Interning at Allied-THA

by Rebecca Campbell

I had the opportunity to work at Allied-THA, an integrated marketing agency in Cleveland, during the summer of 2013. Allied’s clients consisted of major motion picture studios including Paramount, Universal, Columbia and 20th Century Fox. I worked with three other interns to assist in promoting several films such as “World War Z,” “The Way, Way Back,” “Identity Thief” and “Paranoia.” I continued to work at Allied through Fall 2013 as well.

Some of my responsibilities included brainstorming promotional ideas, conducting research in eight markets - Cleveland, Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Albany, NY - and planning promotional events. These events mostly included contacting venues that would be good fits for the films and help get the word out about the film. Another responsibility was to help work advanced screenings of films and fill out a screening report, which consisted of comments from the audience, demographics and scenes the audience reacted to.

One of the key lessons I learned is to always ask “what’s in it for me?” when thinking about the client in an agency setting. Because of my JMC classes, I was able to think in this mindset, and it benefitted me when I was planning two events that I was assigned to do. Companies need a reason why they should let you into their location at no cost and talk to their customers.

My advice for future interns is take full advantage of your internship and do as much as you can because there are some things that you can’t learn in the classroom. For example, the movie studios wanted pictures from the events that myself and the other publicists worked, so they can see where and how their film is being promoted. I had to learn what type of pictures to take and how many because that’s what the client wanted. 

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