12th January 2017
Blog by Marketing Apprentice, Natalie Sherlock
Channel 4 and MyKindaFuture teamed up to host a selection of pop-up days to promote careers in the media industry. After visiting four different cities across the UK, their last stop was Corby. Targeted at individuals aged 16-25, the event focused on developing skills in three main sectors. These sectors are: digital marketing, journalism, and TV production.
Being from Corby and currently studying an NVQ Level 3 in digital marketing, I couldn’t resist applying for the chance to take part. After all, this pop-up session would be an amazing opportunity for me to further my knowledge and gain some valuable experience in a sector I am hoping to pursue as a lifelong career. Members of Channel 4 would also attend the day and I would be given a platform to showcase my talents as well as network with industry professionals. Upon receiving my confirmation email, I was overjoyed!
The Day of the Event
On the day of the event, I arrived promptly at the Corby Cube at 8:30 am. I felt excited (and nervous) about what experiences the day would hold. After signing in, Channel 4 led me and 150 other participants into the theatre for our introduction. It was here that we first met Ray from MyKindaFuture. His funny and charismatic talk with us soon eased my anxiousness. Ray, along with members of the Channel 4 team, discussed what we should expect from the pop-up day. They also had us take part in some entertaining icebreaker activities; my favourite being human bingo, where it was a real mission to find someone wearing odd socks!
We were then divided into the different sectors we had chosen when applying to attend the day. My choice being digital marketing (of course!). We entered the digital marketing workshop room where we split into 8 separate groups, which we would stay in for the duration of the day. The morning session consisted of being taught about some of the main aspects of digital marketing and how it is valuable within media. Tanya, who led our workshop, also made it fun by setting us challenges to compete for chocolate; which is always a great incentive – as well as lots of group activities to take part in.
After lunch, each digital marketing group had the task of creating a digital marketing campaign focused around a new trailer for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. My team worked hard to create an interesting and gripping campaign that reflected Channel 4’s previous trailers for London 2012 and Rio 2016 while also progressing the story like C4 had previously done. We designed a storyboard of the trailer, a logo, a hashtag, and banners.
The Winning Groups
Each of the three workshop sectors also had tasks similar to the one I just described above. Each group then had to present their work to all of the other groups in the digital marketing workshop under a strict two-minute time limit. The two strongest groups from each workshop would then present in front of all 150 attendees of the pop-up day in the theatre. These groups would also be in with a chance to win a visit to Channel 4 headquarters for an experience day and a winners event later in the evening.
Our group gave the best performance. Anxiously, we waited to see if we’d be presenting in front of everyone… WE WOULD BE! Our group felt elated! We were one step closer to that all-important experience and networking day at Channel 4!
After presenting in front of 150 people in the theatre, we waited patiently to see if we’d be the winning group for digital marketing. WE’RE THE WINNING GROUP! I can’t wait to visit Channel 4 on the 19th January! I also plan to document my experiences in a later blog post, so keep your eyes peeled!
This article was published on 12th January 2017 – we have since rebranded to Made With Many
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