The first half of my 2018 included undertaking the role as a Mall Marketing Intern at Marina Bay Sands (MBS).

Assigned to the Retail Marketing (RM) department, the team plays a crucial role in developing, managing and executing strategic marketing plans, including Branding and Loyalty shopper programmes and events related to The Shoppes to drive sales and foot traffic to the mall. Moreover, the team manages the relationships with over 300 tenants at The Shoppes, assisting them in driving foot traffic to their stores.

As a large organisation with over 100 departments and more than 9,500 employees, the RM department is part of a bigger Business Unit – Mall Management. The team has to work closely with the supporting teams within this Business Unit, including Retail Finance, Retail Leasing, Retail Management and Operations to successfully execute effective marketing efforts for the mall.

As the RM team also falls under the Marketing division, it requires further collaborative support from other departments such as Advertising & Branding, Destination Marketing, Ecommerce & Digital Marketing, and Loyalty Marketing, to develop and execute cohesive and synergistic marketing plans to attract the right target audience from local and international markets, and drive sales and traffic to the mall.

And as part of my contribution to the team, I was responsible for overseeing tasks detailed in the next section below.

AS A WHOLE...

This internship has been a truly rewarding, fun, eye-opening and memorable experience with ample learning opportunities through the extensive range of tasks and projects I was assigned and exposed to handling across the 6 months. From the careful management and coordination of mall-media advertising platforms such as Poster Stands, Visual Merchandising (VM) units, Casino VM units, Water VM units, Lightboxes and Store Directories, to crafting ideas and pushing out contents for seasonal campaigns (Eg. Spring/Summer’18, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day). As well as retailer events for MBS Social Media platforms – FaceBook (Monthly) and Instagram (Weekly). I was also given the opportunity to provide support for the launch of MBS first-ever Online Lookbook Catalogue page ('The Shoppes Edit'), VIP Loyalty Program and ‘Sands Rewards Lifestyle (SRL) Rewards Program.

It has truly provided me with diverse learning experiences and valuable takeaways. Beyond that, the entire experience has allowed me to grow as an individual.

Having taken on responsibilities over tasks and given autonomy in execution, I have learnt the value of accountability for one’s actions and the importance of following through in one’s work. For example, I ensured the continual update and timely refreshment of new visuals monthly, specifically so for VM displays, Mall Poster Stands and Lightboxes, during this period, no deadlines were missed. The process of refreshing the various mall-wide collateral on a monthly and bi-monthly basis involved facilitating all communications, and coordination with various departments (e.g. Retail Management and Operations team), and major external stakeholders (e.g. retailers and printing vendors) as well as making effective decisions to plan schedules for each changeover, shortlisting retailers to feature, reviewing & approving artworks/display visuals and carefully determining where to allocate each retailer at which locations across the mall. And this very last step posed as a key challenge for me as a lot of trial and errors and deeper levels of considerations were required to determine where to best locate each retailer. Moreover, this was a large responsibility to uphold as locations greatly affects retailers’ branding, image and potentially, overall sales. Example of factors to consider includes the understanding of retailers’ brand stature (mass, luxury) to ensure brand compatibility when matching brands to locate alongside one another, and the familiarity of all poster stand and VM display locations on property. As such, tasks assigned constantly challenged my analytical capabilities and allowed me to evaluate my options and problem-solve for solutions on such projects.

While faced with multiple ups and downs along the way, I learnt the value of being more analytical to do my work with more purpose. It also taught me the importance of foresight, anticipating problems, and being adaptable to situations.

Evidently, I went the extra mile to study/analyse the footfall as well as shoppers’ demographics at locations around the mall. This gives me more purpose and a clearer overview on how to carefully devise the best strategy when it comes to allocating poster stands, lightboxes and VM displays for retailers. In terms of professional learning, I gained hands-on experience in witnessing how the marketing concepts of branding and brand compatibility comes into play. Also, by strategically placing retailers posters/displays at the right locations, it can help generate higher conversion rates and sales for retailers’. As such, this learning point ties in closely with my ability to take ownership and responsibility of tasks assigned. With the understanding that my actions would result in a ripple effect that affects the branding for both MBS and retailers’, it further motivates me to take responsibility in getting the job done well.

Moreover, having to constantly work on multiple projects within a period of time have allowed me to put skills such as time-management, planning, organising, and project management skills into practice. Experiences dealing with retailers as well as back-end staff has honed my communication skills as well as to appreciate the operational work carried out by both ends. The ability to relay information in an effective, accurate and succinct way was important for efficiency. Learning to come to a compromise with team members and retailers was equally important in achieving win-win results.

As a whole, it has been a truly rewarding experience to have had the opportunity to witness every round of collateral refreshments as they are a reflection of my successful management and coordination of such extensive projects.

On a personal level, I feel like a new level of growth was achieved. There was also character building whereby I learnt an innate sense of professionalism from my Director, through observing her positive attitude and work ethics. This working experience also helped me to boost my confidence and morale, as I was tasked with serious projects which required a knack for careful planning and risk taking. This included the careful handling of the bi-monthly mall-wide VM unit Changeovers, exciting and unexpected once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to gain up close meetups at media events with celebrities (Eg. Chris Hemsworth and Zoe Tay) who have endorsed brands (Eg. HUGO BOSS and Burberry) with the organisation, and working on social media shoots after working hours and having the posts live on the MBS’ social media platform - Instagram. By witnessing my posts being ‘lived’ as well as measuring the extent which my posts engages with the public, it truly helped me to take great pride in my work as I understand that it is a reflection of not only my mini accomplishments and work ethic, but also that of the company.

Supervisors and colleagues at MBS demonstrated trust when they allowed the internship to operate with little micro-managing. This flexibility to take-charge of my tasks has definitely developed in me, a strong sense of pride in every work I do or have contributed to the team. I quickly learned that with greater levels of autonomy, comes with greater responsibilities. However, this did not deter me, but instead it spurred my self-driven nature to get the job done well. It eventually gives me a sense of fulfilment and achievement. This, coupled with the very welcoming, fun, supportive and understanding team I worked with has helped me to better manage and overcome challenging and busy situations.

Overall, my internship journey at MBS was extremely fun, rewarding and meaningful. The entire experience has also shed light on how the retail marketing industry, more specifically, how Singapore’s first integrated resort is realistically operated. This experience has allowed me to not only be aware of my own capabilities but also enhance them whilst in a realistic work environment beyond the classroom.

Aside from the abovementioned learning points, not only did I enjoy the wonderful employee benefits & perks offered by MBS (e.g. free awesome meals & starstruck moments of getting close-up encounters with celebrities like Chris Hemsworth in real life), deeper levels of bonds and friendships were forged with my supervisor and colleagues.

I am TRULY beyond thankful, privileged and humbled by this opportunity to have been able to work at MBS, and of course, not forgetting, the wonderful team of mine.

This has been my best internship yet! :D