This summer, BA (Hons) Football Business & Marketing student, Matt Penson, secured himself a fantastic position working within the Marketing Department at Barnsley FC. Throughout his placement at the League One football club, Matt had fantastic opportunities to spend time in other departments enabling him to gain a varied insight into the workings of a club and also gain valuable skills that will be instrumental in his final year as a student at UCFB and in his professional career.
During the summer placement, Matt’s roles included the management of various social media platforms; writing and publishing content on the Club’s website and supporting in the production of marketing materials to increase sales and provide a greater return on investment. In addition to this, Matt also provided fantastic customer service, handled phone enquires and even conducted a live Q&A on the latest social media platform, Periscope.
One of Matt’s biggest highlights whilst working at the club was being able to be part of the “Biggest Team Photo”, where season ticket holders were invited to come to Oakwell Stadium, home of Barnsley FC, to have a photo with the First Team squad. Matt’s role involved organising players and supporters, as well as coordinating the advertising and promotion in the run up to the event. Over 600 supporters took part in the club’s biggest ever team photo and it was even featured on Sky Sports News on their special “92nd Live Programme”.
Final year BA (Hons) Football Business & Marketing student Matt, commented:
“Working at Barnsley over the summer was an unbelievable experience, facilitated by UCFB’s networks in the industry. Being able to witness the operations of a successful, working football club was brilliant and I have learned so much being able to support in so many areas of the club with various members of staff. It was a fantastic networking opportunity as I got to know a lot of people working at the club and I will definitely be keeping in touch to support on future match days.”
Barnsley Football Club’s Marketing Officer, Rob Davies, commented:
“Matt joined us from UCFB over the summer and provided outstanding and invaluable support to our team during a busy period. Given the high volume of projects taking place, Matt was challenged to hit the ground running and take responsibility for key areas of our marketing activities including social media initiatives, creating website content and coordinating fan engagement activities. It was clear that Matt was up for the challenge and performed exceptionally in all areas of his work. Matt showed a great deal of enthusiasm, a willingness to learn, and delivered new, innovative ideas which will be used by the Football Club moving forwards. We have tried to give Matt solid experience across a wide range of business areas at the football club, and we hope that this will equip him well for his future career in the sports industry. We would like to express a sincere thanks to Matt for all of his hard work and we look forward to working with other UCFB students in the future.”
