In the first week of April five groups of BSc Marketing students from Kent Business School pitched their solutions to a business challenge set by the Turner Contemporary around the Turner Prize.
The Turner Prize (established in 1984) aims to promote debate around developments in contemporary British art and is one of the best-known prizes for the visual arts in the world. Every alternate year, the prize leaves the Tate Modern and is presented at a venue outside London. In 2019 it will be presented at Turner Contemporary in Margate which, since opening in 2011, has been the catalyst for significant economic and social regeneration in the town.
Hosting the Turner prize creates a unique opportunity for the gallery to connect with audiences that have not yet visited, in particular a younger audience in the 16-30 age bracket (including Kent-based students) and residents in the surrounding area and further afield within Kent.
The BSc Marketing students from Kent Business School were asked to look into four key issues facing Turner Contemporary:
- Ways to encourage younger Kent residents to visit the gallery
- What local partnerships to forge to this end
- The best marketing channels to use
- Ways to develop a digital audience, focusing on younger people.
The panel, which included Turner Contemporary’s Head of Marketing, Moya Stirrup, and Head of the KBS Marketing group, Ben Lowe, was very impressed with the solutions put forward by the five student teams. Moya Stirrup said:
“Pitch It! was a fantastic experience. The students offered creative, well researched, intelligent solutions to the challenge we posed and the calibre of the presentations was brilliant. It was a great resource for our team and we will be using some of the insights offered to shape our future thinking.”
Pitch It! challenges have been taken up by Marketing and International Business students in the past for big-name companies and organisations such as Marks & Spencer, English Heritage, Sony UK and Chapeldown. They give students real-life work experience, the opportunity to hone their pitching skills and also boost their employability. Likewise participating businesses are given a taster of the School’s research expertise and our student talent.
Professor Ben Low was very pleased with the outcome:
“It was a pleasure to see Turner Contemporary interacting with students at Kent Business School and recognising some of the fine work that is being done on our BSc Marketing programme. I am very glad that the student presentations led to some useful and actionable recommendations and very grateful to the students for their enthusiasm, insights and hard work. This was clearly a win-win for all concerned.”
Visit the KBS website for more information and details of how to apply for the BSc Marketing programme. If your business would like to get involved with Pitch It! contact KBS External Services on 01227 824068.