After a year that pushed eCommerce and digital marketing to the forefront for businesses around the world, digital marketing skills for new graduates are in high demand. For many students, digital marketing skills give them a head start in a particularly challenging job market.

This month, Fanshawe College is launching the Northern Digital Marketing Challenge, an experiential learning competition open to students in the Business Administration Marketing, Marketing Management, and Honours Bachelor of Commerce (Digital Marketing) programs for its second year.

Co-funded by Fanshawe College and Northern Commerce, the challenge will provide students with experience working with advertising tools that businesses need to build their brand and drive sales performance—gaining confidence and hands-on skills along the way.

Students will be given the opportunity to learn directly from the team at Northern Commerce, an industry leader and one of Canada’s Top Growing Companies. “Experiential learning is critical in digital marketing. With the mentorship of our team, students will gain valuable experience working with digital marketing platforms such as Google and Facebook that focus on learning and improving students digital marketing skills,” said Corey Dubeau, VP of Marketing at Northern Commerce.

Participating teams will plan, implement, and manage live marketing campaigns using Google and Facebook for 16 local businesses over a two-month period and will be led by Liz Gray, a faculty member of the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business. “For local small businesses struggling due to the pandemic, the students’ help will be extremely valuable,” said Liz Gray, Instructor at Fanshawe College. “This program allows students to gain experience with digital marketing for real-life local clients prior to graduation.” This year, the program will be delivered completely online.

At the end of the two-month challenge, teams will present their campaigns and results to a panel of judges from Northern Commerce, where a grand prize winner will be selected.