Allied: Gateway to My Future Career
My name is Nicolas Gilbreath and I am a Junior Account Management Advertising student at Temple University. This semester, I interned at Allied Integrated Marketing as their sole-marketing coordinator intern. Allied is a full-service marketing agency for the entertainment and consumer products industries throughout the United States. During my internship, I worked on the New Business division with the Marketing Coordinator and Vice President at Allied’s Philadelphia office.
My experience at Allied provided me the knowledge about various divisions throughout the advertising industry. I collaborated with a team of Allied employees in a professional work environment by assisting with managing the creation and activation of various consumer and entertainment brand campaigns. My supervisors delegated me the task of conducting market research for potential and current clients to better assist them with promoting their products. On a few occasions, my research assisted my supervisors in acquiring new projects and developing campaign ideas. I led and conducted outreach programs for Allied’s clients to host promotional events. The experiences I acquired at Allied will help guide my future academic and career endeavors as I continue to enhance my skills.
I was nervous about entering Allied’s office on my first day because I did not know what to expect. My perception of internships was overshadowed by the horror stories of past students. Was everyone going to be in “his or her own little clicks?” Are they going to have me run errands for them? Will I just be a presence in the office with the publicists and managers overlooking my opinions? With great relief, this was not the case. Allied Integrated Marketing and its staff surpassed my original expectations. Everyone was very welcoming by introducing me to the staff, providing me with a tour and the business operations, and allowed me to get involved immediately. During my internship, I constantly researched Allied’s accounts, talked to various project managers, and had my voice acknowledged by high ranked employees. I focused all of my energy and attention towards my work to obtain as much knowledge and experience from Allied. I do not believe I could have done anything different because my supervisors reviewed my work and continuously helped me improve my output.
Throughout the semester, I was involved in developing various campaigns for consumer products and the entertainment industry. The beginning stages of generating ideas and pitching it to clients allowed me to see the amount of effort it takes to start marketing campaigns. Recently, I took part in the conceptualization, planning, and reporting stages of a campaign activated in 15 cities. Allied’s team and I designed strategies to raise awareness for the new Food Network series; Guys Grocery Games. Allied was able to collaborate with local grocery stores and radio stations to host the grocery store event. Everyone involved was excited about these events and it turned out to be a huge success. This experience allowed me to see a campaign through the process of when we obtained the account to its execution and recap. Currently, we are in the beginning stages of various projects and I am excited to see them through to their activation.
My internship at Allied Integrated Marketing assisted me in my academic and professional atmospheres. I acquired hands-on experience by being present at conference calls, involved with the research, development, execution, and the recap of various campaigns. This allowed me to gain real-world experiences in this competitive business. As my academic career progresses, I developed an appreciation for the entertainment industry. This internship gave me the opportunity of a lifetime by being involved in this exciting field and I plan to continue interning at Allied after completing my academic requirements for the fall semester.
