Working at a media company, specializing in television, radio, and digital, the departments that make up the company are numerous, such as sales/marketing, creative services, production, human resources, reporting, talent, and more. Therefore, my role lies within the sales/marketing department, specifically in the research department. As a Research Intern, my day-to-day at Univision varies depending on the weekday.  For example, Tuesdays start with the weekly sales/marketing meeting, beginning with the Account Executives recapping their past week’s successes, followed by an update from managers on inventory, pricing, and other updates affecting the market.  Next, the Director of Creative Services discusses changes in programming as well as recent home-produced promotions and advertisements for clients.  The meeting then finishes with an update from research, which consists of ratings updates for both TV and radio, as well as updates on new category research.  Although the Local Research Director presents this information in the weekly meeting, I still work with all the ratings programs and understand and replicate the same type of ratings reports for category presentations and specific client presentations, even more of a customized ratings pull than a simple station pull.

The conversation of ratings takes up much of our time in the Research Department, and for good reason.  As a media company, our profits, which are generated from advertisement sales, whose spot rates are determined by impressions (amount of people watching/listening on radio), therefore depend on the quality of our programming. Therefore, by pulling ratings reports by program, we are able to analyze ratings trends amongst various programs and use that to determine which programming is worth the investment, and which needs to be cancelled.  The priority concern lies on sports, news, and debuting series and novelas, as the first two are linear media’s competitive advantage in a crowded media marketplace.  Given that I work for the Local Research Department in Chicago, we only concern ourselves with how local programming is doing in the Chicago market, where as network research would handle ratings reports for network programming.  That said, Univision is an international media outlet with stations and affiliates in over 50 markets in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Mexico.

Apart from ratings reports, I have also been added to the social media committee as the company looks to redesign its social media strategy for both its talents’ pages as well as its own.  I have contributed insight into how we can improve our appeal on Instagram via different posting methods, both for publications and stories.  Additionally, I help fulfill weekly internal requests from managers looking for category information or competitive spending reports. Lastly, we also get requests from the Account Executives looking for client specific reports on their industry and even more specific than that.  For example, with automotive advertising representing one third of our advertising revenue, we place a special focus on our research capabilities for the automotive industry, investing in POLK data which allows us to see how any specific dealer compares to those others in the DMA, in its PMA, or really in any type of geographical radius we desire.

To offer a personal reflection on time at Univision, I will start by acknowledging I wouldn’t be where I am today without the faith the company put in me back in 2017.  Since then, I have developed as a professional adult, with advanced skills in market research that have helped me secure a post-graduation job with Ipsos. Without the knowledge, professionalism, and confidence my experience at Univision has instilled in me, I would not be accomplishing such goals immediately following my graduation from DePaul.  For that, as well as being able to work in a vibrant culture with amazing people, I thank Univision for the opportunity to grow and develop myself while still in college.

I work for a nonprofit interest group that takes political action to achieve their goal: aleviating global poverty. The Borgen Project has two major functions. One, which is made up of interns and volunteers, work to connect people to their representatives in an effort to make the people’s voices heard. They also introduce legislative acts that correlate with the organization’s mission: to ease the circumstances of people living in poverty.

The second branch of the organization is held by lobbyists and organization officials between Washington, D.C. and the organization’s headquarters in Washington state. These people rely on relationships and general interest (accrued or introduced by the former branch) to make sure bills and legislation is made law, or that budgets are funded, or that funding goes toward one issue or another. Thus, the organization is made up of political affairs, PR/marketing, journalists, and administrators.

My weeks as a PR/Marketing intern is organized in tidy checklists. Each week, I look to my PR Google Document, which both myself and my team manager have access to, and I complete each task one at a time. When I finish them, I simple cross them off and type up a quick summary of the action. The simplicity of this routine is helpful to me for a couple of reasons. First, it is easy for me to stay on track when I can preview each of my tasks and goals week to week. Secondly, attatched to each task is an explanitory description and, usually, examples and photos of previous interns completed tasks.

Each week, I begin by calling my two Chicago senators, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, plus my representative here in the 4th district, Mike Quigley. By now, I know their phone numbers by heart. My phone call has become a weekly ritual and the interns working at the congressional offices expect my call on Fridays. When they answer, I greet them by name and tell them the reason for my call: I am asking the senator or representative to support one bill or another. The Borgen Project pushes bills that grant aid or attention to populations in poverty. Currently, we’re pushing a bill that would give money to schools and academic establishments with the goal of making education and autonomy to girls in poverned nations.

