page with Uptree (work experience days, apprenticeships etc)

• View some of Ogilvy's campaigns

• Discover more about Ogilvy's career options and internships

• Sign up for Ogilvy's monthly newsletter

• Find out more about Ogilvy and their history