On Brand
Photo: Courtesy of Lucila Sparkes
Lucila Sparkes, BA’14, MA’17 (Flor)
By Rebecca Maxon
When Lucila Sparkes was young, she used to make up “little jingles” for products. The marketing and advertising bug bit early, leading Sparkes, BA’14, MA’17 (Flor), to two communication degrees.
“There was a paragraph in one of my college textbooks about integrated marketing communications,” a strategy to unify a brand’s messaging and identity across platforms, and that appealed to her.
In her current role at The Walt Disney Company, where Sparkes is part of the ad sales organization’s Entertainment Brand Solutions Team for ABC’s daytime and syndication, her team works with brand advertisers on unique integrations for television. This can include branded content that extends to a show’s social media presence and interactive ads on Disney’s streaming platforms.
Her work goes beyond product placement. “We pride ourselves on storytelling and work with advertisers to bring holistic campaign messaging to life,” she says. “We’re a conduit between entertainment clients and Disney’s in-studio shows and live programming. It’s exciting to see the technology and reimagine ways we can engage consumers with our brands.”
Her job “can also mean working with brand spokespeople or [on] giveaways to ensure our advertisers’ brand goals are met and they’re reaching and engaging key audiences.”
Internships taught her about radio, cable tv programming, children’s television and Spanish-language programming.
“I’ve been very grateful that I was able to partake in so many experiences while in college,” she says. “A lot of the classes established a professional mindset.”
Her involvement with the Latino American Student Organization (LASO), prepared her to “know, recognize and properly respect Hispanic cultures,” making for “truly authentic storytelling,” later in her career.
When Sparkes worked in sports, on the advertising side of the Women’s World Cup in 2019, it was with some of the largest Fortune 500 companies — experience she relies on in her day-to-day profession now.
While she was still at FDU, she first worked with brands while doing ad management for The Pillar, the Florham Campus student newspaper. She cold-called local businesses to sell advertising space.
In graduate school, Sparkes applied for the selective NBCU Page Program. As a page, she learned about social media marketing, public relations and consumer marketing to promote networks to potential viewers.
Throughout the nearly year-long program, she learned to do even the small things because sometimes they add up to something big.
“Be on time to meetings, and offer to get coffee for the group. Small moments can blossom into opportunities — executives might remember your name or your passion the next time they need someone for a project.”
UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY
Learning how to use Photoshop!
FAVORITE CLASS
Principles of Marketing, which helped her learn about the psychology of different consumers.