By: Sammy Chmara
In our recent meeting held on November 30th 2020, we were joined by Samantha Antapol who does Marketing, Communications, and Events for Veuve Clicquot. Veuve Clicquot specializes in premium wines and is one of the biggest champagne houses in the world.
Samantha began the meeting by giving us some background on her education, college involvement, and internship experience prior to her current job. Samantha graduated from the University of Delaware as an English major who always dreamed of working at a magazine. She was very involved in UDress as she started as a writer and then was promoted to several higher up roles. She was also part of The Review on campus and PRSSA as a general member. Her writing experience began as she worked for Charolette Ronson as an intern and online editor who wanted to work at Teen Vogue. She has always admired University of Delaware and their PRSSA organization as she felt that these students have gone on to do such amazing things.
Upon graduation, she started as a Freelance Marketing Assistant and Freelance E-commerce Copywriter. Her first real career began at Vogue Magazine in the role of Advertising Assistant and then Coordinator. Her roles consisted of developing media plans and marketing programs. She loved focusing on French fashion and beauty advertisers here.
Her current role with Veuve Clicquot has been extremely rewarding and fun for Samantha as she has gets to do so much on a daily basis. She plans and executes marketing programs and events that LVMH carries out. She partners with PR firms to get their expertise in media relations and focuses heavily on celebrity and influencer relations. She does a lot of celebrity gifting, email marketing, and media buying. She said that even though she didn’t go through with a writing geared career, she still has to do it a lot.
Samantha ended the meeting by giving the group some career focused advice. She first stressed the importance of internships both in college and after. She advised us to intern at different places and not be so focused on just one brand. She also told us that you have to love what you do first and like where you work second. This means that you should care more about your daily roles than the name of where your work. She also addressed the stressful topic of not being able to find a job right after college. She says to just stay in contact with people because it might give you an opportunity and you should always take an opportunity even if it isn’t the exact role you wanted. Lastly, she gave some advice pertaining to interviews. She says be yourself and be upfront about things you don’t know. Additionally, always send a follow-up thank you email or letter.
We are so glad that we got to hear from Samantha and we will definitely be taking her advice to heart!
prssaud.com 