Global Marketing & Sales: Disney Exploration Series Seminar Class

If you've read any of my blogs from my first program in fall 2014, you may know that I took a seminar and LOVED it so I decided to sign up for another one this program!! I signed up for Global Marketing & Sales with the intention of networking and just learning more about the marketing department in general. Plus I had such a blast in my seminar my first program I thought they'd all be fun like mine was.

Well first of all, seminars are now set up in four week sessions instead of six, and there are two different sessions you can sign up for (one for February and one for March basically). Also, one my first program my seminar had three in-class sessions, and three park field trip sessions whereas my marketing seminar had zero field trips, and four in-class sessions.

My seminar consisted of one day general marketing overview, one day of strategy, one day of tactics, and a day with a marketing panel. Honestly I thought it was extremely dry, and that the material was information you can probably find online or something. What made my first seminar so cool was the fact that it was geared toward Cast Members and revealing some of that backstage magic!! The only interesting day for me was the panel of marketing managers. We had five managers from across the marketing departments, one from customer managed relationships (CMR), one from content management, one from strategy, one from analytics (CIMA), and one from another branch I can't remember. They all went over their duties, advice, and other valuable insight if you're looking to break into the industry.

Basically here's what I learned:

• Disney marketing is about telling a story
• Know your target audience
• Statistics and an understanding of math is just as important, probably even more important, than creative design
• Best majors to get into Disney marketing include general business, statistics/math, engineering, and an MBA (Master's in business)
• Don't be afraid to put yourself out there and network, that's the easiest way to get hired
• Regardless of where you get your start with the company (and whether or not it's a spot you're passionate about), always give 110% because you never know who's watching you
• There are MANY different departments and areas of marketing, stay open-minded and don't throw away any opportunities - you never know for sure what your niche will be unless you try different stuff out!
• Yellow Shoes is the content creation/creative side of marketing but even they need to be able to analyze and understand statistics and business
• Don't let fear of failure stop you from trying, it can only make you better

So that's basically the gist of what I learned, mostly advice from the managers we saw. There was also an opportunity at the end of the last class to talk to the leaders and network.

All in all I was a little disappointed by the class. It was very dry and set up much like a two-hour lecture. I would recommend it to people looking to get into the marketing department with Disney, but that's pretty much it. If you want to take something for fun, take Disney Heritage!