By Adam Traina~
Aiming to take the local State College music industry by storm, the Penn State Entertainment Marketing Club is providing members of their organization with hands-on experiences in the entertainment industry.
Posted by PennStateEMC on Facebook
The club was started this semester by Kyra Rogan, Marlaina Murphy, along with other Penn State hospitality management students, who began by working in collaboration with the State Theatre. Coming into fruition for the first time this semester, the organization is starting off with a big move by partnering with local businesses and organizations such as: The Phyrst, Thickhead Productions, Doppler Poppins, Bryce Jordan Center, Webster’s, and the State Theatre.
“The catalyst for this project was the belief that student interest and involvement in music and the arts has declined over the years,” says Marlaina Murphy, a co-founder of the organization.
This club initially started as a way for the State Theatre to market Liquid Stranger and Manic Focus’s upcoming electronic show to the correct audience. They contacted Murphy along with other Hospitality majors who were interested in the music industry to take on this task.
“We were able to sell over 100 tickets in a few weeks before the show. It was a great night, everyone had so much fun! And this was just as a group of friends doing it on their own, without any resources from the school,” Murphy states ecstatically.
Posted by PennStateEMC on Facebook
Riding off of that passion from first event they marketed, the team looked into creating their own student organization. “We all had a passion to work in the music industry and wanted to apply that passion,” says Murphy.
The mission of the Entertainment Marketing Club is to “provide the student community with resources and information regarding live music and entertainment related events taking place on and off campus. Members of the organization will receive educational resources regarding the workings of the entertainment industry within the State College community as well as hands-on experience by helping plan for and promote upcoming shows,” as stated in their student handbook and Facebook page alike.
“Our goal is to help grow the live music and entertainment scene in State College, as well as give students hands on experience working in the entertainment industry,” Murphy claims.
Along with providing students with hands-on industry experience, the Entertainment Marketing Club also incentivizes students by using points. These points correspond to interactions with group activities and general promotions of some of the upcoming acts the club is associated with. The interactions can vary and could consist of tasks such as posting flyers downtown or throughout the school, sharing posts about upcoming events, posting graphics on their social media pages. They could also be things easy as just generally interacting with the page.
Posted by PennStateEMC on Facebook
In exchange for the points earned through the contributions to the group, members can cash them in for tickets to local shows such as the ones they helped promote. This system rewards the hard-work marketing the acts with the reason many most likely joined for: a love of live entertainment.
From the words of Murphy herself, “This semester will be a lot of learning and adjusting and building, but I’m looking forward to doing some cool things with this club!”
Looking for something new to do downtown? Check out the Entertainment Marketing Club’s Facebook for new events coming up!