CAMRYN MCLELLAN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Skylan Morris

1. What education was required to obtain your career?

I graduated from Clemson University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies.

2. What are other possible jobs you can obtain with same education and experience as you?
The Communication field allows countless job opportunities! Some possible jobs are as follows:
News
Writing Newspaper, News, Magazines, etc.
Marketing
Advertising
Public Relations
Social Media
Event Coordination
One aspect I found really helpful within Clemsons Communication Studies program is that the program
offered an array of fields to be studied. I took Public Relation classes, Broadcasting classes, Marketing,
Advertising I felt like I had touched on a little bit of everything when I left.

3. What does your day at work look like?

One thing I love about my job is that every day is different. I personally oversee our Kids Club
program, our Promotions team (Energy Squad), and our promotional giveaways. During the off-season,
our biggest responsibility is to get everything prepared for the season starting in April.
Following the end of the season, we immediately begin researching items for our upcoming
seasons Kids Club membership. This includes researching items and then bidding out desired items to
various vendors to see which company can offer the best pricing. Once we decide on a vendor to work with
on an item, we begin the creative process. We work with the vendor to design each item the design, the
size, etc. This creative process requires a little bit of back and forth until we feel the item looks best. Once
we complete the creative process, we wait for physical samples of each item so that we may approve the
item for bulk production and then begin marketing our new Kids Club membership. (Ive included pictures
of the items for you). We received our 9 ,000 ordered items right after Christmas so we are currently
continuing to market our Kids Club to constantly gain new members. I am currently working with my upper
management to begin working on plans for our exclusive Kids Club events (such as Meet and Greets with
players, an afternoon at Fox Sports Detroit, and game day events like taking the field with players before a
game, first pitches, etc.), while also creating new events for the year (Kids Club Day at the ballpark a
game dedicated to our Kids Club members and an exclusive Kids Club Batting Practice on our field).
I work alongside my Special Events and Promotions Manager to create our promotional giveaway
calendar for in-season. This process is an all season process. Much like our Kids Club items, we begin this
process by researching popular items, trends from last year (items that drove people to the ballpark or
didnt seem to impact attendance), researching other teams, and overviewing any large successes within
our team (ex: Michael Fulmer being named A.L. Rookie of the Year). From this research, we put together
probable items to giveaway for our season. We create a bid list of each item and the details of each (size,
color, etc.). We then work with our Purchasing Director to send these lists to vendors for pricing. Once we
choose the vendor we would like to award each bid or item to, we begin working with them to create the
design and creative portion of the item.
My department is in charge of producing all of our Special Events at the ballpark. These events
include our annual TigerFest, University Days, Star Wars Night, Pink Out the Park, Pediatric Cancer Night
the list goes on and on. A majority of our off-season, as well as in-season, is preparing for these nights. We
work with everything from scheduling the National Anthems and First Pitches to working the inning breaks
that fans enjoy during game.
Once the season begins (our Opening Day is April 7, 2017), our days are about the same work-
wise, however, the days become a little longer! On a typical game day, our department comes to work as
usual around 9am. We work at our desks doing our personal responsibilities until about 4pm. At 4pm we
meet with our Promotions Department. This includes our Special Events and Promotions Manager, myself
(Promotions Coordinator), our Special Events Coordinator, and three interns. During this meeting, we
CAMRYN MCLELLAN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Skylan Morris

discuss our game day duties. We split our department each game working the Kids Club kiosk, walking
around with our mascot-PAWS, and working our inning-break promotions. Once we have discussed the
game with our department, we meet with our Broadcasting department, Scoreboard department, and
host to make sure everyone is on the same page for the game.

4. What is the most satisfying part of your job?

My favorite part of my job is the memories that I get to help create for fans coming to our ballpark and the
people I get to meet. I get to meet so many people in my role from a fan attending a game to Olympic
athletes throwing out a first pitch. The memories that we are able to allow our fans to experience is so
rare! I recently had the opportunity to select 7 kids to have a private breakfast with one of our pitchers,
Justin Verlander. Attendees received free tickets to our TigerFest event, enjoyed breakfast with Justin
Verlander, and got a personal tour of the Home Clubhouse. This is a memory that these families will
forever have and I was lucky enough to have the privilege of creating that. Every game offers something
special for our fans to experience, even if it is just a nice afternoon at the ballpark. I love getting to help
make those moments memorable.

5. What is the most challenging part of your job?

The biggest challenge in this job is organization. With all that our department is in charge of, it is so
important to not fall behind on any of the event planning or slack on any of our programs.

