The Discussion
The evening started with David Schulhof (Red Hot Penny) talking about some of his findings. At a guest lecture last year with final year Marketing students, he asked the audience who had heard of ‘Search Marketing’. Shockingly, not one person in the 100-strong crowd raised their hand.
Further investigation by Schulhof led him to discover that many Marketing courses didn’t offer modules in search marketing, despite it being a key pillar of digital marketing in the industry. He highlighted how, with the amounts being spent on university degrees these days, the course subject needs to be relevant, which could lead to more people leaving university wanting to pursue Search Marketing rather than just falling into it.
Simon Wharton (PushON) claimed that it’s more important to address the teaching at school level. This was echoed by Ric Rodriguez (iProspect), who said that demand for Marketing training at University level, the industry needs students to be taking an interest in it whilst at school. The profile of marketing to prospective students was outlined as a key area for improvement.
Many university degrees cover influencer marketing, Wharton pointed out. When the group discussed why courses chose to cover influencer marketing but not search, Laura Crimmons (Silverthorn) suggested that search professionals hadn’t done enough to make it as appealing. Ultimately, universities have the pressure of attracting students.
Judith Lewis suggested that actually going into schools to talk to kids about search would be worthwhile. Crimmons echoed this by pointing out many at the table had done guest lectures at universities but not at secondary schools.