Reel Opportunities
Marketing Assistant
Also known as: Brand Marketing Assistant, Junior Marketing Assistant, Marketing Communications Assistant
What does a Marketing Assistant do?
Marketing Assistants do anything that’s needed to ensure the success of a campaign to market a film or TV project; whether that’s scheduling tweets or ordering in lunch for meetings.
Marketing campaigns for film and TV dramas can include posters, newsletters, content on social media as well as trailers.
Marketing Assistants help with proofreading copy, filing, and inputting contact details into research spreadsheets. They often coordinate market research projects and use the data to help assess the effectiveness of campaigns to help with future ones.
Marketing Assistants might be employed by film sales agencies, marketing agencies, production companies or broadcasters. Big production companies will have their own marketing departments for their film and TV dramas. Smaller ones will use a separate marketing company or agency. For TV dramas, Marketing Assistants are more likely to be employed by the broadcaster or channel, such as CBC.
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What's a Marketing Assistant good at?
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Audience awareness Know audiences, research audience statistics, understand how they watch films or TV dramas, be aware of the commercial ‘performance’ of these
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Watching film and TV drama Have a passion for the genre and a love of the industry, have a critical eye and analyze the content
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Taking initiative Observe that’s happening, be proactive, ask questions at the appropriate time
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Social media Enjoy creating a buzz on social media platforms, use scheduling software
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Communication Write compelling copy, engage people from a wide range of backgrounds, seize initiative.
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Organization Anticipate, prioritize and stay on top of tasks, provide support to your team.
Who does a Marketing Assistant work with?
Marketing Assistants work with Marketing Managers and possibly Assistant Production Accountants within an agency or department.
How do I become a Marketing Assistant?
There are no set routes to becoming a Marketing Assistant. However, a degree in marketing, communication or a film subject is useful. Become familiar with how various social media platforms work and operate.
Here are some tips:
Volunteer: Find charities, amateur theater or student film productions. Ask if you can do their social media for them. Create a campaign and keep track of how your campaign has increased visitors to the website, donations or ticket sales. Put that on your CV.
Start your own channel: Set up a review blogging site or content channel. This is the marketing version of having a portfolio. You can send a link with your CV to show your writing and online skills, and, equally importantly, your interest in film and TV drama.
Look outside the industry: Marketing is important in all industries, not just film and TV drama, so there are plenty of agencies and departments elsewhere that have marketing assistant roles. Apply for junior marketing roles in any industry to build up your skills. You can transfer those to the film or TV industry later on.
More tips
For more tips on finding job opportunities, lists of training programmes, and other great resources, check out our Career Resources page.
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