#LondonIsOurCampus
Once you join Westminster Business School one of the things you first find out is that London is Our Campus. Literally! We are not exaggerating! And so, on Thursday, 19 September, in their first week with us, our new undergraduate marketing students visited the Tower of London. Yes, I know what you are thinking – another day of sightseeing…But actually they had a very important task at hand and I am happy to tell you all about it.
The main objective of the visit was to bring together all new students on our highly successful marketing programmes, including BA Marketing Management, BA Marketing Communications, BA International Marketing and BA Business Management (Marketing). They were presented with a series of marketing challenges, all relevant to their areas of study. This involved, developing marketing plans and promotional campaigns to build awareness of the Tower of London across the world and attract more visitors.
I think everyone must have heard of The Tower of London before. But just to give you a bit more background, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In its long history, it served as a stronghold, a royal palace, a prison and place of execution, a royal mint and treasure vault and a private zoo. That’s some remarkable history! So, can you imagine having one of the city’s most famous historical landmarks as your classroom for a day?
Marketing Challenge
Our day actually, started bright and early with a workshop and an introductory session at the Tower. Students assembled their teams and then had a chance to explore the 1000+ year history of this famous attraction, including the crown jewels, the royal armouries, prison rooms, royal mint, chambers and much more. All these as part of their research for the marketing challenge. They are going to present their findings to the rest of the group towards the end of the session today.
As a photographer for the day, I joined our marketing students on their discovery of the Tower of London. We had a good few hours together when I got to know them and their stories. I also found out more about their plans for the year ahead. One thing I can say, they are an amazing group of people, full of positive energy and amazing ideas. I felt so welcomed among them that I had an impression I was part of their cohort myself!
In our little exploration team, we must have walked for miles! And since there is a large number of steps throughout the Tower, we surely did more than 600 steps in total. That’s a good workout, believe me! Now, imagine our joy when we got invited to a delicious team lunch at the Tower’s Café 🙂 (thank you, Jon!).
Presentation Time
Following our meal, we then moved back to a truly impressive New Armouries Banqueting Suite which we made home for the rest of the day. This is when the real work started! Students began working in their teams with everyone showing full engagement and commitment to the challenge. They set objectives, proposed solutions and practiced pitches. The teams truly got their competitive juices flowing! The academic team were on hand as consultants to advise and guide students through the process.
With over 12 teams in total, each group’s presentation lasted no more than 5 minutes followed by some Q&A time. They’ve presented to others on their respective courses and in front of their judging panels. The panels judged students on the evidence of research conducted, abilities to identify target markets as well as on the marketing plans and marketing campaigns developed. By the end of the day, 4 winning teams were revealed! Congratulations to them all!
A Big Success!
“It was a lovely day! Everything went well and we had a great experience.” – Justine Astoin, International Marketing BA
“It was very good! All went great. It was our first presentation this year and it will help me to know where I have to improve. I think it was very useful! I also enjoyed the Tower of London because it was the first time I came here.” – Amado Morales, International Marketing BA
“It was different to not just walk past the Tower of London but to come in and take part in such an exciting challenge. It was a very nice day!” – Marketing Communications BA student
I am confident to say we all had an extremely successful day. Our students not only had a great day out but also have built their first friendships. What’s most important, they developed their teamwork skills and learnt invaluable lessons about the application of marketing theories. The marketing challenge gave them a taste of what it’s like to work as marketing managers or for advertising agencies. This will enable them to start their academic year off on the right foot and prepare for any challenges lying ahead.
Thank you to the School of Management and Marketing and to the Tower of London for organising such a great day. If you’d like to see more, take a look at our Facebook album!
Would you like to find out more about marketing students’ life at Westminster Business School? Check out other articles on our Westminster Business School Blog. If you are interested in taking one of our undergraduate marketing programmes, visit the relevant course page below:
BA Business Management (Marketing)
Kasia Kicinska
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