125 Students Innovated the Advertising Format

Out of Home Media is the largest provider of bus advertising in Denmark. It is also the media company behind the bus commercial in 2016, where Donald Trump rolled his eyes on the wheels of bus 1A and attracted worldwide attention. Out of Home Media is also the company, the students at the Top-up Bachelor’s degree in International Sales and Marketing at Cphbusiness presented their innovative solutions to on Friday, November 16.

- All the presenting groups did an amazing job, I think. It was clear that they had spent both time and thoughts on how to execute their ideas based on their ongoing education, says Jeff de la Cruz, Head of Sales at Out of Home Media.

At Out of Home Media, he works, among other things, to develop the company’s media formats.

- In this regard, it is great to the have the opportunity to come and experience the students and get more inputs and innovative ideas with the latest knowledge and theories behind it, he says.

The finances must add up

The assignment for the students was: Come up with a new product or service for Out of Home Media, which will create value for the company’s customers and will fit into the existing media portfolio.

The five groups in the finals presented solutions around billboards that responds to the surroundings, eye tracking, mobile apps in busses and much more. However, innovation was not the only criteria. The solutions should also be financially viable.

- In many cases, the creative idea is what enables us to close deals with new and bigger advertisers – especially the international ones – but we will also have to assess the solutions from a business perspective, says Jeff de la Cruz.

Exciting to work with a concrete issue

The fact that the solution doesn’t just end up in a desk drawer but is actually seen and maybe used by a real company, has been one of the best parts of this assignment, the students from the winning group explains.

- Knowing that our suggestion could actually become a product in the end, is exciting. Normally, when we hand in an assignment, it is over at that moment. In this case, it might be an actual product. It has been inspiring to see if we could come up with something that could be implemented in real life, says student Caroline Linnig.

When the recipient is an actual company, the assignment becomes different to work with.

- We approached this task, as if we were to make a sales pitch for Out of Home Media. It definitely affected the way we worked on this assignment, which we also showed in our presentation. We wanted to create value for Out of Home Media and not focus on our theory and methodology, says Amalie Ring.

Co-student Ken Jensen backs her up:

- It has definitely been exciting to receive a practice oriented task. This is what this study programme focuses on; working hands-on with what is actually going on in the market. It has been very exciting to get a concrete case from a company we can relate to, he says.

The winning group consisted of the students Caroline Linning, Joanna Scharlett Jørgensen, Amalie Ring, Alexander Thulstrup and Ken Jensen from Cphbusiness.

Learn more about the study programme: Top-up Bachelor’s degree in International Sales and Marketing

Quotes are translated from Danish.