Marketing The Franklin Institute

During my final semester at Temple University I had the stellar opportunity to be an intern at one of the most recognizable spots in Philadelphia – The Franklin Institute. I served as a marketing intern and had a blast. I major in Advertising, following the copywriting track, love science (especially astronomy and physics), and have made many wonderful memories over the course of my life visiting The Franklin Institute. A chance to be a part of their team was to hot to pass up.

I learned a great deal about audience acquisition over the course of my internship. During my time there the current special exhibits, Robot Revolution and Jurassic World: The Exhibition, were about to come to a close. This meant The Franklin Institute was making their last push to bring people in to see what the exhibits had to offer. Excel and I, though not to fond of each other at first, became an awesome team. I used existing and created my own distribution lists in order to mail out THOUSANDS of rack cards informing the Philadelphia area that these great exhibits were about to be gone. I learned that excel is not evil, cold calling can be a fun exercise in improvisation, and that marketing hinges on maintaining and building an audience.

I had a handful of chances to hone my copywriting skills as well during my time as an intern at The Franklin Institute. The Philadelphia Science Festival was coming up and the public needed to know! I wrote and assembled daily emails updating those on The Franklin Institute’s emailing list of what was happing during the Philadelphia Science Festival any given day. I was not putting forth my own original idea; this was practice in speaking in a brand’s voice.

I met great people working there too! My supervisor, Maura R. was so creative and articulate that she made me want to be like her. I met the planetarium head and lead astronomer of The Franklin Institute Derrick Pitts who was a stellar man and who, by the way, has a velvety smooth voice that is used in almost all advertising that requires voice over work that The Franklin Institute produces. My work at The Franklin Institute and the people I worked with my have taught me a ton, brought me to a better understanding of marketing, and given me wonderful memories and experience…free admission to the museum with my volunteer badge didn’t hurt either.