From first-year Marketing students to 19k views: Jess and Lucy on saying yes to experience

Posted on: 10 August 2026 by Olga Chatzidaki in Student experiences

Jess and Lucy had only just started their Marketing degrees when an opportunity to create social media content for Get Sociable came along.

Six months later, they’d interviewed strangers around Liverpool, worked on the Ask for Angela campaign, created a video that reached more than 19,000 views and become much closer friends along the way. We spoke to them about getting started, stepping in front of the camera and why sometimes you just have to say yes.

First, tell us a bit about yourselves. What do you study and what are you into outside university?

Lucy: Hi, I’m Lucy, I’m 20 and from Shropshire. I took a gap year because I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do at university — or even if I wanted to go!

I’d studied graphics at A-level and really enjoyed being creative, so with marketing on the rise, it felt like something that could be a good fit for me. I’m studying Marketing with a Year in Industry and I’ve just finished my first year.

Outside uni, I enjoy the gym, hanging out with my friends and trying the latest coffee spot. I love being outdoors and keeping active too. I’m hoping for a career in marketing after graduation, and I think my placement year will really help me work out what that might look like.

Jess: I’m Jess, I’m 19 and I’ve also just finished my first year studying BA Marketing at Liverpool. I studied Business and Graphic Design at A-level, so marketing felt like a good combination of the two.

Outside uni, I’m usually at the gym, spending time with friends or occasionally practising guitar. Eventually, I’d love to work in fitness or sports nutrition marketing, combining my interest in weight training with digital marketing.

What does a normal week at Liverpool actually look like for you?

Jess: Usually it starts with lectures or seminars. First year has been about learning the basics of marketing and business, including marketing strategies and the psychology behind them — which has probably been my favourite part.

Afternoons are normally revising or working on assignments with friends in the library, with the occasional coffee break and chat obviously! Most evenings I’m training at the uni gym or doing things like Hyrox classes and ULMS netball.

Lucy: Mine is pretty similar — lectures, exploring Liverpool, seeing friends and keeping fit. I try to keep things balanced.

Working with Get Sociable actually fitted into that really well because filming became part of our weekly routine. It gave Jess and me an excuse to explore different places around Liverpool, meet new people and learn more about digital marketing at the same time.

And over the six months, we became much closer friends too. We learnt how each other worked and how to bounce off each other.

Were you already completely sure that marketing was the career for you?

Lucy: Definitely not completely! I first properly started thinking about my career towards the end of my gap year.

Coming from a rural area, I knew I wanted to broaden my horizons and experience city life, and Liverpool felt like the perfect fit. I’d always had that creative side through graphics, but I also became interested in consumers and why people buy certain products.

I still don’t have one definitive career route in mind, but Get Sociable showed me that I really enjoy both being behind and in front of the camera. I can see myself moving more towards the creative side of lifestyle marketing. I love fashion and lifestyle brands like L’Oréal, ASOS and LookFantastic, so working somewhere in that world would be amazing.

Jess: I’d always enjoyed making things and turning an idea into a finished outcome. I got interested in product design quite young and then studied graphic design at college.

For my final project I created branding and packaging for the female gym supplement market, and that probably solidified my decision to study marketing.

What appealed to me was that marketing doesn’t mean one job. You can go into PR, design, communications, social media, digital, product development — loads of different directions.

Before Get Sociable, I’d actually never really considered social media marketing because being in front of the camera felt uncomfortable. The internship changed that. I’ve built confidence and really enjoyed coming up with video styles and content ideas, so now it’s something I would consider.

So how did Get Sociable actually happen?

Jess: It came from a connection I’d already made at university.

I met Paul Cullinan through an ULMS Extra meeting and he’d been helping me look for work experience. Over Christmas, he emailed me to say Peter, the CEO of Get Sociable, was looking for two interns to film social media content around Liverpool and thought I might be a good fit.

I immediately thought of Lucy. I knew she was hardworking and confident and that we’d bring good energy to filming and bounce ideas off each other.

