The University of Salford and Wavemaker North have concluded the first iteration of a unique new partnership aimed at giving students a taste of agency life, and what it’s like to work on an end-to-end creative client brief.
Students of the BA Digital Video Production and Marketing took part in a 13-week final project, structured around recreating the complete agency experience, from researching and ‘winning’ the initial client through to picthing their creative ideas, collaborating with internal teams, developing a five-film campaign and later reflecting on its success.
To launch the partnership, Wavemaker North invited students to a full client briefing at its new WPP UK Campus, where they were introduced to one of three clients; Jet2, Original Source and Merlin Entertainments’ Bear Grylls Adventure. Students took part in a series of onsite creative development sessions to refine their ideas and receive vital feedback, and engaged in Q&A sessions to find out more about working in an agency environment.
The assessments were designed to give students an immersive experience into agency life and included developing pitches, planning and developing a five film campaign, and reflecting on what they’d learnt about their future careers. Wavemeker North closed the project with an awards ceremony celebrating the best of the student work, with food and drinks on the WPP Campus rooftop.
Cameron Hinchcliffe, who was given the Wavemaker Client Award for his work for the Bear Grylls Adventure brief, said: “The experience has been challenging at times, but also very rewarding. It was great to deal with a real client and their objectives as that’s what will set me up best for coming out of uni with confidence, skills and experience. There are degrees out there that offer film or marketing or business skills, but this course brings all of this together, so is a strong introduction and training ground for a career in the media industry.”
Noel Mellor, programme leader for the BA Digital Video Production and Marketing, said: “Wavemaker North values fresh ideas and young talent, so I knew we would be in good hands with this partnership. Our programme is very much about exposing students to the industry and allowing them to find their place within it, so giving them an opportunity to test their creative ideas and video production skills against a set of such high profile clients has been a valuable experience for them.”
Emma Slater, regional managing director at Wavemaker North, added: “The BA Digital Video Production and Marketing is a great course for us to have in the North West, as it keeps that vital pipeline of creative talent coming through to agencies like Wavemaker North. Ours is an industry that thrives on new ideas, so being able to support and work with this course and see how the next generation of creatives are using video and content production to respond to client briefs has been wonderful to see.”
