It is now 3:30 pm on Friday and this experience is almost over. My week of working alongside the team has been enjoyable and I have had the opportunity to understand the publishing sector and the business model of Sweet Cherry, a growing company you will hear a lot about in the near future.

 My week started with an introduction to the facility through a quick tour guided by Maaz and Jess. Then, working in the Sales and Marketing team under the supervision of Jess and Daniel, I started on my first task: scheduling tweets for June. As I have recently graduated from the University of Leicester in Management and Marketing, social media marketing communication is, or should be, one of my strong suits. I started my first activity with all the energy possible,  linking our company message to our titles and to the events happening in June: the World Cup, the new Jurassic World movie, reading and fair events, and the key dates of the month such as #NationalChildrensDay, #NationalCheeseDay, and #NationalBestFriendsDay. Next, I moved on to studying and researching the most important aspects of the publishing industry through the IPG Skills Hub. Only then I was able to better comprehend the market in its key aspects.

 Over the rest of the week, I have helped to come up with a strategy for the effective use of the catalogues, worked on the newsletter and targeted marketing communication for the upcoming months, researched for US-based agencies for the upcoming entrance in the American and Canadian markets, and worked on Amazon PPC campaigns.

On a lunchtime walk (wish I did more of those), I had the chance to talk with Chris and I was very interested in what he was currently working on. Even though Chris works in the Editorial department, it was important for me to understand the process behind the publication of a book and analyse the relationship between the editorial team and the writers of the stories published. Chris talked me through what he was working on and it was great to hear first hand about this process.

On my final day, I completed the blog post about the World Cup and then I went back to the tweets I was only able to lay out on Monday. I have been lucky to be involved in as many activities as it is possible in five days in my favourite area: marketing.

 The people here have been amazing and helpful. Although I was somewhat hijacking and ‘disrupting’ their normal working routine, Jess, Daniel, Lara, Chris, and everyone else I had the pleasure to work with were always ready to provide additional information about a task or valuable feedback. I was also lucky to be here while everyone celebrated Daniel’s birthday and I probably enjoyed too much of the chocolate cake… Sorry Daniel!

 If you have the chance to apply for an experience here at Sweet Cherry or in similar companies definitely do so and make the most out of it. You will be amazed at how much you can understand by working on live projects and it might surprise you how much you can learn in a week.

 I wish the best to Sweet Cherry Publishing and everyone I worked with. It has truly been an amazing experience.

 Daniele Gaspari is a recent Management and Marketing graduate from the University of Leicester.