This week was a social week. I implimented a “Mile Campaign” where I spent the day walking across a mile radious of DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus and spoke with passerbys about The Borgen Project and all they aim to do. It was an interesting change of pace to be able to get offline and away from the social media approach of mobilization and instead mobilize on foot.

I walked around campus, in front of the Student Center, in front of Whole Foods, through the Arts & Letters building talking to the few students here and there who were willing to look up at their phones and were intruiged by my attempt to talk to anybody who would lock eyes with me. Over the day, I chatted with a few students about their experiences communicating with their representatives and telling others about their Chicago representatives. A few had a sense of Congress’s role in legislation but few of them considered their congressmen as the best person to report their concerns to, many of them feeling like it would be a waste of time.

The Mile Campaign was a great way to spread The Borgen Project’s name to students. As a relatively small nonprofit, the organization suffers from lack of exposure. This is where PR/Marketing interns come in, with their main objective being exposure and acknowledgement in certain communities. Currently, The Borgen Project is most known by civil rights organizations that organize at a national level, but are not very known amongst people who could be utelizing their services and tools to communicate with their congressment.

Over the course of my internship, I’ve learned a lot about the value of organization recognition and awareness. Specifically, I’ve reconized that much of marketing is about making an organization or product visable and recognizable to people who are interested. Those who are not previously interested in a cause or have a need for some product may never be persuaded. Yet, when marketed towards the right audiance, which in my case was students and local activists, my organization’s message can grab the attention of supporters and futhermore will be passed on within the community.

I take a sip of my Americano as I walk out of the Starbucks on Armitage towards Tide Cleaners. It’s become my ritual every Monday and Wednesday to grab a midday coffee before starting work at 4:30pm to give me the extra boost I needed after a long day of classes. I swipe my card to get into the Tide Cleaners Armitage office. Doubling as a public location for our customers to drop-off their dry cleaning in one of the on-site lockers, I smile at a customer who is there placing an order as I make my way to the back where the office space begins.

As I walk through the door, I’m immediately greeted by our Field Marketing Manager Paul, who I can always expect a warm welcome from every time I come in. The work culture at Tide is lively – with chatting and collaborating being the norm in our open office space. The synergy between the employees is one of the many reasons why I love working here and feel motivated to perform well.

Being part of a completely new industry, the employees here work extremely hard to continue the growth of the company and create innovative ideas that will set us apart from competitors. Tide Cleaners is an online, on-demand dry cleaning service where customers can drop off their clothing in one of our 24/7-accessible lockers and get it returned to them in a couple days using our app. Originally founded as Pressbox, the company was acquired last year by P&G and has seen significant growth to employing 200 people across eight different markets across the country after becoming Tide Cleaners. With the Chicago office space barely fitting the 20 full-time employees who are working out of it, everyone is getting excited for the big move to a new office in River North next month.

After checking in with Vanessa, who is the intern supervisor, I walk to the supply room where I begin to gather everything I need for my Cupcakes & Rose event that I would be heading to within the hour. As one of five interns working here, I am responsible for executing community events at apartment buildings across Chicago that have our Tide Cleaners lockers. Each intern here has their own designated nights that they work, but we are always in communication with one another through our intern’s Slack channel to ensure we are best prepared for our events by sharing ideas on how to elevate the consumer experience during them. The most unique part about this role is that we are essentially the face of Tide Cleaners by being the only interaction that customers have with our employees since the service is completely app-based. This is why the interns are seen as a vital part of the company by ensuring that customers are getting the best possible experience at these events.

Every event is different – with a variance in theme, size and what to expect. Our supervisor notifies the interns each week of the events that we will be working and the relevant information we need before going by sending out Google calendar invites and updating a shared Google sheet. From there, its up to us to be responsible for executing these events successfully. The goal for every event is to draw in new customers by explaining the service, getting them to download our app and ultimately having them place an order with us that night.

One fun aspect of the job is having the ability to get creative when it comes to how to attract new customers and build a stronger relationship with the existing customers we talk to. It has forced me to become more innovative and to push myself out of my comfort zone in order to best communicate our unique service to each person I interact with. I have learned so far that it is not only about getting the customer to place an order, but to make the experience with our brand a memorable one. This is what will result in loyal customers and in turn increased growth of the company. With supportive leaders, a collaborative work environment and opportunities to be creative with new ideas, I could not ask for a better internship for my spring quarter of my senior year.