We had some onboarding calls with Peter and Gemma and then got the role. When we came back to university in January, we started filming.

Lucy: Jess basically gave me the opportunity, and I grasped it with both hands.

I wanted experience for my CV, but I also wanted to see which parts of marketing actually suited me. At the start, Jess and I weren’t even as close as we are now, but I still thought, why wouldn’t I say yes?

Six months later, I honestly wouldn’t know what to do without her! We’ve been able to lean on and learn from each other throughout the whole internship, and I’m always telling her how grateful I am that she asked me.

One of the projects was Ask for Angela. What did you actually have to do?

Lucy: We were given a brief around the Ask for Angela campaign and met Peter and Gemma to talk through what was needed.

The objective was to raise awareness while also finding out how much people in Liverpool actually knew about the campaign.

So we went out and interviewed members of the public, starting with: “Have you ever heard of the Ask for Angela campaign?”

We had prompts we could use to keep the conversation going and help explain the campaign if somebody didn’t know about it. We also filmed an introduction and conclusion using key messages that needed to be included.

The biggest thing was probably having each other there. We could bounce ideas around, support each other and push each other out of our comfort zones when it came to being on camera or approaching strangers.

It meant we could bring a lot more energy to filming — but we could also tell each other when something wasn’t working without it becoming awkward.

Street interviews sound pretty intimidating. What did you learn from doing them?

Lucy: At the beginning it could definitely be daunting, but we learnt that we were actually really adaptable.

By the end, we were much more comfortable on camera and could have fun with it while still getting everything done within the time we had.

For the Ask for Angela video, we actually had to go back and re-record some interviews because the messaging needed to be clearer. That taught us a lot about receiving feedback without taking it personally, then making the changes quickly and getting on with it.

As the internship went on, the briefs also became less structured because there was more trust in us to come up with ideas ourselves.

One of the videos we created for Cocktail Week reached more than 19,000 views, which was amazing to see.

We started understanding much more about what hooks an audience, how to keep the Get Sociable personality in every video and how much thought actually goes into content that might only be on somebody’s screen for a few seconds.

What kind of support did you have while you were doing all this?

Jess: We had a lot of contact with Peter and the Get Sociable team. We’d have Teams calls with Peter and Weronika to go through briefs and make sure everyone understood what needed to be filmed and what the important messages were for clients like Ask for Angela.

We also had a WhatsApp group, which was really useful if something came up while we were actually out filming.

What I liked was that the relationship felt relaxed. Lucy and I could share our own opinions and there was space for us to be creative rather than just being told exactly what to do.

They were also really understanding that approaching strangers for street interviews can be daunting. We never felt pressured to film something or put ourselves in a situation we weren’t comfortable with.

That made it easier to build confidence gradually.

Has the experience changed what you think you might do after university?

Jess: Definitely. Before this, I wouldn’t have put social media marketing very high on my list because I didn’t think being in front of the camera was for me.

Now I know I can do it, and I actually enjoy it.

I still want to explore different areas of marketing, but this has opened another route that I probably wouldn’t have considered otherwise.

Lucy: Same for me. I’m still figuring things out, which I think is normal, but now I know I enjoy creating content, coming up with ideas and having that mix of behind-the-scenes work and being on camera.

The whole point for me was gaining experience so I could start understanding what actually fits me rather than just guessing what a marketing career might be like.

Finally, what would you say to another student who is thinking about trying something new?

Jess and Lucy: Say yes!

Experience is one of the best ways to work out whether a job or an area of an industry is actually right for you.

It can feel daunting at first — especially when you’re doing something that pushes you out of your comfort zone — but the pride and self-fulfilment afterwards are worth it.

You don’t have to know exactly where your career is going before you start gaining experience. Sometimes the experience is what helps you figure that out.

With the job market being difficult, take the opportunities that come your way, keep trying things and keep pushing yourself.

You might end up finding something you never thought you’d enjoy.