LSC students are learning the keys to a successful social marketing campaign in Assistant Professor Bret Shaw’s class LSC 515 “Public Information Campaigns and Programs.”
During the semester students learn social marketing principles and plan a strategic communication campaign.
“Students learn the theoretical and practical aspects of planning a social marketing campaign and participate in a group project in which they plan a full-scale social marketing communication campaign for a real client,” said Shaw.
Depending each student’s professional goalsupon graduation, the class has two very distinct goals. “For students planning a profession in marketing communications, it provides training in relevant analytical and practical skills, especially those related to developing social marketing campaigns,” explained Shaw. “For others wishing to advance to a graduate program, this course serves as an introduction to important concepts and theories of strategic communication.
This year students are partnering with the Office of Sustainability at UW-Madison to promote Campus Conservation Nationals. CCN is a nationwide competition for colleges and universities to reduce water and electricity consumption.
“We are creating a plan to encourage freshmen living in residence halls to conserve electricity and water,” said Shaw.
The competition is between dorms on the Madison campus as well as against other universities nationwide. Last year over 100 Universities saved $157,925 on electricity.
Benny So, a senior and LSC major is taking the class to fulfill his capstone credits.
“This class is providing me real world applications and will help to build my portfolio,” says So. “Working with real clients makes you more motivated to provide better results because it’s not a hypothetical situation.”
“I really enjoy teaching LSC 515 because it is a great intersection between theory and practice,” said Shaw. “Students get to learn key social marketing and persuasion theories and then apply these principles toward the important issue of conserving energy on campus and reducing our carbon footprint.”
By the end of the semester students will have a social marketing campaign they have created which they can use in their portfolio for future job interviews.
Article written by Lauren Etter, Undergraduate Digital Marketing Strategist. Photos by Jill Peters, Undergraduate Photographer.