In the city that never sleeps,
one group of University of Northampton Marketing students have been taking a
bite out of The Big Apple to gain real-world experience from some of the
biggest names in the industry.

Senior Lecturer in Marketing,
Kardi Somerfield flew 15 first and second year students across international
waters to New York for five days, providing valuable real-world opportunities
to network with industry heavyweights.

As well as taking in the sights
and sounds of New York city life, the students were exclusively invited to meet
with leading industry experts from eight multi-million pound international
marketing brands, including McCann Worldgroup, Ogilvy and TBWA Worldwide.

The students spent time with
strategists, recruiters, account directors and interns from across the industry
as they set their sights on steering their futures beyond graduation.

As well as taking the time to
work, students were also afforded time to play as they visited The Museum of
Modern Art, clocked a home run watching baseball, watched a show on Broadway
and soaked up the fast-paced New York life.

One of the students was Becky
Hyams, who is now in her second year of studies at the University of
Northampton and took a leap of faith in applying for the international trip.

On her experience, Becky said:
“I was really excited to sign up for the New York trip when it was announced in
my first year. This was something unique to the University of Northampton
course, and I was excited to gain international experience.

“As I have multi-sensory visual
and hearing impairments, the trip really took me out of my comfort zone and
encouraged me to self-reflect. I discovered a lot about myself on the trip, and
am very grateful for gaining interesting and helpful insights into the advertising
industry, which is an area I am potentially looking into going into after
graduation.”

Reflecting on the trip’s
success, group leader Kardi said: ““This visit was all about getting the
students inside the industry and gaining a real-world taste of advertising and
digital marketing.

“We’re all incredibly grateful
to the companies involved for taking our students under their wing and flaming
their passion for marketing. Nothing was too much trouble, and we were
extremely fortunate to shake hands and chat with the leading professionals from
these companies, including CEO of Canvas Worldwide, Paul Woolmington.

“Most of the students started
their trip looking to graduate within social media management, however after
speaking with some particularly aspiring statisticians, they’ve now changed
their minds and are looking at more strategic level roles.

“Safe to say, it looks like we
might have the next generation of leading marketing professionals set to
graduate in the coming years from the University of Northampton!”