Pitching to the Big Leagues: How Ad Creative Student, Claire Plaskey, Leveraged Her Creativity to Reach the MLB
By: Nora Cunningham
The sports industry is competitive, filled with students seeking internships with backgrounds in business, marketing and sales. Claire Plaskey pitched her background as an MSU ad creative student to rise to the top of the candidate pool of over 100 applicants and land a coveted marketing internship with the Detroit Tigers.
Plaskey says she has been challenged in the classroom to think differently. Her ad creative professors of practice taught her a step-by-step process of brainstorming and using a creative mindset. That difference gave her the innovative mindset and desired background to thrive in the role with the Detroit Tigers.
In her internship, she was assigned the tasks of brainstorming marketing promotions, working on the brand new “block party activation,” which engaged the team’s kids’ clubs, and updating the website’s marketing content throughout the season.
Plaskey’s ad creative major is paired with an art direction focus, strengthening her ability to align brand themes and identities with visual marketing content. This combination helped her confidently update the team website, graphics and promotional pieces using Photoshop and Adobe Creative Suite to with the Tigers’ brand identity.
“I started by researching the team’s brand and audience, which gave me inspiration for different projects,” said Plaskey. “From there, I had a few ‘ah-ha’ moments that helped me come up with creative concepts.”
One of these moments was when Plaskey brainstormed a Barbie theme night at the ballpark, because they were trying to target female millennial audiences, and “The Barbie Movie” had huge popularity.
“I could come up with a lot of out-of-the-box ideas for promotions that other people hadn’t thought about,” said Plaskey.
Plaskey credits this to her MSU degree path, noting that creative advertising expands on traditional marketing by blending it with hands-on design and creative strategy.
Working for the Tigers showed Plaskey not only how fast-paced and competitive the sports industry is, but how much she enjoys bridging her creativity with the business side of sports. She said she loved the challenge of using art and creative efforts to draw in and engage more fans.
“I stay curious and continue to practice my brainstorming; this helps me train my brain in a creative way and develop my professional skills,” said Plaskey.
Plaskey notes that since the sports industry is so competitive, she works to build up her skills for a career post-grad and uses her art focus to create graphics of teams and players for fun.
The experience she gained at the Tigers has only fueled her passion for the industry and continues to motivate her to bring her best. To explore creative opportunities in sport like Plaskey’s, check out LinkedIn, TeamWork Online or Handshake.
