Aarhus - Beverage Marketing 2024
The summer school 'Beverage Activation' is a 2-week summer school, which will be held in Aarhus, Denmark. It will involve creating a real marketing activation project within this year’s specific theme: 'Sober party drinks'. During the summer school, students will work in mixed-country teams consisting of 4-5 students. These teams will produce an activation project together and present the outcome to a professional business panel at the end of the two weeks. Teams will do work for a Canadian beverage brand which wants to investigate opportunities for launching in the Danish market.
Learning outcomes
The Summer School will cover the following six learning goals :
- an introduction to and learning to work professionally as an international team – applying tools and practice during the activation project, this forms the professional output of your summer school experience
- learning to analyse and carry out market research in the Danish beverage market, including B2B, and B2B customers and competitors relevant to the chosen case area
- getting familiar with entrepreneurial marketing techniques including Guerilla Marketing and Marketing Activation – both theory and application in practice
- getting introduced to the design thinking innovation process which includes doing a learn-by-doing activation project using design thinking as a framework
- applying qualitative exploratory research to your summer school project
- learning how to pitch professionally in front of a live audience – and getting feedback from a professional business panel
Learning will be based on theory and practical work in the field. The main objective of the summer school is for students to gain theoretical insights as well as practical experience. The entire course will be taught in English by lecturers and professors from Business Academy Aarhus as well as our partners Centennial College (Canada), and Artevelde (Belgium).
Key takeaways: new perspectives, new knowledge, new international friends in a vibrant city full of Danish summer life!
Where and when
The summer school is offered in collaboration with all our partner universities Centennial College and Artevelde and will take place in Aarhus from 24 June - 5 July 2024.
Aarhus has just been crowned the happiest city in the world (for the third consecutive year) by the Institute for Quality of Life.
Who can join
The course is offered to Business Academy Aarhus students from our business programmes. Centennial and Artevelde will likewise offer this summer school to relevant business students.
The summer school is ideal for students who have a basic knowledge of marketing and want to incorporate a different academic or cultural experience in their educational profile.
We envisage that the perfect participant will also:
- be curious to participate in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary teams
- have the courage to put one's own professional skills into play, as the other participants will have different prerequisites and backgrounds for participating in the summer school
- be robust enough to be with fellow students approx. 24/7 for 2 weeks
- have self-discipline and be able to produce a good result when new methods and tools need to be learnt and immediately put into play for a real company
- be eager to familiarise yourself with and try your hand at skills such as Design Thinking and Entrepreneurial/Activation marketing
- courage to pitch in front of a panel of professional externals
- have the desire and curiosity to expand their network, speak English 24/7 for 2 weeks and experience Aarhus day and night
Academic assessment
The summer school is weighted 5 ECTS credits. Students will need to submit a portfolio of outputs which covers the following 5 milestones:
- Market and industry research
- Empathise qualitative consumer research
- Define data wall presentation
- Presentation of Prototype
- Live-Test of activation campaign prototype in the form of a live activation of the prototype developed by your team in front of your summer school peers, lecturers, and a professional business panel
All team members must be present and active during all five milestones.
Individual marks will be given according to the Danish 7-grade scale, based on an overall assessment of both the written hand-in, depth of research and reflections, oral performance and active participation in all milestone presentations, and feedback from your own and all other teams.
Practical information
Accommodation
Basecamp Aarhus, which is just north of the city centre of Aarhus with direct transport to our campus in Viby (bus 6A or light-rail L2). This is luxury student accommodation; each student will have a private room with a bathroom and tea kitchen. Bedding, towels and kitchen utensils will also be provided. Students will also have access to a gym and a laundry. Check-in is on Saturday 22 June 2024 and check-out is Saturday 6 July 2024.
Financial issues
There is no tuition fee for the course for students from our partner universities.
You must pay all other expenses in connection with the summer school in Aarhus.
