Digital marketing in action at The Shard

MSc Management of Information Systems & Digital Innovation student Malika Dulkairova shares her thoughts on her trip to The Shard to hear from guest speakers from companies including LinkedIn and Jellyfish, as part of the elective module ‘Digital Marketing Technology & Management’. Designed by module director Mareike Möhlmann, the trip gave students insight into how the theory covered in this module can be applied in the real world, as well as highlighting the variety of potential career paths open to them.

Malika Dulkairova

Working in marketing for 4 years helped me realise how digital technology affects not only businesses but also individuals. It is an exciting time to be in business, witnessing these changes, and I wanted to enhance my knowledge to be able to successfully work with innovations and bring value to the industry as I proceed with my career. That’s why I chose to study the MSc Management of Information Systems & Digital Innovation.

As part of our Digital Marketing Technology and Management elective module, we had an opportunity to go to The Shard and have a full day of lectures in the heart of London. The morning was spent learning about Social Media and Analytics with Mareike Möhlmann, WBS Assistant Professor of Information Systems & Management, whilst in the afternoon we were treated to 4 guest speakers working in e-commerce, social media and digital marketing, who shared their experiences and highlighted the importance of social media and technology at their work.

Insight from experts in the world of digital marketing

The first speaker Jaime Pham (Content Marketing Evangelist at LinkedIn) joined us through Skype and presented the content marketing strategies at LinkedIn, covering the important aspects of content creation and engagement through social media. Jaime gave an extensive overview of LinkedIn operations and encouraged those who didn’t have an account yet to create one.

Following this, Sana Ali Aamir (Co-Founder and Managing Director of Bloomon) shared her experience in establishing an e-commerce business in Pakistan, her journey in London starting with pursuing an MBA and the importance of networking that helped her co-found a flower business. It was very inspiring to hear about the risks Sana took in pursuing her aspirations and how passionate she is about what she does now.

Our third speaker, KC Chan (International Marketing Manager at Glodon), walked us through the evolution of marketing from traditional to digital and the importance of brand awareness. By the end of the day we were all familiarised with the layers of the content marketing sales funnel, and their importance in creating a digital marketing campaign.

Our final guest speaker was Sarah Kerrigan, a Social Media Evangelist and Trainer from Jellyfish. Sarah educated us on 3 types of audiences businesses can target when advertising through Facebook. She also mentioned how to approach each type of audience and how targeted paid media can benefit businesses.

Questioning the professionals

All four guest speakers provided us with thoroughly engaging, topical and interesting talks, and we all took full advantage of the opportunity to question them during the panel discussions, as well as during the breaks. All the insights were later very helpful when working on our group projects for the Digital Marketing Technologies and Management module.

Personally, the highlight of the day for me was the presentation from JellyFish as it covered directly the part of marketing I am interested in and motivated to research and learn more about social media targeting. Overall, I really enjoyed the day at The Shard, and am grateful to WBS for organising it.

Mareike Möhlmann, Module Director

One of the main objectives of this stimulating event was to engage our students in discussions with industry representatives, as well as help students to understand how some of the theory covered in this module is applied in the real world. The event also showed our students a range of potential career paths in digital marketing, with guest speakers working in e-commerce, social media, and digital marketing, sharing their industry experience.

Discover our MSc Management of Information Systems & Digital Innovation course.