Cars, Data and Ice Cream: A Day on the Detroit Research Team

By: Claire Goscicki, Research Intern

Claire Goscicki

It’s a simple question with a not-so-simple answer: “What do you do at work?” I think I can speak for my fellow interns when I say that every day at Starcom is different from the last. This especially holds true in the research department, as we are constantly challenging ourselves to expose new and better consumer insights.

In an attempt to describe a “typical” day, I’ll say that most days in the research department start out relatively calm. My team has a number of ongoing projects we are working on, and I’ll usually assist with developing PowerPoint decks for our findings. 

I also have a few long-term projects that I devote time to when I can. The type of work varies, but it almost always involves using Excel, PowerPoint, a database or a calculator. Sometimes, I think I hang out with my calculator more than my friends…

An area of research that the Detroit team tends to spend a lot of time with is branded entertainment reporting. Our main client, General Motors, has its vehicles or products integrated into certain television shows and movies, and the role of the research team is to analyze how these integrations resonate with viewers. 

We take viewers’ responses from post-show surveys and compare the data to the TV season norms, or averages, to understand how integrations compare to one another. I help draw insights from this data and create visual representations of it.

On a recent episode of the TLC program “Cake Boss,” cast members created a huge cake modeled after the Bumblebee autobot (Chevy Camaro) in the new Transformers: Dark of the Moon movie. Photo courtesy of GM.

Interns aren’t chained to their computers all day, though. Day to day, we are able to sit in on team meetings and relevant teleconferences and webexes. Recently, for instance, Starcom offices listened in on an interview between Starcom’s CEO, Lisa Donohue, and CNN foreign affairs journalist Fareed Zakaria. 

We also get invited to a variety of fun activities. For example, the office is often served ice cream courtesy of publishers we work with. We even get free stuff (you can never have too many water bottles J)! 

Although free stuff is awesome, nothing beats an afternoon outdoors. On a not-so-typical day last month, Starcomers spent the afternoon at the Detroit Zoo as part of SMG’s 11^th birthday celebration. Competing in a scavenger hunt against one another using our smart phones and sharing our experiences via Twitter was a fun and interesting way to use technology, something we’re always anxious to learn more about!

In my downtime, I brush up on industry info, review case studies, surf Yammer (a Facebook-like networking tool for SMG employees worldwide) and write for the Digital 180 blog (a Starcom Detroit hub for digital news).

At the end of the day I leave feeling smarter, more confident about my abilities and more in touch with the client’s needs!