A #PromoLoveStory of my own.

Each year, the Hype! team runs a #PromoLoveStory contest with our Brand Ambassadors and this year marks our 6th year. I was inspired by all of the submissions to share how I fell in love with the experiential industry.

So here it is…

Not many people know this story so I am excited to share it. I fell head over heels for the industry 20 years ago. Immediately after college, a friend of mine and I worked for a small agency run by a well-dressed and well-connected woman in RI. It was simply a side gig for us at the time, both of us worked full time in the corporate world.

Each week, we would head over to her home office, located in the basement of an old Victorian home and she would have our assignments for the weekend. The promotional work would range from liquor store sampling promotions in Peabody MA one day to a wine tasting in Newport the next. I was young and loved the business. Meeting new people, making connections, and throwing on a green wig every once in a while, for a new Tanqueray night was always new and exciting.

I had just graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in Marketing and Communications. At the time, I was still unsure where my career path would take me. Working always came naturally to me, I started at a coffee shop when I was 14 years old. A decision that was entirely my own. Through college, I picked up a job at the local coffee shop on campus pulling all-nighters to be up for my 5 am shift. I was fortunate not to “need” the jobs I took but always enjoyed contributing to any business I was a part of.

After graduation, I moved to Boston to pursue my career in marketing and landed a great job at a Talbots HQ in their marketing department. It was a great 1st job, but I hungered for more. Traditional marketing channels didn’t excite me the way promotions did.

When my friend I started seeing promotional work pop up around Boston and RI, we wanted to be a part of it. We would work our jobs during the day and then have a weekend packed with events! Our friends loved that they would have “ins” at some of the hottest accounts in town. Some gigs were just a couple hours a night, we would work and then meet up with friends. We learned how valuable face to face marketing was for brands that needed to cut through the noise of traditional marketing.

And that was it. I was hooked…

“How do I make this my full-time job???”, I thought.

Here is a look at my timeline with experiential marketing love affair:

1. Stage 1: Butterflies – Love at first sight, right? I loved working events, sharing my passion with others, and meeting new people, and always had the nervous/excited feeling when I was getting a new job.
2. Stage 2: Building- The stage where you realize it may be more than just a feeling. That there is something substantial behind why you want to learn more and do more. I didn’t realize how big the business was until I started working full time in the promotional world and it kept growing from there.
3. Stage 3: Completion- you know the famous line, “you complete me”- when you realize that you have found something that makes you whole (the same feeling you get when you marry your soulmate or have your last child). My final stage and where I am today was starting The Hype! Agency.

The rest is history. Or in this case HER-story!