The best kind of learning is a two-way process.
When five members of the Marketing Strategies course taught by Professor John Byrne, 博士学位, took on the task of helping one of the most well established road races in the Midwest tap into new means of marketing this past spring, 他们既教也学.
Among five experiential learning group projects tackled by Byrne’s students this semester, St. 可以买滚球的正规平台大四学生卡林·伯克, 瑞安·伯克, 艾米丽珍, Axel Vargas 和 Molly Verdun worked with Michelle Juehring, assistant race director of the Quad- City Times Bix 7, to update the popular race’s outreach to a new group of runners through unfamiliar modes of digital marketing.
“It’s great 和 it’s exciting,” Juehring said. “There is part of you that doesn’t want to admit that you don’t know these things, but we don’t.”
As the race builds toward its milestone 45 th start on July 27, it ranks among the most well marketed, single-day sporting events in the United States.
Ed Froehlich is the outgoing director who built the seven-mile run through the intimidating hills of Davenport into the largest non-marathon race in the Midwest, using old-media marketing techniques. He partnered early on with the largest daily newspaper in the Quad Cities 和 then the largest TV station to help the race grow from 87 runners in 1975 to more than 18,在最高峰的时候有1000人参加.
But as Froehlich prepares to h和 the reins to Juehring, a new generation of athletes is far more likely to learn about an event on their mobile phone than via pages in a newspaper or even advertisements on television.
The SAU students created the race’s first Instagram account, built several kinds of social media posts 和 created a content calendar to help roll out the race to a digital audience as the end of July event draws nearer.
“That’s a demographic I think we have the potential to reach in new ways,“Juerhring, a marketing professional for most her career, 说的是20多岁的年轻人. “I’m 50-something 和 I don’t know all those ways. I was excited when John asked us to participate in his class project.”
The Bix 7 is one of five businesses/enterprises that provided real, practical marketing projects to Byrne’s Marketing Strategies class, 和, 反过来, 被帮助回来了.
Byrne said the experiential learning piece has been part of his curriculum for five years. “Every semester is a new experience,” he said.
Increasingly, it’s new on both fronts. The advent of digital marketing has flipped the marketplace 和 made experienced business folks who didn’t grow up with digital technology just a little more open to learning from students who have.
这不仅仅是数字的问题. 虽然她是一个十几岁孩子的母亲, Juehring was unfamiliar with the popularality of stickers for water bottles 和 laptops across college campuses. She took the SAU students at their word that this was a good means of outreach 和 ordered 500 stickers.
周后, “Michelle sent us an article from her son’s school newsletter about stickers,凡尔登说。. “Seeing that article made it less of leap of faith. 总有教学的空间. Michelle has expressed how she loves learning new things.”
Again, though, the learning is a two-way process. The SAU students have learned a great deal about interacting with clients, how to order marketing materials through trade shows, 和 about the impact of sponsorships.
Verdun found herself calling on lessons learned through the Bix 7 experience while interviewing for jobs ahead of her forthcoming graduation.
“I definitely think it’s beneficial,” Kalin Burke said. “I’m a strategic communications major, but this class has made me like marketing even more.”
Jean, who plans to return to the Chicago area after graduating, is a golfer not a runner. But she said the experience has helped her love the Bix.
“I’ll definitely be back,” she said of the end of July road race. “We have been working on this all semester. 我想看看结果如何.”
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