My Role as the Promotions Intern at The Franklin Institute

Hello, my name is Eddie Castillo. I am a fourth-year advertising major with a concentration in media planning and a minor in general business studies. I work in the Marketing Department at The Franklin Institute as the Promotions Intern. My primary role is to acquire organizations to partner with The Franklin Institute to agree upon cross-promotional trade agreements. My experiences gained through my internship have taught me the importance of maintaining strong client relations as well as the type of positions/companies I would ideally like to work for upon graduating. Considering the majority of my duties consisted of conducting initial outreach to prospective partners, I was expected to regularly follow-up with such individuals and build professional relationships in efforts to acquire new business partners. As my position at The Franklin Institute was my first time working in a business-oriented setting, I gained the opportunity to see what types of companies it is that I could most likely see myself working for based on all that I had learned through my internship. Having said that, I can certainly see myself pursuing a career in the field of advertising/marketing, perhaps a research-based position such as a data analyst.

The Franklin Institute is a non-profit organization whose mission is to “inspire a passion for learning about science and technology.” I would consider the reinvestment of earnings to better serve the community to be a rather positive aspect that I discovered through my work at the site. The overall working environment inspired me with the ambition to find a career path for which I am best suited. Prior the start of my internship, I was informed that my responsibilities would include prospecting and reaching out to potential trade partners, as well as assisting in the planning, working, and execution phases of special events. Aside from the trade partner aspect, I hadn’t assisted much with special events, which based on my initial interview sounded to be a major part of the position. From the start of my internship, I had only worked one event, which consisted of me handing out Franklin Institute branded merchandise to Drexel students.

I developed the skills necessary to work in a business-oriented setting and learned a great deal about the buying and selling of advertising space, particularly, promotional advertising. Before attaining my position, I was not aware that organizations offered free advertising space in exchange for some form of promotion. For instance, The Franklin Institute is currently hosting The Terracotta Warriors Exhibition, complimentary tickets were sent to partnering media outlets in exchange for advertising space. My overall experience as the Promotions Intern was a wonderful opportunity, I learned a great deal not only about the advertising industry, but about myself as well.