Undergraduate Marketing Students Gain An Edge With Unique, Real-World Experience

HAMMOND, Ind., Oct. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Digital Marketing Competition, championed by Matthew Hanson and Matthew Wells of Purdue University Northwest in Northwest Indiana, is changing the game for aspiring marketing professionals across the globe using a fusion of forward-looking educational material, accessible to marketing student teams and their professors to develop digital marketing campaigns for a real-life company.

Oftentimes, when students graduate, they build their resume from scratch with little to no experience in their field of study. The competition has been incredibly rewarding for marketing students because they are using tools and training materials normally only utilized by marketing professionals, including domain insights with SEO keywords, infographic and creative template design platforms, Hubspot tools, paid search and SEO analyzers, a Copywriting Blunders course, Strategy of Content Marketing coursework and so much more. Students go above and beyond internships and classroom exercises, creating case studies for an established business, gaining valuable experience to build their professional resumes.

Director of External Engagement and Partnerships at Purdue University Northwest, Matthew Wells, said the "Digital Marketing Competition allows students to gain valuable, hands-on experience through applied learning initiatives with businesses of various sizes".

Every year, students participating in the Digital Marketing Competition create real marketing plans for real businesses to see who has what it takes to take home first prize. This year, the competition will have a bigger impact than ever thanks to a new partnership with Lee Enterprises' Digital Agency, Amplified Digital.

The businesses that serve as the client case study each semester during the competition receive tens ? if not hundreds ? of digital marketing campaign strategies, initiatives and creative ideas from students studying at some of the most respected universities around the country.

Students work with their professor-led teams solving real business problems. This allows them to get out of the classroom and put their learnings into practice. The Digital Marketing Competition has helped participants land full-time positions after graduation. In turn, the client case study businesses get digital marketing strategies that will immediately impact current and future business goals. 

Wells said "the Digital Marketing Competition is a total game-changer for academics."

"It's the future. It's an applied and experiential learning experience," Wells said. "It's not just reading about a hypothetical client's situation, and writing a paper or taking an exam.... It's working with an actual client on their real business challenges and needs. That's what the students will be doing in the future. They can present their project, work with a team and get actual feedback from a real company. It's hard to get that kind of experience and exposure in a classroom setting. It's allowing them to pitch to a real client. The client might use those ideas or even hire those students. It's a lot different than just doing a theoretical case study."

Businesses are looking for recent graduates with a well-rounded experience that extends outside the classroom, and that's exactly what the Digital Marketing Competition provides participating students. 

Wells said that other academic fields, such as advertising and journalism, have also begun creating competitions with similar initiatives and goals. He believes the Digital Marketing Competition model could also be used for students in engineering, security, e-commerce, robotics and many other fields. 

Since it began in 2019, the Digital Marketing Competition has exploded in popularity. Last year, the event had more than 100 colleges and universities participate. Now an international event, the competition continues to grow despite COVID-19. With the new partnership with Amplified Digital, the Digital Marketing Competition will receive more exposure in over 70 markets coast to coast. 

SOURCE Amplified Digital Agency