When experience meets networking: Internship highlights from CMCI
By Hannah Stewart (Comm’19)
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)
When Pepsi eventually comes out with its snack-focused campaign, one strategic communication student from the will smile knowing he was part of it.
Enzo Ewari, a senior in the College of Media Communication and Information, has been interning with Motive—a full-service marketing and advertising agency—since the summer. As part of his work, he assisted with campaigns for brands like Gatorade, Cheetos, Pepsi and more.
Motive was impressed enough with his work to extend his internship into the fall semester, and Ewari hopes to stay at the company after graduation.
“As I get more involved, I’ll be working on my own campaigns, so hopefully by springtime, I’ll be solely working on one campaign,” he said. “I love Motive, it’s a great culture. They have sister agencies on every continent; I’ve been talking about moving to New York or Singapore. There are a lot of opportunities.”
In high school, Ewari took a business class, and was instantly hooked by the fast-paced energy and possibilities it provided. However, he wanted something more creative, which led him to study advertising. In fact, one of his professors reached out with the opportunity to intern with his own advertising and marketing boutique and assist on a campaign for a whiskey company—just one of his internship experiences, which have included work for PHD Media, Special Olympics International and Volkswagen.
“CMCI is your friend. Just talk to your professors, most of them are still doing work,” he said. “That helped me get this internship.
—Enzo Ewari
When it came to Motive, not only did Ewari’s foundational courses prove incredibly helpful on his internship, various hands-on experiences both in and out of the classroom helped him grow and develop skills, as well.
“Enzo has proven to a valuable member of our team because he's resourceful, a self-starter, a quick learner, and also a curious human,” said Andrew Lynch, vice president of strategy at Motive and Ewari’s supervisor. “He's doing real, meaningful work that is helping us arrive at smart and sharp strategies.”
That practical experience and networking opportunity was pivotal, as it helped boost Ewari’s confidence in the field by giving him a taste of real-life advertising.
“CMCI is your friend. Just talk to your professors, most of them are still doing work,” he said. “That helped me get this internship.”
Networking and access to the right people proved useful once again in landing his role at Motive. David Martinez, inclusive excellence and outreach coordinator at CMCI, connected Ewari with one of Motive’s senior vice presidents of creative, Spencer Trierweiler (Advert’06), who is based out of the company’s Denver office.
“He helped push me through the process,” Ewari said. “A lot of my team is spread out across the United States. Day to day, it was a lot of looking at trends of different industries and deciding what competitors are doing to find a pocket in the market that our clients can hold.”
During his hybrid internship, he has been responsible for market research, taking what he’s learned and creating presentations exploring different advertising strategies a brand could take. Depending on who attended the presentation, Ewari and his team emphasize strategic or creative elements of a given campaign. For example, some creative-focused campaign proposals had interactive elements like pop-up shops or meet-and-greets with professional athletes.
“It’s all about connecting the data—how can you find that new lightbulb idea?” he said.
Lynch said an ability to find those ideas made Ewari such a valuable addition, especially when it came to brand positioning statements in competitive analyses.
"Enzo has been leading these analyses throughout his internship, and always delivers focused and smart category insights that we work into our strategy decks," Lynch said.
