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Marketing On and Off the Field

Marketing Coordinator, 2009-2012

I joined the UCSB Athletics Department immediately after graduating from Oregon State University, having interned in the Athletics Department at OSU for all four years of college. My primary responsibilities were marketing, planning, and executing gameday logistics for over 100 events per year including men’s and women’s soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball games.

My job was simple: market the games and make them fun so that people would want to come back again.

Learning New Skills

As my first professional job out of college, I learned a lot through trial by fire. On my first day I was tasked with designing a flyer for our kids club so I started learning photoshop with no previous design skills. By the end of my tenure at UCSB, I was designing newspaper ads, web graphics, posters, t-shirts, soccer scarves, signage, and more.

My eagerness to learn led me to taking on all types of marketing responsibilities:

• Learning HTML & CSS to manage and build content for our athletics website
• Creating UCSB’s first social media pages on Facebook & Twitter
• Designing and purchasing tens of thousands of promotional items to giveaway at games  
• Developing recruiting materials for the men’s and women’s basketball and soccer teams
• Managing the technical system for the videoboard and digital signage
• Advocating for and overseeing our mobile apps for fan activation and loyalty

The Blue Crew

One of the highlights of working at UCSB was leading the Blue Crew, a team of 10-15 marketing interns that helped in the gameday operations and marketing of athletic events. The internship gave these UCSB students first-hand knowledge of marketing collegiate athletics and real-world experience that would benefit their pursuit of a marketing career, athletics or not.

It was really gratifying to mentor them and teach them about all the preparation, creativity, copywriting, accountability, graphic design, and hard work that goes into doing great marketing.

While many pursued careers outside of sports marketing, there were several that have gotten jobs with the LA Lakers, Golden State Warriors, San Diego Padres, USC Athletics, and other professional franchises due to their commitment and making the most out of the internship.

It felt great to have given them that opportunity.

My Proudest Moment

A large focus of my job each year was marketing our nationally ranked men’s soccer program. In the 2009-2010 season, we set the NCAA Division I single-season men's soccer attendance record with an average of 4,335 fans per game. One year later, we broke our own record with an average count of 5,873 fans per game, welcoming a grand total of 70,471 fans to Harder Stadium throughout the year.

The most iconic moment was our game vs. UCLA, a 2-0 win where we set the all-time NCAA attendance record of 15,896 fans. That attendance record was higher than the turnout at three Major League Soccer games played that weekend!

My team and I had worked for months leading up to that game to make sure it was successful and it was so satisfying to know that all our hard work had paid off. I distinctly remember walking back to my car from the stadium after the game in such a euphoric state for how well we planned, marketed, and managed that game and created an unforgettable experience for thousands of people.

It’s moments like those, where you really feel the impact and totality of your work, that have grown my love of marketing.