Every year, Digital Campus in Aix organizes projects for its students from year one through year four, enabling them to work in agency mode for a specific advertiser over a period of 6 months. Looking back at last October, 45 students were mobilized and organized into 6 groups to respond to the brief set by a given advertiser.
The Major Projects: the result of cross-year collaboration
First- and second-year students were able to put their technical skills to use while benefiting from the experience of more senior classes in digital strategy. It is a genuine exchange and blending of knowledge, all in service of the advertiser. A distinctive feature of the Major Projects is the advertisers' pitch of their brief and the students' vote on the project they would most like to work on — an approach that reinforces each student's commitment to their project.
Guiding students through their projects to help them grow
To help students address the various challenges raised by the advertiser, a course instructor set four key milestones: a recommendation brief that students presented to their advertiser for validation; a project management file that allowed the instructor to assess how students managed the client relationship and organized work internally; a scope-of-work document to show advertisers exactly what actions the students would implement for their business; and finally, a final oral presentation in which students pitched their project to a panel made up of the advertisers, Stéphane Dadet, Julie Beaugrand, Alexandra Youssoufi, Caroline Martin, and instructor Léa Lozano. Throughout these projects, Léa Lozano spent time with each group to explain certain concepts and guide them in interpreting the brief and executing the various actions operationally. She also introduced knowledge-sharing sessions between teams: if a group was struggling with a particular aspect or solution, she would ask a student with expertise in that area to explain and demonstrate how to address it.
What were this year's projects and digital challenges?
On the advertiser side, the lineup included small organizations such as Déborah et les enfants du ciel, a non-profit association committed to supporting families of sick children. Their objective was to promote a comedy show, with all proceeds going to the association to fund support actions for families across France. Junadea, a hand-embroidered jewelry brand looking to grow its e-commerce sales. Houba, a plant-cutting and houseplant exchange platform project with a fully digital app and communications strategy — the goal being to finalize and launch the project. Crossfit Galéa, a gym looking to increase its membership and break down misconceptions around Crossfit. La Conciergerie Alexandre III, an entrepreneurial project to create a luxury concierge service on the Saint-Tropez golf course, for which all digital communication tools were yet to be built. And finally, Épicerie Am Stram Grammes, a bulk grocery store in Nice seeking to develop its digital presence to avoid having to close. Each advertiser presented a specific digital challenge — 6 advertisers for 6 groups.
A remarkable achievement for the "Déborah et les enfants du Ciel" project
After several months of work, on March 6th the 6 teams presented their projects, and the Déborah et les enfants du Ciel team emerged as the overall winner. They managed to propose relevant, well-developed, and coherent solutions in response to the brief.
An enriching experience for students and faculty alike
For the instructor, this experience was extremely rewarding, and she was deeply grateful for the trust the students placed in her. Her greatest achievement was seeing how much all of them learned from the experience — she witnessed their growth and increasing professionalism throughout these 6 months. Despite moments of doubt and stress, they rose to the challenge and delivered concrete solutions that genuinely helped the advertisers address their problems. The students now have a solid foundation they can draw on throughout their future careers.