I went to Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and graduated in May of 2015. In terms of my experience with Fox Sports U, I actually had the good fortune of participating in two different projects, one in the fall of 2013 and the other in the spring of 2015. The Fall 2013 project was for my Advertising and Brand Promotion class, and the point of the project was to increase television viewership of high school sports for the LHSAA (Louisiana High School Athletic Association). We had 15 people on team, and four people on the executive board, myself included. I was in charge of social media, and coming up with ideas of how to keep the fans interacted with high school sports, specifically football. I also was in charge of creating a commercial TV spot, which I edited and finalized myself. Our group’s theme was “Live the Legacy”, as we really wanted to connect fans to high school sports through their family roots and love that they have for their high school alma-mater. After a very successful presentation, my group came in second place.
 
In the spring of 2015, earlier this year, I was given a second chance to participate in a Fox Sports U project in my Sports Marketing class. This time with a smaller group, and coincidentally a few of the same members from the Fall 2013 group, our project revolved around creating a marketing campaign to create awareness to the fact that the New Orleans Pelicans air its games on Fox Sports New Orleans. I took on the responsibility of leader of the team, and helped to guide each team member to their jobs. I was specifically in charge of social media again, as we came up with ideas to keep the fans interacted with the game while it aired on FSNOLA. Besides from grassroot, community, billboard, etc ideas, we also came up with an idea for a television spot that would introduce Fox Sports Go to the fans. I was in charge once again of creating the commercial, which was a task that I enjoyed very much. Our theme for the project was “Watch ‘Em Fly”, as we wanted to encompass the fact that fans can watch their New Orleans Pelicans fly on Fox Sports New Orleans. I am proud to say that my group won this project, and ended up being chosen by the Fox Sports U team to have our idea come to life. I cannot wait to see the finished product!

My title at Fox is “Sales Assistant”. I work on a sports team that interacts with clients buying ad space for sporting events on Fox Broadcast, as well as any program on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. My responsibilities as a Sales Assistant include: working closely with the agency that represents the advertiser, making sure their units are airing, and editing plans in the system to “makegood” deals that have preemptions (units that failed to air originally).

My favorite part of the job is working with the agency and placing the requested units in the system. It gives me great pleasure to know that the work I did is actually reflected on air when a program runs on live television.
 

I would probably say that the most important lesson/skill I learned in working with Fox Sports University is how to work with a team in a “real world” situation. Through Fox Sports U, we were working with big team organizations (i.e. the LHSAA and the New Orleans Pelicans). To learn how to work as a team and get things done in a timely and professional matter is always a very important life skill to learn.

I would probably advise students still in school that are looking to gain experience in my line of work to keep a list of all the contacts you have made throughout college and whatnot. Contacts are extremely important, and keeping up with them is even more important. By maintaining a relationship via emails every so often to contacts I thought would be helpful to me in finding a job, I was eventually able to land a job at Fox.