Interning with Hands-On Experience: FilmFestDC

The REQ team loves to give back when and where it can. It also believes that interns should have meaningful experiences during their time with the company. To accomplish this, REQ partners with various community organizations to provide hands on client experience for its interns while providing quality marketing support for local initiatives. One of REQ’s long-time partners is FilmFest DC.

As current REQ interns, here’s a look into our recent work with Filmfest DC.

The Client: FilmFest DC

FilmFest DC has been entertaining the DMV area with its eclectic variety of internationally renowned films for years. Traditionally held in person, this year’s event was met with the unexpected challenge of holding an entire film festival online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the span of two weeks, FilmFest DC once again delighted audiences with 50+ films ranging in topics from music to food to social injustice.

The REQ Intern Team’s Role

Building up to the festival and throughout its duration, our intern team was able to manage this full client project on their own successfully with the full REQ team offering mentorship, insight, and advice throughout the process. The intern team serves as the main point of contact for this client while gaining experience in creating and implementing social media strategy, running bi-weekly progress meetings, and managing online advertising initiatives.

The Campaign Results

This year’s festival also afforded growth opportunities, one of them being the ability to bring groups of people together in a virtual setting for their own private screening of various films. Our intern team was instrumental in pulling this off and did the legwork to ensure that the festival had an event hosting platform that would meet its needs.

Both the REQ and FilmFest DC teams anticipated the potential for low community and audience engagement as a result of the shift online. We were thrilled to see our efforts pay dividends. With more than 6,000 tickets sold, engagement with ticket holders was high and they interacted positively with boosted and organic social media content. 

“Going virtual was a challenge that the REQ team helped us turn into an opportunity. With their support, we were able to expand our presence on social media to a new level, attract new audiences, and grow our event.”

- Tony Gittens, FilmFestDC on the 2020 Private Screening

While new marketing challenges presented themselves this year, the REQ team was fortunate to have been able to continue this unique partnership and give our intern team the real-time and hands-on experience that will serve us well as we develop our careers.