2025 Alumna, Lilly Gold Applies AD+PR in Role at Aflac
Gold credits PR and ad management course skills for building trust and closing deals among Aflac customers
By: Sammie Sipila
As a student, 2025 graduate, Lilly Gold, landed a part-time job as a benefits advisor at Aflac, which allowed her to apply skills learned from her public relations and advertising management coursework.
Over the summer 2024, Gold spent her time getting licensed as a life, accident and health producer. Since then, Gold says she applied both her course skills and licensing skills to real-world situations in ways she didn’t expect.
“I think the most important skills I’ve carried over are definitely communication and relationship-building,” said Gold.
Her day-to-day includes visiting businesses, speaking with employers and employees, and educating them on Aflac’s insurance products. Whether they are already familiar with Aflac or just learning about it for the first time, Gold focused on buiding trust — a key factor in the insurance industry.
“Relationship-building is huge in PR, and that’s something I’ve really applied —establishing and maintaining trust is critical because trust is huge in insurance,” said Gold.
Gold’s journey at Aflac started with a summer internship in sales, which led her to her subsequent role. While sales wasn’t initially a field she was eager to enter, she says she was intrigued by the opportunity to combine her communication skills with her learned people skills.
She says her educational background in advertising management specifically, has played a significant role in her success, allowing her present information to prospective clients confidently and connect with clientele.
Through her dual coursework, Gold developed a firm understanding of how public relations and advertising management complement each other.
“Advertising is about messaging, while PR focuses on building trust. Both are crucial when I’m speaking with employees or employers about our insurance plans,” Gold said.
For Gold, it’s all about finding the balance between presenting an effective pitch and harboring trust among clients that has allowed her to excel in her role.
Gold also gives credits to specific MSU AD+PR courses for preparing her to take on the challenges that come with her job. Courses on crisis management and problem-solving within PR and advertising taught her how to address client concerns and handle tough situations.
Gold says her experience in Advertising 486, an integrated campaigns course, allowed her to build a marketing campaign for a real-life client, which helped her develop the research and presentation skills that needed and used every day.
Despite the challenges of balancing heavy course load with work and extracurriculars, Gold says she believes that her dual coursework paid off with the skills to set her up for success.