Students experienced digital marketing in practice through a work-life project with Attendo

Students from different fields at Laurea had a great opportunity during the spring to get to know the daily work of digital marketing in a studies project where the client was care company Attendo. In the project, student teams were challenged to design a complete marketing campaign for Attendo from content concept to implementation and measuring results.

The collaboration with Attendo was part of the Latest trends in social media study unit. The project involved students from both Finnish-language and English-language programs.

Students offer new perspectives and ideas

The studies culminated in April, when the student teams presented their work to the clients. Marketing specialists Leena Piira, Noora Qvick and Emilia Saario from Attendo listened to and commented on the students’ presentations at the Leppävaara campus.

“The starting point for this project was that we would get fresh and vibrant ideas from the students. Students look at the assignment from a completely different perspective than we at Attendo, who work with the same things every day,” they describe the goals of the assignment.

The students also offered fresh perspectives in their presentations:

“Each group had approached the assignment in different ways and from different angles. This was a surprise, and also a richness in the students’ work,” the Attendo representatives continue.

In their presentations the student teams presented their campaign ideas, which examined, among other things, target groups and objectives. For the campaign implementation they had defined a budget, which they then allocated to content production, possible influencer collaboration and advertising. Finally, the students defined their campaign objectives and the metrics to measure the campaign’s success.

Aim: as realistic a project as possible

Through the collaboration project Attendo wanted to offer Laurea students as authentic an assignment as possible and thereby a genuine connection to working life.

“A real project with a real client always provides students with learning they cannot get otherwise,” the clients from Attendo describe.

“We want to remind students to make the most of every project and contact. Every encounter is important for employment in the field.”

The project also provided valuable learning for students whose aim is to work in digital marketing. The message from Attendo to students is that a marketing professional should be able to utilize the latest tools and data in versatile ways:

“In the future, those who can think broadly, see the whole picture and envision will succeed. Do not hang your expertise on just one thing. In the end, digital marketing is a combination of math, language and psychology.”