If you are offered a place on this summer school, a non-refundable payment (1,500 DKK) must be paid in approximately mid-April to ensure your registration. This amount pays for some of the combined social activities and meals etc., and will only be used for your benefit.
| Expense | Ca. budget in DKK, per person |
|---|---|
| Transport to and from a Danish airport | up to 500 from Cph airport, 164 from Billund airport or 126 from Aarhus airport |
| Accommodation (at Basecamp Aarhus), with check-in on Saturday 22 June and check-out on Saturday 6 July 2024. | 530 per night/per person |
| Course-related trips and lunch | 1,500 |
| Meals | Breakfast and some lunches must be purchased and you can expect to use from around 100 DKK per evening for main meals |
When you come to Aarhus:
- non-EU citizens might need a visa, please check and let me know
- you must have a valid passport
- make sure you have insurance (health and repatriation)
- you will need to have a credit card or money for meals and other related costs
- Aarhus is a great little city on many bucket lists, read more on Visit Aarhus
Pre-work material
The case for this year’s Beverage Marketing Summer School is the non-alcoholic drinks brand, Søbrii from Canada. To prepare for the Summer School, we have collected some pre-work materials that you must go through before attending the Summer School.
CASE COMPANY
Visit the case company website and get familiar with the brand, products etc.
https://sobrii.ca
THEORY AND BACKGROUND READING
Market Analysis, what does this entail?
Market Analysis Information And Tools
Interaction Design Foundation, what is Design Thinking:
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-thinking
Read and watch the videos
Entrepreneurial and Activation Marketing
Neck, Heidi, Entrepreneurship, the Practise and Mindset, Sage 2021, ch. 15 Engaging Customers through marketing
Neck, Ch. 15 Ch. Engaging Customers Through Marketing
ZoomInfo, The Beginners Guide to Brand Activation: https://www.zoominfo.com/blog/marketing/the-beginners-guide-to-brand-activation
Read from link
MARKET RESEARCH
Skim through the research sources to get an overview of the sober drinks market – use Google Translate or Chat GPT to translate a few articles from Danish:
Boston Consulting Group 2024. Sober Curious? The Non-Alcoholic Drinks Industry Is Toasting. [online] BCG Global. Available at: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/sober-curious-non-alcoholic-drinks-industry-is-toasting [Seen 12 Mar. 2024].
· Bryggeriforeningen, 2024. Nye tal bekræfter en mere ansvarlig alkoholkultur. Bryggeriforeningen. Available at: https://bryggeriforeningen.dk/nye-tal-bekraefter-en-mere-ansvarlig-alkoholkultur/ [Seen 12 Mar. 2024].
· Cleveland Clinic 2023. Is Generation Z Drinking Less? [online] Cleveland Clinic. Available at: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-gen-z-is-drinking-less [Seen 12 Mar. 2024].
· Fujikawa, Tomomi, 2023. Japan Leads the Sober Curious Culture in Asia Pacific. [online] Euromonitor. Available at: https://www.euromonitor.com/article/japan-leads-the-sober-curious-culture-in-asia-pacific [Seen 12 Mar. 2024].
· Goddiksen, Mette Kirstine, 2023. Vi er færdige med druk. [online] Kforum. Available at: https://kforum.dk/article197423k.ece [Seen 12 Mar. 2024].
· IWSR, 2023. No-alcohol share of the overall alcohol market expected to grow to nearly 4% by 2027 (press release). Available at: https://www.theiwsr.com/wp-content/uploads/IWSR_No-and-Low-Alcohol-press-release-December-2023.pdf [Seen 12 Mar. 2024].
· NCSolutions 2023. Sober Curious and Alcohol Statistics | 2024 Survey Data. [online] NCSolutions. Available at: https://ncsolutions.com/the-goods/sober-curious-nation-alcohol-survey/ [Seen12 Mar. 2024].
· Aarup, Lars, 2022. Øl med lav alkoholprocent seksdoblet. [online] Coop Analyse. Available at: https://coopanalyse.dk/analyse/02_58-alkoholfri-oel/ [Seen 12 Mar. 2024].