Why take part in a hackathon?
This challenge brings together several groups of students in a limited time to work on a business problem, drawing on their collective intelligence. The challenge's objective is to propose solutions and recommendations tailored to the needs of organisations. This simulation exercise enables them to call upon all the skills acquired during their studies, and to use their creativity and their ability to mediate within the group.
As part of the "learning-by-doing" pedagogy, the hackathons organised each year as also provide an opportunity for MSc students to step out of their comfort zone and learn to discover themselves. Coached by the KEDGE Entrepreneurship teams - the KEDGE entity bringing together all the services and training related to entrepreneurship and innovation - they build their entrepreneurial know-how and discover all aspects of business creation.
For companies, the project enables to expose their strategy to the academic world and to students, and therefore to gain momentum on the topics addressed. These sessions can also be an opportunity to spot interesting profiles for future collaboration. The quality of the solutions proposed by the different groups during this key step of the programme convinced Hugo Budillon and Alexis Duvernoy, founders of 18h08, who both acknowledged the precision of the action plans and the depth of the students' work on the challenges raised.
Challenge outline
For 10 hours, the 47 MSc students worked on the "18h08" case, a company specialised in digital influence marketing and incubated in the KEDGE Entrepreneurship premises on the Marseille campus. Three strategic areas of focus were identified prior to the hackathon: monetisation, customer acquisition and differentiation strategies. The students cooperated to help 18h08 optimise these levers to fulfil its original promise: "the right influencer at the right price with the right strategy".
The groups were supported by KEDGE Entrepreneurship to structure their recommendations, which were then presented to the company at the end of the 10 hours, allowing them to progress in their strategic transformation.
We were able to ask the company all the questions we wanted and were coached to develop our solutions. We really see how entrepreneurs work on a daily basis and how they make decisions.
This intense, hands-on experience is a gateway to the creation and growth of a company. This hackathon enables students to grasp the different strategic and digital tools to create coherent, reliable, and above all, ready-to-implement solutions for the founders. The one-day event not only contributes to the students' experiential learning but also to the strengthening of KEDGE's entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Studying digital marketing at KEDGE
The MSc Digital Marketing & Sales programme taught in Marseille is designed to meet the need for new skills and managerial know-how created by the challenges of the digital world. Available from 3 years of higher education, it trains multi-skilled professionals through a transversal vision based on 4 pillars: strategy, technique, design and digital marketing. Its innovative nature lies in the use of practical applications throughout the year to build on the theoretical knowledge: case studies, challenges, immersion, bootcamp, etc. Students of the programme also benefit from a very extensive network of key players in the market, making them more employable in France and abroad.
