Marketecture sets MMU students design brief

Manchester based b2b marketing agency, Marketecture, has set second year 'Illustration with Animation' students at Manchester Metropolitan University's (MMU) School of Art a brief that brings home the realities of creative execution in the commercial world.

The initiative between Marketecture's creative department and Senior Lecturer, Sharon Scholey, aims to give students a taste of working to client instructions, delivering on tight deadlines and considering print and production constraints among other challenges creatives frequently come up against in tackling the objectives of any real-life brief.

"It's all well and good learning the theory but applying it in practice is a whole different ball game," said Marketecture's Group Creative Director, Jon Hallowell.

"Managing client expectations, developing a transformative creative approach and then selling the proposition into a real client with real budgets, is equally as important as coming up with the 'big' idea. Through this partnership, we're hoping to instill the students with a greater appreciation of commercial awareness and constraints, which in today's uncertain times will certainly stand them in good stead when it comes to bagging that all-important first job."

Building on the narrative module in the course, participants delivered first stage concepts in June and shortlisted work will soon be presented to Marketecture's Board of Directors in a competitive pitch situation. The winning piece will be published and the successful student awarded a cash prize and the opportunity to take-up a two-week placement with Marketecture's creative team - learning at the coal face in a busy, integrated marcomms agency.

Said Sharon Scholey: "It's always interesting to work with external organisations as it gives the Illustration with Animation students a chance to put their work into practice. The Marketecture brief offered an exciting narrative challenge, which the students responded to with a variety of creative solutions. It's been great working with Jon, whose enthusiasm and positive input has contributed to the success of the project."

While other Manchester-based consumer agencies have worked alongside MMU on similar programmes, Marketecture is the only b2b agency currently involved in the University's student community, which is widely regarded for its creative talent.

"b2b is often overlooked at the start of an individual's career - usually because it's perceived to be the poor relation of b2c or simply down to a lack of awareness of its existence," said Hallowell. "By implementing such initiatives we're on a mission to put b2b out-there as both an exciting creative and intellectually challenging career choice."