A little bit about me

Hello, I am Lottie Sutton – a 17-year-old sixth form student in Year 13, hoping to study marketing or event management at university in September 2026. My aim during work experience is to gain more knowledge in the business world, with a particular interest in marketing and what it takes to be a part of a company.

What my three days at Differentiated looked like

I had a clear view of what I was doing when I arrived. This really helped me settle in, especially as I’d never been in a company environment before. Alongside the timetable, the whole company was very welcoming and made sure I knew what I was doing throughout my time.

Day 1

During day 1 of my work experience, I was involved in various meetings about how each part of the company works and how it is all delivered. My day involved:

• A 9am start with an introduction into the company and getting set up with a computer
• A meeting with client services to explain what a client brief was. They explained that there are key questions that need to be asked to get an accurate telling of what the client is asking for
• Break
• Sitting in on an online call with client services to prepare a brief
• Lunch
• Joining a studio scheduling call to understand how to plan and distribute the workload
• Attending an agency financial meeting, where I learnt new terms such as ‘rate card’ (a list of agency services and the hourly or daily charges to the client) and ‘gross margin’ (the cost of running business, such as office rent and subscriptions). I also learnt how crucial timesheets and scheduling are to see if the right amount of time is being spent on projects.

Day 2

Day 2 had fewer meetings, but I spent more time understanding how ideas turn into real content and how the design process works. Here is what I did:

• I arrived at 9am and jumped straight into a meeting with senior planner Natasha. She explained that it’s her job to ask the curious questions that help gain a further insight into what the client wants to project with their product or campaign.
• I joined a copywriting call to see how content is written using the information gathered in the client brief.
• After this call, I met face-to-face with the design team, who explained the Foleon design software and how to use it.
• The rest of the day was spent completing this blog.

Day 3

Day 3 involved focusing on the design software Foleon, which is widely used at Differentiated to present projects. I used it to create a digital document of this blog and learnt how important image is throughout the company. Across the day, I learnt how to add photos onto the background of a presentation and how to add a page onto a clipboard. This allowed me to copy that page into a different area of the presentation. I think these skills will really help me in future university courses, as I now have more experience with digital creation tools.

What this experience has taught me

Throughout my experience, I have learnt that key questions don’t always have to be a description of the product – they’re also about how it connects to the audience and convinces them of its value. I also took in the atmosphere of the agency, which was completely new to me. This was my first proper experience working in a company, and I found it really inspiring.

Now that the three days are over, I am looking forward to working in a company and specialising in one specific part of an agency. The biggest lesson I’ll take away from this experience is that finding a way to grasp the audience or the client is key, whether that is linking to something personal or making the product stand out.