My Experience Doing Marketing and Promotional Work

For the past 10 years I have earned a sustainable part-time income through various marketing and promotional jobs. I started off in the industry as a teenager doing entry-level “kiddie” type of marketing gigs. As I got older I started getting the higher paid marketing/promotional jobs that were a ton of fun and great experience.

My mother introduced me to the marketing and promotional jobs when I was about 15 years old as an easy and fun way to make some extra money. I started off doing silly jobs like dressing in promotional costumes which was a little claustrophobic and hot. One of the jobs was for a children’s video game promotional tour where I dressed in one of the characters costumes and visited children at a children’s hospital. That was a rewarding experience and something that I will always remember. I was being paid to be around amazing little kids and put smiles on their faces! Another less glamorous marketing job that I got early on was promoting for a local fast food restaurant where I had to dress in a large bulky fast food cup costume. It was extremely hot outside and very embarrassing. I think I got paid around $15 per hour for those jobs early on which was great money especially for such easy jobs.

Finally when I turned 18 I was able to secure better paying and more “glamorous” marketing and promotional “gigs” as I called them. I remember working on a grand opening tour for a national department store as an assistant manager one summer. We rented a double decker bus and had go-go dancers dance on the top floor of the bus while we drove around downtown Denver. It was a lot of fun and I think I made around $18 per hour because I was an assistant manager. The manager of that particular tour actually toured around the entire United States for the department store which I thought was pretty amazing.

In my early 20s I started to lock down a mix of longer term promotional and marketing jobs as well as some short term opportunities here and there. My first long term marketing job was for a new energy drink on the market. I was stationed at a local Costco in the Denver area and it was my job to get as many people to sample the energy drinks and get them to purchase the drinks by the case. My marketing team member and I got bonuses on top of our hourly wage for selling certain amounts of energy drink cases. I think I got paid $18 per hour for that job which was great considering that it lasted for four weeks with full-time hours.

When I turned 21 I finally got the really high paying promotional and marketing jobs that paid $25 per hour. These high paying jobs were marketing jobs for liquor companies, fashion events, and concerts. I had the most fun doing these jobs as they were quite glamorous and involved wearing really cute costumes and outfits. I spend a lot of time in bars, liquor stores and night clubs. These higher paying jobs weren’t always consistent so I also started to hand out samples in grocery stores. This was not a glamorous job by any means but I needed the extra money while in college.

Now that I’m 25 I have stopped taking marketing jobs but I’m considering getting back into the industry to make extra money again. Getting paid $25 per hour to have fun and meet new people will probably always be tempting to me!