Northern Supports Local Businesses and Fanshawe Students For Third Year with Digital Marketing Challenge

Northern Commerce and Fanshawe College are partnering for the third consecutive year to support local businesses and Fanshawe Students with The Northern Digital Marketing Challenge. Students gain hands-on marketing experience helping local businesses in a competition that challenges them to create solutions that deliver revenue-generating impact.

Funded by Northern, The Northern Digital Marketing Challenge is open to Fanshawe students in the Business Administration – Marketing, Marketing Management, and the Honours Bachelor of Commerce (Digital Marketing)programs. Led by Liz Gray, a faculty member of the Lawrence Kinlin School of Business, students build, execute, and manage live marketing campaigns using Google and Facebook for 13 local businesses over two months. “This is a unique and exciting opportunity for students. It provides them with hands-on experience working with advertising tools that businesses need to build their brand and drive sales,” says Liz Gray, Fanshawe College professor.

Students get an opportunity to learn from the experts at Northern Commerce, an industry leader, recently named the 2021 Google Premier Partner of the Year for two awards. “Our goal is to provide students with fundamental learning experiences to help launch their careers while sustaining local businesses,” says Corey Dubeau, VP Strategy at Northern Commerce.

“Working on a live campaign that impacted an actual local business was exciting and rewarding. The skills I acquired ignited my passion for digital marketing and my career,” Marketing Project Coordinate at Northern Commerce and former Fanshawe College student, Reena Herbstreit.

“Since participating in last year’s program, we’ve seen a significant increase in patient registrations thanks to the advertising campaigns run by the students,” says Michele Burk, Office Manager of Mclauchlin Wellness Clinic in Blenheim, Ontario.

The following is a summary of the 13 local businesses included in the 2022 program:

At the end of the two-month challenge, teams will present their campaigns and results to a panel of judges from Northern and Facebook, where a grand prize winner will be selected. The winners receive prizes such as Kindles, Wireless Speakers, Wireless Earbuds, Notebooks, gift cards, and more. In addition to supporting the students, Northern donates thousands of dollars towards the advertising budgets for the local businesses.