January 21, 2016
For college students, studying communications and all its subsets can be a rewarding and enriching experience. The subject area potentially offers endless career opportunities and serves as a launch pad for fresh graduates who are ready to take control and shape their careers.
I was fortunate enough to work with a group of some of Boston’s young minds who are currently standing on the verge of graduation, ready to take hold of their professional destinies and fully utilize their communications degrees.
At the end of 2015, Brookline’s Newbury College hosted a panel (I was a guest-judge) where students were required to present their capstone projects— the final body of work prior to graduation. The directive was to create a marketing campaign corresponding to an issue gripping the nation right now, like addiction, the election, public graffiti or social responsibility.
No easy feat by any stretch, and its level of difficulty really challenged the students to push the envelope creatively and learn more about what marketers are tasked with on a daily basis. While sitting on the panel and critiquing the work, I noticed three things that were constant throughout all the students’ presentations:
- Attention to social media: the students dedicated large segments of their marketing campaigns to social media. They leveraged several social platforms as vehicles for sharing news, raising money, and/or garnering high profile spokespeople. Through and through, no campaign was without a robust social media element.
- Partnerships are key: the students also emphasized partnerships as a way to ensure cross-promotion while increasing their marketing efforts cost-effectively. This line of thinking is proof that the next generation is keen on strategic partnering.
- Using statistics: the students recognized that with the internet, it’s important to create a need for a product/service rooted in something tangible. Most students used data and statistics in their campaigns— pointing to their years of experience with Google at their fingertips, searching for facts and figures.
There are a slew of articles, studies, blog posts and tweets about how employers can retain and attract Millennials or similarly, how marketers can appeal to the next generation on the heels of amassing purchasing power. What I learned through spending an evening with them is that they’re hungry, motivated, informed and connected— and exactly what’s needed to push marketing through various mediums and channels.
I was really honored to represent Aria Marketing by relaying a few lessons learned along the way, especially to those who have careers that are just beginning to bud. Thank You Newbury College!
If you’re a young, rising marketing star, send us a tweet to say hello @AriaMarketing or learn more about working with us, here: http://ariamarketing.com/the-agency/working-at-aria
