Scholarship / STATEMENT OF PURPOSE FOR SUMMER INTERNSHIP IN ADVERTISING [4]

(NOTE: This is a statement of purpose, i have written for applying for a summer internship in an advertising agency although i don't have a background in the communications field. The proper nouns have been replaced with words like XYZ, AaAaAa, BbBbBb, ACE etc. I request you to take a close look at the structure, grammar, and any sort of mistake in the expression of the essay. All suggestions and criticism are welcome. If you feel you have better ways to express certain ideas in the essay, please let me know. Also please reply to this post asap. The essay has been intentionally kept informal considering the industry i need to appeal to. Any contrary views are welcome too)

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
It all started when I was a 5 year old kid. While in kindergarten, I strongly felt that I should get my surname changed. I felt it was utterly uncool. Also its phonetic ambiguity made many incurious and creative souls to come up with their own version of its spelling. Whenever I spoke my name out, it invariably evoked reactions like "What?", "come again" etc. Irritated by such reactions, I used to ask my father to get me a new and better surname. While he used to laugh it off, I used to try and invent new surnames for myself just for the sake of making it sound trendy and recallable. This is how I developed my first vague insight into the concept of brand equity.

Later in life I dropped the idea of changing my surname. But I definitely started seeing things around me in terms of the intangible values they carried. And since then, I have had this burning desire to create; create something that rebelled against the conventional school of ideas, something that stood out from the crowd, something that created the right impression. Right from my craft and origami assignments to my illustrative scrapbooks and modelling assignments in the primary school, everything had something that differentiated it from the others' work and fetched me its due appreciation. Eventually, as I grew up I started developing a taste in films, cinematography, music, visual communication and spatial design.

I was good in academics; hence I could make it to the best college of my hometown and one of the premium government engineering institutes of India, ACE (A**** College of Engineering, Nagpur). Currently, I am pursuing Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and I am in the final year of my undergraduate studies as of now. When I entered college, my passion did not take too long to show up, and I forayed into the creative world of ACE right in the first year itself as an organizer of BbBbBb, the annual cultural festival of ACE and subsequently as an organizer of CcCcCc, the annual technical festival which happened to be central India's largest. I made my first advertisement, a poster for an event called DdDdDd during my second year in the college. My creativity and aesthetic sense immediately propelled me into the cream of the creative community of ACE. What followed next was a series of different posters, flyers, brochures, banners, logos, t-shirts, typography etc. designed by me for various events. Later, I was chosen to hold a post in the CcCcCc 2010 core committee as the treasurer. My experience as the CcCcCc treasurer largely aided my understanding of human psychology and teamwork in addition to the finance management skills. I also conceptualized and executed the first ever TEDx event in Nagpur which received unprecedented media attention. Eventually, I realized that the common strings that bind all my activities were creativity, ideas and people.

During my third year in college, I came across a television show called "Storyboard" by Anuradha Sengupta on CNBC. This show, which deals with advertising, media and branding, subtly touched the chord of my heart. Everything I did all through my life, suddenly started making sense, suddenly found application. Later I started following other similar shows namely "Logo" on UTV Bloomberg and "All About Ads" on NDTV Profit. I became an avid follower of the major advertising forums on the worldwide web, read case studies of various advertising campaigns and watched more and more TV commercials. And all these endeavours intensified my craving for this field even more.

Advertising seeped into me gradually all through these years. And now that I am 21, I feel it flowing in my veins and arteries. Much of the inspiration came not only from the creativity involved in making the commercials and designing campaigns but also from the effects it has on the society at large. I was particularly intrigued by the effect caused by the "Kuch khas hai hum sabhi mein" campaign for Cadbury Dairy Milk in 1994. Before this campaign the commodity was perceived as a reward or bribe for the children. The situation was so bad that adults were actually afraid to be seen in public with a Cadbury in their hand. This campaign unshackled the child inside the adults and the results were phenomenal both in terms of sales and brand. This case study along with many others made me even more curious as to how these commercials are conceptualized and executed to get the desired results.

I believe, watching one's work impact the life and thinking of the society is the driving force for anyone in the creative profession like advertising. According to me, broadly speaking, advertising is all about steering the perception of the people (consumers). The amount of thought and creativity that goes into creating this perception is truly something I need to learn. I would like to briefly point out some of the qualities characteristic to me. They are

- Passion for knowing people and delighting people
- Desire to be different and to make a difference
- Good understanding of the Indian mentality
- Good graphic designing and image processing skills
- Desire to learn different means of communication
- Good perception and ability to evaluate philosophies and phenomena and draw analogies and apply them in day-to-day decisions
- Decent drawing and sketching ability
As an intern, I wish to get an exposure to copywriting, art direction and film making as a part of a live advertising campaign assignment. I assure you that my experience as an intern at your organisation would deeply expand my horizons as a creative professional and help me explore myself and contribute to the organisation with my fresh and raw ideas.

I sincerely hope to have a mutually beneficial association with you through the summer internship and project work opportunities provided by your organization and to contribute my best towards making a successful endeavour.

XYZ
VI Semester, B.Tech.,
A**** College of Engineering,
Nagpur.
Contact No. +91 99999 99999