My Time at BrandVerge

By Hannah Simon

I have worked for BrandVerge for about a year and a half, first as a business development intern and then moved into more of a freelance capacity for social media and content marketing when I went back to school in the fall of 2019, my senior year. 

I was introduced to Mollie and Lynn through a semi-long-winded connection my sophomore year of college. We kept in contact, which ended up leading to my internship the summer after my junior year. I had only had one internship prior at a larger organization that really did not know what to do with me and in which I spent most days reading the New York Times, this was particularly a good read I remember from that summer. 

The team welcomed me in on my first day, making time in their busy schedules for one-on-one meetings so I could get to know each individual and understand their responsibilities at BrandVerge, as I would end up assisting each person on certain projects and learning a little bit of everything, from product management to sales. I was treated as an equal, invited to staff bonding dinners and happy hours, and not just as an intern who would be going back to school once August came around the corner. 

My main focus, however, was social media and content marketing. From day one I was writing social media and blog posts, creating graphics to accompany them. In the days of working from an actual office in the city as opposed to a desk in my school apartment or the kitchen table in my parents’ house, Mollie and the sales team would take me on sales meetings with potential clients around the city or allow me to sit in on phone calls. I created and maintained a competitive analysis presentation deck, researched and wrote best practices reports and transcribed interviews for the ‘5 for 5’ industry leaders blog series, writing up the subsequent blog posts. 

When asked to stay on and work remotely from school at the end of summer 2019, I was happy to continue working with Mollie, Lynn and the BrandVerge team. BrandVerge always had something for me to work on, not only keeping me busy but also teaching me a lot in the process about digital advertising and premium partnerships. 

Mollie and Lynn are advocates for my education and growth. They sent me to Foundry and Digiday’s Content Marketing Forum, and when virtual events became the norm this past summer, sent me access links to IAB’s NewFronts and Podcast Upfront. I was of course put to work, tweeting and writing LinkedIn updates about presenters who were also users on the BrandVerge marketplace, but it also gave me access to conferences not many of my peers get to witness. 

As the year progressed, I adopted more content marketing responsibilities – drafting emails to clients, potential clients and investors about upcoming happy hour events or news on the business front, and helped onboard media proposals on the marketplace. When 2020 came around, I created a new marketing plan to attract more clients, which included a webinar series Mollie and Lynn started after COVID-19 reached the U.S. and stay-at-home orders took place. 

BrandVerge was also rolling out new features and wanted a video to demonstrate some of that. I dabbled with a TikTok video and retaught myself Adobe Premiere Pro to demonstrate BrandVerge Beyond, a new analytics feature for publishers on the marketplace. 

Mollie and Lynn placed their full trust in me, allowing me to grow along with their company. This experience surpassed my expectations of what an internship should be, and as a plus, I gained two amazing female mentors to learn from.  

Because of my time at BrandVerge, I have grown an interest in branded partnerships and what they tell about the brand story – what kind of influencers or partners they choose to represent them and, in some cases, what charities they work to benefit. Partnerships can say a lot about a brand and I look forward to furthering my understanding in opportunities to come. 

Thank you to Mollie, Lynn and the BrandVerge team.