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Research Area: Small Business Support  | Status:  Complete | Led By: Students

The Challenge

Every organization must have a modern marketing strategy to stay relevant in the hearts and minds of consumers. Small businesses require more digital marketing support to maintain a competitive edge in our increasingly connected world. Still, not all organizations have the in-house resources to enhance their marketing practices or stay current with emerging trends.

The Solution

The Business Administration: Marketing program at ÍõÖÐÍõÁùºÏ²ÊÌØÂë integrates several experiential learning opportunities throughout its curriculum for students to tackle real-world business challenges. This approach – learning by doing – helps students apply skills effectively and create value for local businesses. Our students support the business community through projects ranging from tactical marketing implementation to advertising campaigns and long-term partnerships.

About the Collaboration

In the past five years at the Saint John campus alone, 285 Marketing students have worked with 53 local organizations (and counting), from non-profits to start-ups to large corporations. Here are just some recent examples of how these students from have contributed to social and economic development through experiential learning and applied research: 

Growing new business for Devil’s Keep Distillery

Thanks to a Mitacs Business Strategy Internship, one student put their business skills to work through a work placement with Devil’s Keep Distillery. The student helped bring Devil’s Keep vodka and gin to new markets through an integrated business-to-business sales strategy, relying heavily on mutually beneficial partnerships, social media strategies and content marketing. In addition, ÍõÖÐÍõÁùºÏ²ÊÌØÂë received funding support from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP), which enabled Devil’s Keep Distillery to access research and innovation support from ÍõÖÐÍõÁùºÏ²ÊÌØÂë related to this project.

Helping the Alzheimer Society of New Brunswick get the most out of its marketing dollars

The organization was looking to reach a new audience and, like most non-profits, had minimal resources to invest in marketing. A group of students took on the challenge, strategized, and created an awareness video that came in on budget and resulted in 11,000 views in one week.

Engaging new and existing Saint John Riptide fans

The basketball team was looking for new ways to attract attendees to their games and keep them engaged while they were in the stands. To do this, students created a promotional video and a branded Snapchat filter to engage fans during games. The custom filter resulted in 1,745 interactions during one event.

Project Partners/Funders