During the summer of 2018, after my first year of university, I completed a two week long marketing placement at Y Not Festival. I worked alongside the festival’s marketing team to create content and ensure the smooth running of the event. It was made up of one week’s work in their London offices which they share with other festivals owed by their mother company, Broadwick Live. I then spent a week at the festival itself, before during and after the event.
One thing that resonates about this experience is the application process. Two members of the marketing team actually came into uni to give a guest lecture and then offered up the placement to all of the marketing students at the university. When applying for the placement, I was told by one of my lectures that the only other person who applied was a third year student who had just completed his dissertation on the marketing on musicians. If that doesn’t make him qualified for this placement then I don’t know what else does. Despite it almost guaranteed to be his, I applied anyway, knowing I was the only other applicant. When it came down to it, I had a Skype interview with them and later found out that we both got the placement! There was originally only meant to be one position but instead they gave two and I am so grateful for that. That really resonated with me because it just goes to show the importance of applying for things and taking every opportunity you can.
What I Did
London
The first week of the placement was based in their London offices which I commuted to everyday. Here, I spent the week getting to know the brand, the team and the ins and outs of the event. I helped to complete a lot of tasks such as answering emails and queries, writing articles for the Festival newspaper and band descriptions for the Y Not Festival app. As my placement week was about two weeks before the actual event, things had started to get a bit hectic in the office. A lot of the marketing team therefore were off in meetings, organising the final details of the event and just generally being very busy. As I already expected, I didn’t play a critical role in the marketing but it was a really great experience. I got to work as part of the marketing team, helping out where I could and getting to understand how these events/marketing teams actually work which was really interesting and insightful.
Festival
The second week of my placement was spent at the festival itself. Here, one of he key things I got to do was go out and capture content for the social media platforms. The marketing team wanted to build up excitement before the event by sharing things like pictures of the empty stages, behind the scenes action and setting up. Across the event, they wanted to be sharing videos and photos as the acts and events were happening so I spent a lot of time going round to different stages and events, capturing pictures of what was going on for Twitter and Instagram stories. The picture just above this of Catfish and The Bottlemen was one photo I was particularly proud of and it got shared to the Y Not twitter page.
I also spent a lot of time helping with behind the scenes stuff, like organising shuttle buses and helping out with the disabled access camping. One thing I remember clearly was filling up plastic bags full of powder paint for the paint fight at the end of the weekend. I am talking HUNDREDS of bags of powder paint. Scooping up what is essentially flour into little bags was not particularly fun. But, getting to give out the paint bags and watch everyone have this crazy paint fight made it so worth it! This paint fight is a tradition they do every year and although it was a pain, it was kind of great to get to be a part of it. Everyone in the team was so busy 24/7, I have no idea how they would have managed it otherwise!
What I Enjoyed Most
The Experience
The thing I absolutely enjoyed most is the fact that I got some marketing experience under my belt. Getting to work as part of a marketing team and alongside other marketeers was a pleasure and I feel like I learnt a lot about working in industry.
Also, having the opportunity to create and publish content on behalf of a brand was really exciting. It was the first time I had done so and so to see my photos and my content go live was a great experience. (Honestly, I got pretty excited about it and took screenshots every time!)
The Event Itself
As I mentioned earlier, I was convinced that I was not going to get this placement so to actually be there and get to experience everything was a big thing for me. Working with the marketing team meant I got a lot of privileges, like an access-all-areas pass and a glamping tent all to myself.
I got to see a lot of great acts like The Wombats, Catfish and The Bottlemen and Razorlight which was great fun – all for free too. Also, getting to go backstage at a festival and look out on the crowd and band was just crazy and I feel really lucky to have to experienced it. One thing you don’t think about though is that the show is definitely put on to be watched from the crowd, nothing beats that view.
What I Learnt
The biggest thing I learnt is what marketing in industry is actually like. Of course, I know every marketing department in every company will be different from the next. However, I quickly came to realise how different marketing is in practice compared to in theory. Getting the opportunity to put my knowledge into practice was a privilege and I am glad to have since go on to get even more marketing experience.
Hopefully you have enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Don’t forget to leave a comment and I hope you have a great day.
