After being introduced to Bright Network by a friend who found his graduate job on the website, Adrian became a member and landed his very own grad job shortly after as a Graduate Marketing Executive for Visa. We caught up with Adrian to find out more.
What initially attracted you to Visa?
I had always wanted to work for a big and prestigious brand and Visa fitted the bill. Also, being a big sports fan, I was attracted by Visa’s sponsorship of huge sporting events, such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. I felt a position with Visa would allow me to combine my love for sport and passion for marketing through working on the activation campaigns for these sponsorship properties.
What advice would you give someone about to apply to Visa?
Keep abreast of what’s going on in the world of marketing; it pays to know the latest innovations in marketing and advertising and to have your own opinions on what you feel is new and interesting.
It’s always good to read marketing publications such as Drum, Campaign & Marketing Week to learn about the current marketing campaigns, observing what companies are doing well in order to set them apart from their competitors. Conversely, it’s also important to note which campaigns haven’t gone to plan and what you can learn from that.
What does your average day look like?
What I most like about marketing is that every day is different. However, a few things I do regularly are:
- Manage campaigns that are live and monitor their performance, through liaising with the media and creative agencies. I then find ways to optimise these campaigns so they can perform well, giving us the best possible outcome.
- As I work in the London office - which is the European HQ - we conduct market research on behalf of the European markets based on hypotheses they have, enabling us to make informed decisions.
- Assist on briefs for the media and creative agencies in the planning stages of campaigns. The more detailed a brief is, the better result you’ll receive from the agencies, so a lot of work goes into these.
- Provide input on the creative elements of each campaign, giving a different perspective from my colleagues.
- Present Visa’s own market research and findings to clients, which allows them to improve their own marketing campaigns in turn, helping them to improve their business.
As I’ve worked in two functions (European Marketing Strategy and Consumer Marketing), my roles have been very different, but equally as enjoyable.
What's the social life like?
Not bad! There’s a young professionals group that organises regular meet ups with likeminded people which is always nice. All of the grads are in a big group chat and we talk regularly & organise things outside of work.
Keen to follow in Adrian's footsteps and begin your career with Visa? Check out their profile just here.