Murphy 1

Briana MurphyCOMM386Julie GowinMarch 9, 2015

Journal #1

This journal serves as a recording of the first portion of my internship at Maryland Sports Marketing.

Date/time frame/hours worked The first day of the game operations part of my internship began on January 11, while my first official day in the office was on January 30. So far, I have worked five sporting events and have completed 24 hours of office work over the past six weeks. Events completed: Wrestling (1/11): 3-7 p.m. Mens basketball set-up (1/25): 4-7 p.m. Mens lacrosse (2/7): 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Womens lacrosse (2/22): 11:00 a.m.-4 p.m. Baseball (2/28): 12-5 p.m. Total: 22 event hours + 24 hours of office work= 46 hours

Details of duties For game day operations, my duties are very reliant on interpersonal communication with fans. There are obviously technical aspects of set-up involved as well, which include hanging up posters, setting up tables and arranging in-game music cues. Aside from this, I spend most of my time interacting with fans by handing out promotional products and answering any questions they may have about the current game, or about Maryland Athletics in general. For this, it is vital that I stay updated on other events that are occurring that week so I can provide fans with accurate information to help increase attendance at other games as well. I also spend a lot of time working with fans who are directly involved in the game day experience. For instance, I am responsible for meeting up with the national anthem singer and preparing him/her for the performance at the start of the game. It is extremely important that I am both friendly and direct when speaking with the singer, in order to help them remain comfortable prior to their performance, and ensure that they begin on cue and are in the correct position for the video crew. I am also required to double, even triple check that the microphone is on and functioning. While this may seem trivial, the singer is required to be on the field within a 2 second window, and any technical malfunction or failure to begin on cue disrupts the timeliness of the entire game. Also for wrestling, specifically, I have the duty of organizing the towel tappers. In summary, these include six fans ages 9-12 who hold a rolled up towel and tap the referee on the shoulder once the clock hits 0:00 during each round. This is honestly one of the most stressful tasks, as wrangling up six kids, keeping them calm and making sure they go out on time is difficult while executing other game day operations at the same time. For office hours, my duties are rather eclectic. While I do a lot of traditional intern tasks such as making copies, mailing letters and delivering papers around the Xfinity Center, I have recently been given the opportunity to use my creative talents. During the week of February 27, my boss Jordan asked me to spend the entirety of my office hours brainstorming ideas for the upcoming Military Appreciation day at the mens lacrosse game, as well as for a free-ticket promotion by Buffalo Wild Wings. Although I had never worked on anything like this before, I spent a lot of time researching the United States Military and the Buffalo Wild Wings organizations. After this, I had a substantial amount of knowledge on both topics in order to move forward with my ideas. I came up with three full pages that I later forwarded to Jordan. Once I arrived at Xfinity the following week, Jordan called me into his office to discuss my ideas. He then told me that we were going to move forward with my big idea for the BWW campaign, and assigned me to come up with all of the promotional products that were to be distributed on the Maryland Mens Lacrosse Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. I emailed Jordan my finished products on Friday at 5 p.m. when the office was closing. While surfing through Instagram on Sunday night, I scrolled past a post by the Mens Lacrosse account (@TerpsMLax). I couldnt believe it when I saw that Jordan had posted my full idea. I then visited their Facebook and Twitter, where there were hundreds of likes on all of my posts. Both my brainstorm and the digital copies of these Facebook/Instagram/Twitter posts will serve as the work samples for my portfolio.

Reflecting on the professional value Although I had initially thought I was given the task of the BWW brainstorm because they had nothing else for me to do in the office, it turns out that I had executed a real-world campaign that was much more successful than their previous campaigns with this account. In the past, Marketing had failed to find a means of giving away these free tickets in way that was both creative and engaging with fans. I feel this achievement makes me extremely marketable to future employers, as I can explain how I managed to execute a physical giveaway through social media alone, with a total budget of $0. Also, through this internship I am receiving real-life criticism that is extremely helpful. For instance, on my brainstorm, Jordan and the other interns were harsh when making corrections. Although I felt defeated at times, the Marketing team helped me understand why my ideas were unfeasible from an organizational or budgetary standpoint, and gave my tips on how I could change these ideas to make them more successful.

Reflecting on the personal value So far this internship has been different than any of my other professional experiences in the past. Being required to work independently and on very strict deadlines has been extremely stressful, yet rewarding. I feel I am gaining skills that I will be able to use more so than any abstract knowledge I have learned in any class so far. One of my overall goals is to gain a better understanding of marketing, as I have been trained solely in PR at UMD. I feel this internship is going to help me establish many connections within this field, and I am eager to continue working on new projects to help build my resume and gain significant marketing experience.

Connect the dots to your major My experience can be related to the cognitive dissonance theory. This theory states that we are motivated to change our beliefs, attitudes or behaviors when confronted with an experience that disrupts our internal harmony. This internship has been challenging as I have been placed in an environment where everyone has been working together for at least two years, and are very comfortable with one another. Having zero connections and little-to-no real world marketing experience prior to this has made my first few weeks difficult. I have run into challenges that have been both emotionally draining and discouraging. For example, I ran into a problem with a parent of one of the towel tappers at my very first wrestling match. I was told by an older Terp Host that one of the boys was too young, and that if he were to get hurt that I would be liable, and would put the entire Maryland Sports organization in jeopardy. When I told the boy he would no longer be able to participate, his mother confronted me and made a scene in front of a number of fans after the game. Although I behaved in a very professional manner, the entire experience was unnerving. I spoke with Jordan about the situation and he told me that I handled the situation very well, and that next time I should seek out one of the senior marketing members if something like this were to occur again. This experience helped me changed my behaviors in order to avoid future conflict.