Business School undergraduates demonstrate that nothing is impossible

11 December 2013

Many might find the challenge of significantly raising the profile of a major website, armed with a budget of just £10; a single phone call; and a rigid timescale of two and a half hours, pretty daunting. However, that’s exactly what three Nottingham University Business School undergraduate students did as part of ‘The Campaign Challenge’ - an intensive one day competition for young people led by young person’s charity YouthNet and leading Nottingham based employer Capital One – becoming the winning team in the process.

Three BA (Hons) Management Studies students Nayaab Sattar, Vahid Sarafan Chaharsoughi , and Lisa Murkin, proved the old adage that ‘Nothing is impossible to a willing heart’ when they put into practice all their business knowledge and communication skills to launch a social media campaign and help spread the word about the mental health services provided by TheSite.org, YouthNet’s online guide aimed at 16-25 year-olds in the UK.

The three students came up with the simple but highly effective idea of reaching out to their peers by encouraging them to post a sad ‘selfie’ – a self-portrait photograph - on the website’s Twitter feed, with the accompanying tweet ‘Feeling low? Share a #sadselfie and let's talk on @TheSite’. The viral impact of the tweet was immediate and within minutes attracted a flood of new followers as well as being picked up and retweeted by mental health support organisations such as the Men's Health Forum.

Winning team member, Lisa Murkin said: “The challenge really tested our imaginations but some of the skills and knowledge we have developed at the Business School like entrepreneurship and strategic planning definitely helped. Our thinking behind using social media as a way to get the message across was that it is instantaneous and our target audience could really relate to it, plus it’s free. We all had a great day out.”

The Campaign Challenge is a dynamic, exciting and engaging way for students to develop their workplace skills in five key areas:

• Creativity
• Planning and strategy
• Communication
• Evaluation
• Team work

The challenge is also an excellent opportunity to learn more about the world of work and how businesses and charities can work together. By spending the day with a top UK employer and learning from their mentors, each young person gains confidence and new insights about the skills and attitudes required to be successful in employment.