6. What skills or talents are the most essential to being successful in your specific career?
*Organization KEY! As Ive mentioned, our department is in charge of A LOT. Everyone in our office has a
lot going on. It is imperative to find the best way for you to stay organized. Whether that is a ton of sticky
notes, having 2 calendars, phone reminders whatever works best for you.
*Communication I am fortunate to meet a lot of people in my role. I work with over 8,000 Kids Club
members and his/her parents. I work with vendors for our promotional items. I work with first pitches and
national anthem groups. It is important to be able to talk to people and make them feel comfortable.
*Passion In a job that requires some 80+ hour work weeks, it is important to love what you do! I still
have to pinch myself some days that I get to work at a baseball field for my job. It is important to stay
positive and be grateful of the experiences this career offers!

7. What is the typical career path of someone in this field?

I would suggest someone interested in this field to have some type of Communications or marketing major
in college. A lot of schools even offer sports specific majors. This industry is unfortunately not one that
youll most likely be able to graduate and immediately have a full-time job. It is very much a get your foot
in the door industry. I worked a full-time job in an undesired department with one baseball team and 2
internships with other teams before I was lucky enough to land this full time role in my desired position.
Granted, the path isnt required to be that long for everyone, but many will say you have to pay your dues
in this industry. I would recommend internships or part-time roles with teams if this field is something you
are interested in. Reach out to those in the field. Make contacts and gain relationships.

8. How well did your college experience prepare you for your job? If you did not feel very
prepared, is there anything you wish you knew before or during education and training for your
job?
The Communication Studies department at Clemson was a broad major. I know it has been
enhanced a good bit since my leaving, but while I was there, you got a little piece of everything in your
classes. You could take broadcasting classes, public relations classes, marketing or advertising classes, and
so on. With the array of classes offered, I think I was able to narrow down some of the possible job routes
that I did not feel was my best fit.
I think the real world is something that you cant be fully prepared for you just have to get
there and learn your best way! College unfortunately cant teach you everything to be prepared for on a
daily work day, but it can teach you skills to best prepare you for success. Some of the smallest-seemed
CAMRYN MCLELLAN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Skylan Morris

things in college, such as learning the most appropriate way to word and format your emails, is so
important to know for the real world. Meeting deadlines, research, internships all so important! I think
the best way to feel most prepared out of college is to start internships as early as you can and learn what
you truly enjoy.

9. How would you describe your work atmosphere and the people you work with?
Our office offers a wide range of ages. We have employees as young as 22 years old. In an industry such as
ours, it is important to enjoy your job! During season, we will work 80+ hour weeks. On a week that long, it
is imperative to have a little fun sometimes. I think we are all proud to have the opportunity to walk into
this stadium each day for work. Our offices work extremely hard but does try to have fun as we go!

10. How big of a role does technology play in your job?

Our department lives off of Excel. This is actually one area of our department that we are in discussion
about how to enhance. In the marketing department as a whole however, technology plays a large role. In
todays world, so much of marketing is done through social media, the Internet, or TV. While I may not
have to work with these outlets too much personally, our marketing department strongly relies on them.
Thankfully I have colleagues that are proficient in all forms of social media and Photoshop to create our
graphics and reach our fans!

11. How do you see the role of Promotions marketing changing in the future?
The fan experience is already becoming a bigger focus at sporting events. Take giveaway items
for example. The cost of these raise each year. What fans look for in these items increases every year. So
many people come to sporting events for reasons OTHER than the game on the field itself. It is my
departments privilege to entertain those fans and make them want to come back, regardless of how great
or awful our team is that year. In order to do this, we must constantly create new entertainment for our
fans and city.
It is important for our department to change with technology. Social media greatly impacts
promotions and marketing. We reach so many people that we would not typically be able to through our
social media channels. We are able to host contests, to give an inside look at our team, etc. I can only
imagine what new systems will be created in the next 10 years to enhance our department!

12. What advice can you give a student who is interested in the advertising field?
Start internships or shadowing as soon as possible! In college, I was certain I wanted to go into
Broadcasting or Production with TV. I actually had three different internships throughout my college
career in this field before I realized that that path was not right for me. Thankfully, that realization led me
to the Sports Industry! School is incredibly important for the overview of different industries or jobs, but
you wont know if you truly like being involved in that work on a daily basis until you do it. Even emailing
or shadowing different people in different fields can give you a good overview of a day-to-day in an
interested position. I cant recommend enough to look ahead and get started with shadowing and
internships.