Wharton Center for Performing Arts

MARKETING INTERN

During the summer of 2015, I worked as a marketing intern at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts. Wharton Center is ranked #16 in the world for venues with capacity of 2,001 - 5,000 seats and is the largest performing arts venue in Michigan. Wharton Center hosts over 100 performances each year, making it the largest programming schedule of any independent performing arts venue affiliated with a university in the country.

WHARTON CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS

My duties included:

Developing and implementing promotional marketing plans for performances with contact lists of potential partners

Writing guest articles for the Lansing State Journal and Michigan Dance Council newsletter

Creating and designing promotional materials and flyers

Writing advertisement scripts for WKAR, a Michigan public radio station, advertising Wharton Center's performing arts performances

Distributing promotional materials to Lansing-area businesses

Planning CreativeCollaboration, an event hosted by the MSU Arts Council for performing, creative and visual arts groups at Michigan State. The event includes a resource fair, live performances, student ticket sales, free giveaways and concessions from the MSU Dairy Store.

Setting up and staffing Wharton Center's outreach activities. Events included Michigan State's Academic Orientation Program resource fair for freshmen students and Green and White Days campus open houses. For AOP, I doubled the amount of entries from 2014 for Wharton Center's student E-Club, increasing participation from 491 entries to over 1,146 entries during my six weeks at the event.

2015/2016 Season Promoted During Internship

Signature Theatre Job Panel

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NYC PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING RETREATS

During March 2016 & 2017, I had the opportunity to attend professional entertainment networking retreats in New York City with Wharton Center Student Marketing Organization. Throughout the trips, we attended informational panels with organizations to learn about careers in the entertainment industry and how to best prepare ourselves to enter the job field post-graduation. These panels gave us the opportunity to ask questions of leading entertainment professionals and build our career networks. Over the course of the two retreats, I attended panels with Signature Theatre, Lincoln Center, The Broadway League and Digitas LBi.

Job Shadow with Live Nation NYC Media & Sponsorship in 2016

In addition to the informational panels, in 2016 I also had the opportunity to job shadow Kevin Husson, Senior Director of Account Management and Brooke Bodner, Account Manager at Live Nation Media & Sponsorship in New York. Together they presented a case study of one of Diageo’s brands, Smirnoff, and the brand’s role as a sponsor of Live Nation’s electronic dance music festivals both domestically and internationally. Through this experience, I was able learn further about the interconnection of Live Nation’s four divisions: concerts, Ticketmaster, media & sponsorship, and artist nation. Live Nation in the world leader in music marketing programs for advertisers, representing 900+ brands with 70 million unique monthly visitors.

Job Shadow with Live Nation NYC Marketing in 2017

In 2017, I had to opportunity to job shadow five members of Live Nation NYC's marketing department. I first met with Donna Eichmeyer, Director of Marketing, who offered insight on how their overall marketing strategy focuses on innovation due to the NYC office's role as a test market for Live Nation's new technologies. Jenna Roper, Senior Marketing Manager, detailed the process for planning and executing concerts at arenas and festivals in the greater New York City area. Jennifer Divietri, Marketing Manager of Media & Buying, shared how traditional advertising - television, radio and print - are ordered and placed, along with the challenges associated with pricing and over-saturation in the NYC marketplace. Finally, I met with Aaron Jakubovitz and Matt Saril, both Digital Marketing Managers, who provided information on how digital methods have revolutionized Live Nation's marketing strategy and the emerging technologies they are beginning to utilize.

USHER

I have been working as an usher at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts since January 2015. My duties include assisting patrons at entertainment events by performing duties such as greeting and scanning admission tickets, distributing programs, assisting in finding seats, searching for lost articles, providing assistance for patrons with special needs through Wharton Center's Curb to Seat wheelchair service, and locating such facilities as rest rooms, concession stands, and guest services.