Placement Job Title and Company – Marketing Assistant, Jose Cuervo International
Best thing about the BAA programme in helping you get ready for your sandwich placement year?
The BAA programme helped me to have an understanding of the fundamentals of the marketing and advertising industry (past and present) and it gave me the knowledge of the key principles underpinning the marketing activities which I was then involved with during my placement year. The BAA programme also taught me that importance of a combination of education and experience would be the best course for a successful career.
Describe a typical day…
No day is typical, especially when there are only two people in the marketing department! A day may comprise of responding to emails from Brand Managers all over the world, providing guidance on the usage of our assets in their markets and deliverables for their current campaigns, meetings with our marketing agency in London to discuss social media content & PR activity, and even more meetings with our events agency to continue planning our Dons of Tequila Global event in Mexico in October and our annual trips to Mexico (which I was lucky to attend this year!) A conference call with our Point of Sale agency in the Netherlands occurs at least once a week to discuss sampling, designing and implementing branded merchandise for the 4 main alcohol brands we work on. There are plenty of projects, big and small, which as a Marketing Assistant you get heavily involved with.
What was your highlight of the placement?
The highlight of my placement was to see the campaign ‘Dons of Tequila’ from planning stage, all the way through to completion. Being Jose Cuervo International’s largest trade campaign, there was certainly a lot of work involved. Spanning 17 countries, I worked on every part of the campaign; the global PR launch event, the creation of PR assets, digital advertising, email communications, traditional PR, trade print advertising, the creation of animated campaign assets, social media, 17 national events and the planning of a global event. I was lucky enough to attend two of our national events, one in Italy and one in Greece and these were probably my proudest moments, seeing the years’ worth of work coming to life and interpreted in different ways across the world. It’s a moment that I certainly won’t forget.
3 words to sum up the year
Challenging, rewarding, life-changing
Has this year helped you identify what you want to do after graduation? What are you thinking of?
This year has definitely helped me identify what I would like to do after graduation; I would love to stay in the drinks industry and continue what I am doing. I think it’s the best job you can get! I am already excited about graduating and getting back into the industry.