Ellie's placement at Warner Bros.

Name: Ellie Sivins
Course: English
Placement job title: International Marketing Intern
Organisation: Warner Bros. Pictures

Why did you decide to do a placement?

When coming to university, I initially set out to do a year abroad, but when it came to applying I decided that this wasn’t the best fit for me. I knew that I wanted to integrate some form of year away from study within my degree. Over the summer, I had several friends completing a placement year and I found myself wishing that our department had a programme in place. Then, when I came back to Uni for my second-year careers announced that the placement year was available to English students, so I jumped at the opportunity.

How did you find the opportunity?

I was applying to all the placement year roles I could find that were applicable to me. I saw so many placements that were amazing and then I came across Warner Bros placement year programmes. All the jobs looked amazing, and Warner Bros offer over fifty placements every year. I applied to a few roles at Warner and I was called back for a couple of interviews. Then I was offered the role of EMEA TV Marketing Intern.

Tell us about your role?

As an EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) marketing intern, I assist two marketing directors who work across the territories. I send marketing materials to clients, including trailers, art work and merchandise. I am constantly in touch with broadcasters all over our territories to create new campaigns or help promote returning TV shows.

What is your typical day?

My typical day includes catching up on industry news and each week I collate these articles to create a weekly update for my department. Throughout the day I help with asset requests and approvals from our broadcasters. A big part of my role is monitoring when shows launch in the different countries and different broadcasters and supplying them with all that they need to ensure the show launches well on their platform. Also, I am usually working on a project for my directors alongside this, which could be a presentation for a new campaign, copywriting for social media assets or collating information for clients.

What are you getting out of it?

I have gained a better sense of a working routine, which is much more organised than what I did at Uni. Another key thing is forming emails correctly and meeting the needs of the person that I’m communicating with knowing when it’s ok to put a smiley face and when a full stop is better. I have learned so much about international television and the territories I’m working with and I hope to learn more in the coming months. I know I am becoming more confident the longer I’m here and I have learned to never stop asking questions.