Business students from Stratford-upon-Avon College were recently treated to a marketing masterclass to help with their latest projects.
Students on the first year of the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Business received talks from two Marketing professionals: Scott Barnett, Director of Spark Media and Sean Howitt, Head of Marketing & Communications for Stratford-upon-Avon College and Solihull College & University Centre.
The session began with Sean giving the students insight into how marketing is managed in a business they already knew something about, the college. He described how the college markets itself, the different audiences involved, and how targeted marketing works. Types of marketing discussed included TV, radio, social media, retargeting and more.
The students then heard from Scott who talked about his company Spark Media. Spark Media is a Video Production Agency who specialise in producing high quality videos that are used for advertisement. They boast a range of top clients like Halfords, Carlsberg, The FA, National Express and NHS to name a few.
Scott’s talk focused on how to create a TV commercial, showing examples of previous and current campaigns. He gave insights into how and why decisions were made for each advert and discussed the process from brief to production.
Scott talked to the students about advertising and showed examples of various ad campaigns his company had created
The students found the session incredibly insightful. Victoria Moreno, 18, commented: “It was explained clearly and gave me more insight into what marketing actually includes. This is information I can use in the future.” Rocco Saraceni, 17, added: “I didn’t know much about advertising at all before this, so it has been really helpful and enlightening.”
Scott was really pleased to speak to the students: “I was delighted to be invited to Stratford-upon-Avon College to talk to the Business students about advertising, to show what we do as an agency and how it relates to their course. The students asked some smart questions and were switched on to marketing which was great to see. The advertising industry has changed so much over the past 10 years so it was wonderful to be given the opportunity to share my knowledge and to help these talented young people who are just starting out on their journey into business.”
Tom Collins, Business lecturer, detailed why Scott and Sean’s insight was useful for the students: “Currently the students are having to work toward a client brief and show how they would do it so this insight can be applied directly to their projects, as well as take with them later in their business careers. It has given them knowledge of real-life campaigns and the realities of producing the content.”
