My time as an intern

Beginning as an intern at Mallory Group in January 2018, I initially saw my first three months as a baptism of fire, being plunged into the world of sailing with no prior professional experience in the sport industry. In reality, it’s much more likely that this was just a natural (over)reaction to finding a role in an already overwhelming job market that I truly wanted to succeed at.

Mallory Group provided the perfect platform for beginning this journey. There may be benefits to working at one of the bigger agencies, but the openness of the Mallory office environment, the lack of corporate barriers when seeking facetime with someone more senior, and the general flexibility of day to day work allowed for a sharp learning curve and a speedy integration into the team.

With the agency just a year old when I started (now over three years old at the time of writing) the majority of my work centred around a core client, team AkzoNobel in the Volvo Ocean Race. The campaign was already established and the race well underway at the time of my joining, so quickly getting up to speed was vital. The range of my duties allowed me to develop experience across the Volvo Ocean Race and the sports marketing industry as a whole, varying from implementing paid social media campaigns, utilising web and social analytics, to welcoming the team upon their arrival in Cardiff.

Our work with AkzoNobel was ultimately a great success, ending the race with the highest rates of positive engagement across social media and the fastest growing fanbase. However, despite the success of the campaign, the delight felt at the team getting their first win in Auckland and their setting of a new VO65 24-hour speed record, I can’t deny my role was as challenging endeavour than those onboard, but it was undoubtedly a hugely rewarding one.

During my initial internship, my time also revolved around clients such as sporting talent agency TLA and Italian swimwear brand arena. This involved representing elite Olympic athletes such as Adam Peaty and Chris Hoy in the media, highlights of this included a press trip to Rome and a cover feature shoot with Red Bulletin. New business proposals and general creative thinking also made up a fair portion of my time.

Being given access to such a wide range of work was something I hadn’t encountered in previous internships and, coupled with being given genuine responsibility from the get-go, kept every day as interesting as the next. Following an initial 6-month period I was offered a full-time role as an Account Executive. This saw my remit grow and in the 20 months that followed I worked across a host of new clients, ranging from the 2019 Cricket World Cup, to the F5 World Championships and equestrian and sailing performance brand Musto.

After a fantastic 2 years at Mallory Group I’m now leaving to pursue a career in accountancy.

For information on the latest career opportunities at Mallory Group, please click here.