When Kollective signed on to be the recipient of a real-world class project executed by GreenFig’s Digital Marketing Science students, its managers were not sure what to expect. As a GreenFig “Apprentorship” partner, Kollective would provide an apprentice-like experience along with expert mentorship to GreenFig’s Digital Marketing Science students over a 4-week period.

During the Apprentorship, Kollective — a cloud-based software-defined enterprise content delivery network solution — tasked GreenFig’s Digital Marketing Science students with a content audit, competitive analysis, messaging map, and strategy. They also asked GreenFig students to provide recommendations on missing content in its funnel, perform keyword research, and then build recommended content out in Marketo for an email campaign.

“It’s a monumental task to take on in a month,” said Trevor Dolan, Kollective’s Segment Manager for Software Delivery. “I was looking at it as a pretty daunting undertaking, but it was something I knew we needed to do.”

After 16 weeks of coursework in business fundamentals, strategy, tactics, and technology, our 2017/18 cohort was energized and prepared to transform their newly acquired skills into deliverables for a real company with a real marketing need.

The results far exceeded the Kollective team’s expectations.

“I was astounded by the student's ability to take our requirements for the persona, requirements for positioning, and where we felt we fit within the marketplace, and just run with it,” noted Dolan. “Their work has given us a strategy and a leg up in our ability to create compelling content and determine the right place to put our content marketing efforts.”

Kollective operates with a lean team, which is one of the reasons they sought GreenFig’s help for their content audit.

“To get a whole team of people to do that analysis and come up with a set of suggested campaigns was fantastic for us. It saved us a ton of time,” said Thereasa Roy, Kollective’s Segment Manager for Video Delivery. “Plus, I don’t feel like I had to guide them too much or do a lot of correcting. They just seemed to get it.”

The culmination of the 4-week Apprentorship took place last week as teams of students presented Kollective with their findings and strategy recommendations — both in-person and remotely via video conference.

The students not only accomplished the project objectives, they created comprehensive plans for Kollective to apply in their marketing departments as well as insights to help guide their marketing efforts.

“In terms of results, it exceeded what I expected” offered Dolan. “There are details that I can now take and apply to what we need to be doing. It’s been a tremendous experience.”

When the presentations concluded, GreenFig’s Digital Marketing Science class of 2017/2018 were awarded their official GreenFig microdegrees and are now poised to apply their job-ready business skills in the digital workforce.

Looking ahead, GreenFig is putting the final touches on the summer Digital Marketing Science course set to launch June 4. This immersive, 8-week class will be held daily Monday through Thursday.

For more information, drop us a note at info@greenfig.com.

Want to learn more about our recent graduates? Check out student stories from a few of our Digital Marketing Science microdegree earners including Ryan Kelley, Brandy Malcolm Kerr, Renée Hamilton-McNealy and Aleena Ferlin.