INTERNSHIP REFLECTION: MARKETING & MEDIA (JACK HODDER)

STUDENT NAME:	Jack Hodder
DEPARTMENT:	Marketing & Media

CONTRIBUTION:  What were 3 key ways that you contributed to this department during your internship?

• 2009 HERITAGE PROJECT: My personal favourite contribution was building a heritage piece centred around the Eels' 2009 season. This involved researching the season in depth, archiving the majority of the NRL’s official 2009 magazines and bringing together the stories, moments and people that defined one of the most significant seasons in the Club's history. This project was particularly meaningful to me because the 2009 season contains some of my earliest major memories of football. Being able to go back and research a period that played such a big part in creating my love for the Eels made the project incredibly enjoyable and rewarding. It was genuinely one of the most fun projects I have ever worked on and I felt privileged to have had the opportunity to create a lasting artefact that the Club can use to tell the story of 2009 for years to come.

• EELS INSTITUTE WEBSITE & STUDENT LIFE: One of my major contributions was helping reshape the Eels Institute website and developing the new Student Life section. This gave me the opportunity to showcase the experiences, achievements and personalities of Eels Institute students and highlight what makes the Eels Institute unique. I was particularly proud of this project because it allowed me to help tell the story of the students themselves and showcase the talent, creativity and opportunities that exist within the Eels Institute. I have a huge amount of belief in the Eels Institute and the potential it has to grow into a leading educational pathway within the sporting industry. I wanted this project to help give every student a platform and show future students what the Eels Institute can offer them. Being able to contribute to how the Eels Institute presents itself and help tell the stories of the students who are part of it made this project especially meaningful to me.

• FAN INTERACTION CAMPAIGNS: Throughout my internship, I also supported with setting up fan interaction campaigns, like 'guess-the-crowd-number'. This helped me understand how certain campaigns can be used to build excitement and boost fan engagement. It also helped me to understand how to better market to a specific audience.

NETWORKING: Who were 3 key people that you built connections with during this internship?

• Caron Lefever - Heritage & Communications Manager
  

• Colin Pritchard - Senior Digital Producer
  

• Andy Le Tran - Digital Marketing Manager

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING: What were 3 key things that you learnt about the sporting industry during this internship?

• UNDERSTANDING YOUR TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC: One of the biggest things that I learnt during my internship was the importance of understanding your target demographic, particularly within the sporting industry. Different people connect with sport in completely different ways, and understanding who you are trying to reach is crucial to creating content and marketing campaigns that actually resonates with them. You need to understand your audience, what they care about, what interests them and what will make them want to engage.

• THE POWER OF MARKETING A GAME OR EVENT: I also learnt how important marketing is for determining the reach and success of a game or event. A game does not simply sell itself because it's being played. The build-up, promotion and way that the event is presented to fans can have a huge impact on how many people turn up for it and how much excitement is created around it. Being able to see this from behind the scenes gave me a much greater appreciation for the role marketing plays in getting people through the gates, creating anticipation and ultimately, making an event feel like something people want to be a part of.

• STORYTELLING AND CREATIVITY ARE CRUCIAL: Perhaps the biggest thing that I learnt during this internship is that you need the creativity and storytelling ability to actually connect with your intended audience. In sport, there are so many stories worth telling, whether that it's the story of a player, a team, a fan, an event or the history of a Club. Knowing how to find those stories and turn them into something that makes people feel something is a huge part of working in Media and Marketing. Even when a Club is struggling on the field and there isn't an obvious success story to promote, it's still the job of a marketer to sell hope. You are selling the belief that things can get better, that the club can succeed and that by supporting it, fans can feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. That emotional connection is what makes sport so powerful. My internship reinforced how much I value creativity and it showed me that being able to tell a great story in a way that genuinely connects with people is a skill I want to continue developing throughout my career.

PERSONAL LEARNING: What was ONE key thing that you learnt about yourself / your career goals during this internship?

One key thing that I learnt about myself during this internship is that I want to be the person who tells the story of sport and makes other people feel the same passion for it that I do.

I have always known how much sport means to me, but this internship gave me the opportunity to turn that passion into something creative through media, marketing and storytelling. I realised that I don't just want to work in sport because I love it, I want to help other people love it too. Whether that is creating excitement around a game, telling the story of a player, celebrating a Club's history or showing someone why they should care; I want to be the person who helps create that connection.

This internship gave me an authentic outlet to let my creativity and storytelling shine. More than anything, it has made me realise something that I am deeply passionate about, outside of sport itself... it's making people care. I love the idea of taking something that I care deeply about and finding a way to make someone else care about it just as deeply too. That's something that I want to build my career around and this internship has given me a much clearer understanding of the kind of storyteller that I want to become in order to do that.