Marketing the Olympics

03/27/2014 5:08 PM

By Sarah Marshall, ’15

Marketing major Laura O’Radnik ’14 and social media marketing minor Christopher Morgan ’14 interned at NBC Sports Group’s Stamford, Ct., headquarters during the Sochi Olympics. They were part of the 18 Bradley students selected to intern for NBC.

O’Radnik, as a shot selector, watched events stream live and made packages of clips.

“Work orders could include get all USA athletes, getting the expected winners, crashes, athletes from countries that are in the Olympics for the first time, and any stories that developed during the event,” she said.

Both students have other course work, such as O’Radnik’s double major in television arts, that helped them earn the internship, but they realized their marketing background’s impact on the experience. These skills helped them provide creative solutions to any problems they encountered and allowed them to better promote the Olympics to a set audience while meeting a deadline.

Morgan credited the Olympics and other internships for admission into the University of Louisville’s sports administration graduate program next fall.

“The internship has opened up many doors for me,” Morgan said. “It started with my first Olympics internship for London. Since then I was able to turn my internship with WEEK into a job and experience another Olympics.”Each intern had a favorite part of the experience.

O’Radnik enjoyed the tour of NBC’s headquarters, and Morgan was happy to watch Canadian snowboarder Alex Bilodeau win gold.

Besides these amazing events, they were grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow off-campus.

“There is absolutely no substitute for experience, no matter what field you are going to work in,” said social media marketing professor Heidi Rottier. “There is also the chance to connect with other professionals and learn from them. As faculty, we can provide a great classroom experience and even share our networks with students, but it can’t beat what students can learn and do on their own.”