By Kedwien Valdez, FCRH '15
Working at Allied Integrated Marketing has been one of the
greatest experiences in my undergraduate career. Never did I think, that I
would have the opportunity to work at a job that was so enjoyable. Let me start
off by tell you a bit of background behind Allied. It is an integrated
marketing firm that does work for big movie studio companies. They have clients
like Lionsgate, Paramount, Focus Features, Fox, Warner Brothers, and even
Disney. They participate in many aspects of marketing these studio’s movies. I
worked directly in the promotions/publicity department of Allied; my title was
Movie Studio Promotions intern. What I loved about being an intern at Allied is
that I was given real responsibilities, I grabbed coffee for no one but myself.
I was given real responsibilities and expected to do the same work as any other
employee of the company.
At Allied, we usually would receive a movie about one to two
months before it is released in theaters. From there we have to work on
creating and actualizing promotional events for the movie, as well as, work
behind the scenes at these movie industry events. I had the responsibility of
reaching out to different groups, places and events, all across New York City
and try to tie them in to our movies. This would increase exposure and create
more word of mouth buzz for each individual movie. For example, I recently did
work for the Huger Games: Mocking Jay Part 1. Lionsgate was looking to target
to college students and incorporate events Hunger Games into events across
campus. So I organized a Hunger Games week at school and called it District
Fordham. (Which was a pretty creative idea if I do say so myself.) I reached out
to about four clubs on campus and together we brainstormed different ideas for
events. We created a Hunger Games Trivia Night, a Movie Screening, a Social
Media Raffle, and a walk out to the theater for the premiering night. While
working with them, I also got one of our bigger clubs on campus, CSA, to
incorporate the Hunger Games into their big event, Thanks-Give-Away. I got them
to raffle off a prize pack filled with Hunger Games promotional items.
Besides working on the events, and pitching different ideas
to different people, I also had the opportunity to do a lot of work with the
movies. One of my main responsibilities was to work movie screening, which are
advanced watching of the movie for selected crowds before it comes out in
theaters. So I pretty much got to see a bunch of movies before they came out in
theater for free. At these screenings, I had to help with crowd control and in some
instances right reports at the movie analyzing the crowd’s reactions to
particular scenes and their overall opinion of the movie. My favorite part of
this internship and probably the most glamorous (brace yourselves for some
humble bragging coming); I got the chance to work a ton of movie premieres.
At these movie premieres I had many responsibilities, one of which was walking
stars down the red carpet, scouting out any unexpected celebrities that decided
to attend last minute and many times work the after party. Which actually isn’t
as crazy as we imagine it to be it; although still really awesome to be in
there.
Over all I learned a lot at Allied Integrated marketing: I
learned to get out of my comfort zone, how to write proper pitch emails: what
things worked and what didn’t, and how to present myself in many events like premieres
and screenings. This internship allowed me to express my creative ideas much
more openly; no idea was ever a bad one or too crazy. My opinions were always
heard, and if weren’t agreed with, people took the time to explain why. It
allowed me to strengthen my teamwork abilities and it also made me realize my
interest in working within the entertainment industry. Overall this was a truly
great experience.
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