Digital Marketing: Collaborative Project

"Our job as marketers is not to do what we did yesterday, just faster and cheaper. Our job is to figure out how to change the people in the market who want to be changed." Seth Godin

This seminar is designed to meet the needs of marketing undergraduates. It is intended for future managers and entrepreneurs in all areas of modern marketing interested in planning, preparing, developing and evaluating integrated marketing campaigns across different media outlets.

This course introduces digital marketing thinking, integrating traditional and innovative marketing techniques and their applications to real-world problems. The explosion of technology-based consumer touchpoints and consumer expectations hitting all-time highs require managers to understand the nuances of ever-evolving consumer behaviors in a face-paced and uncertain environment. Future careers increasingly demand the ability to understand digital environments and implement creative solutions to reach measurable goals. That’s why this seminar follows an experiential learning approach that puts students in the position of organizational managers while encouraging them to make trade-off decisions and test ideas in the marketplace. 

A hands-on and can-do attitude are the common characteristics of all the seminar participants. Why? Students don’t have a textbook to memorize, and they are not micromanaged by corporate managers or tutors. Instead, participants are expected to learn by doing, proactively seek support from experts and independently make strategic managerial decisions. As such, this module functions as a playground for testing and learning from practice, following the new logic of “failing fast” and “constant experimentation.” 

This course promises to provide talented students with deep insights into the challenges and opportunities modern marketers face in organizations when implementing digital marketing campaigns. At the end of this course, students are likely to have significantly changed their perspective on marketing strategic and operational practices. 

A supervised self-learning workshop format gives students the skills necessary to think like cutting-edge marketers seeking to build relationships with relevant audiences digitally. This is one of a kind seminar because: 

• The program is intentionally unstructured.
• There will be no classical teaching material.
• The project scope and breadth are defined within each team.
• Students need to reach out to instructors for domain-specific support proactively. 

The entire seminar is centered around a practical group project. The project’s objective is to co-design a concrete digital marketing campaign, bring it to life, measure its impact and communicate the results in the seminar. 

Content and Learning Objectives:
The seminar is fast-paced, practical, and interactive. The module comprises a total of six frontal meetings over 12 weeks. Every meeting is an occasion to discuss the progress of the group projects are receiving valuable feedback from the instructor, classmates and managers. Each meeting builds on the previous and leads to the creation of a professionally designed and executed digital marketing campaign. 

Four to six groups will work on group projects that follow one or more marketing objectives defined together with a sponsor manager in the participating company. Such objectives are meant to be achieved through the execution of a real digital marketing campaign which unfolds over three main sequential steps: 1. analysis, 2. strategy and 3. execution. At each milestone, students need to demonstrate their business acumen and creative talent. 

Depending on the available projects, students are required to 1) acquire specific knowledge on topics such as video marketing, social media marketing, and mobile marketing; 2) learn from best practices for functional areas such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media advertising, and digital public relations; 3) get familiar with marketing platforms, software or Clouds such as TikTok Ads, Google Analytics and Salesforce.

The ultimate goal of each group project is to create a marketing campaign that outperforms company expectations and delights customers!

Through course discussions, workshops, and projects we:

• Gain a deep understanding of all critical digital marketing plan phases (analysis, strategy, execution). 
• Learn how to professionally deliver on a mandate while collaborating with a diversified/multi-cultural group and interacting with complex business environments.
• Apply innovative marketing techniques to real-world problems by co-creating a digital marketing campaign.
• Review best-in-class processes for content marketing ideation, development and distribution.
• Present and give feedback on marketing projects; fundamental activities to improve critical thinking and communication skills.

Instructor
Alex Mari
Research Associate and Ph.D. Candidate
Phone: +41 44 634 92 53
E-mail: alex.mari@business.uzh.ch 

Teaching Assistant
Luca Lazzaro
Research Associate and Ph.D. Candidate
Phone: +41 044 634 92 07
E-mail: luca.lazzaro@business.uzh.ch 

Program Director
Prof. Dr. René Algesheimer
Chair for Marketing and Market Research
Phone: +41 44 634 29 18
E-mail: market-research@business.uzh.ch 

Office hours by appointment.
Andreasstrasse 15, CH-8050 Zurich, Oerlikon 

Target Audience: Master students assigned to the “Wahlpflichtbereich” BWL 4.

APS (ECTS): 6

Maximum Number of Students: 24

Language: English

Course Number: 03SM22MO0075 

Prerequisites: 
A very strong interest in digital marketing topics. It is strongly recommended to participate in the lecture “Fundamentals of Digital Marketing” (L+E) offered by Prof. Andrea Giuffredi-Kaehr (VVZ-Nr. 03SM22MO0197) in parallel to this seminar. While the lectures focus on the core Digital Marketing concepts, the seminar applies them to concrete campaigns.

Registration: 
Application for this seminar is via the new module booking tool you find at https://studentservices.uzh.ch/uzh/launchpad/

To apply for the seminar, students are required to upload a CV, academic transcript (grades) and brief motivation letter via the new module booking tool between 14.08.2024 and 27.08.2024. If selected, you will receive a confirmation email with further instructions by 05.09.2024.

Cancellation:
It is possible to cancel participation in the seminar between 30.08.2024 and 15.09.2024. After the deadline is passed, the enrolled students will be all graded. Dropout students will receive an automated “1” grade. 

Attendance:
For exceptional reasons, and only if the evidence is provided, students are allowed to skip one of the six meetings. However, all students must attend the first (kick-off) and last (final presentation) meetings. 

Important Dates: 
Every other Monday from 16.09.2024 to 25.11.2024; The first and last meeting from 14:15h to 17:45h. All other meetings from 10:15 to 11:45h.

• Deadline for assignment 1 – Analysis “Digital marketing audit”: 29.09.2024, 23:59h. 
• Deadline for assignment 2 – Strategy “Campaign strategic plan”: 27.10.2024, 23:59h.
• Deadline for assignment 3 – Execution “Marketing campaign results”: 24.11.2024, 23:59h.

Location:
TBC

Important Notes:
The syllabus supports the official information in the electronic university calendar. In cases of doubt, the official announcement at the VVZ is valid.

Syllabus: 
Download the updated seminar syllabus for the fall semester of 2024 here (PDF, 339 KB).