MBC Marketing Agency

The MBC Marketing Agency

A Student-Powered Agency Supporting MBC Startup Companies

The Master of Business Creation (MBC) Marketing Agency is a student-run, student-led, multi-major, campus “internship” with three-year eligibility providing increasing levels of responsibility and leadership. MBC Agency student associates support company founders in the award-winning MBC program. We have heard it is one of the best real-life experiences for undergraduates and graduate students interested in marketing at the University of Utah … and we agree!

Join the MBC Marketing Agency

All students at the University of Utah who have an interest in marketing and want to gain experience through real projects are welcome to apply to join the MBC Marketing Agency. All majors and backgrounds are welcome. We value experience, but we also value passion, determination, and your reason for wanting to join our program.

All Majors Welcome

The MBC Marketing Agency welcomes all students and majors to join the program. Here are some of the majors recently represented:

Marketing
Information systems
Business administration
Accounting

Finance
Entrepreneurship
Operations & Supply Chain
Management

Film & Media Arts
Communications
QAMO
Painting/Drawing

… and more!

MBC Agency Projects (as of Spring 2024)

Here are some facts & figures about MBC Marketing Agency projects with MBC startups and founders:

40+

Students Participating

68

Student Marketing Projects

35+

Startups/Founders Supported

2,000

Hours of Learning/Experience

MBC Marketing Agency Details

At the the MBC Marketing Agency, we have two main objectives that help us provide the preeminent applied education and leadership experience for students (see one, do one, teach one):

  • First, we provide provide strategic guidance and build founder capabilities to develop quality marketing strategies to validate and grow MBC companies.
  • Second, we increase capacity for MBC founders and provide real-world learning opportunities for selected undergraduate and graduate students.

“It’s a REAL AGENCY doing REAL Work on REAL Companies!”

Research

  • Market & consumer/customer
  • Consumer/customer journey and experience
  • Competitive assessments
  • Audits: website and social media and paid media

Strategy

  • Where-to-play and how-to-win strategy plans (OGSM framework)
  • Marketing plans and key brand documents (positioning, brand equity, segmentation & target audience)
  • “Test and learn” strategy, execution and analysis
  • Marketing mix and media options
  • Digital advertising and media strategy
  • Social media strategy (organic and paid)
  • Creative ideation and content creation

Execution help

  • Account set up help for key paid media platforms (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.)
  • Social media creative and tactical test and learn
  • Analytics set up help on how to track test and learn with dashboards and data
  • Public relations (PR)/communication tactics
  • Vet and recommend external agency support

Opportunity

Students can have a three-year opportunity to participate (if mutual interest). This program is for progressive opportunities and breath of leadership over multiple years (e.g., sophomore, junior and senior years).

Participation

Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3 associates

  • New Agency Associate: New associates participate on MBC Agency teams (2-3 students) with a team leader 
  • Agency Team Leaders: Year 2 and 3 associates will lead teams and help supervise year 1 and 2 associates for the work to be done
  • Student Directors: These roles (year 2 & 3 associates) work directly with the faculty advisor. They lead teams and also lead some of the administrative responsibilities in and across the program — including training of the “Agency Toolkit” to agency teams and recruiting.

Time Commitment

  • On average, agency associates spend 5-10 hrs per week (avg. 5) for the semester
  • The work is often done independently with your team and then shared with MBC founders in Zoom conference meetings (can be in person also)
  • Agency teams usually work with 2 different companies per semester with the opportunity to work on 2-3 projects per semester

Various options for participation (when accepted)

  • Internships for experience: Fully supervised “internship” for the semester to enhance your profile of experience and resume.
  • Internship for credit hours through your department:  It may be possible that you can also receive internship credit to fulfill obligations for your credit hours.
  • Scholarships: We have a limited amount of scholarships that can be awarded for participation for this hands-on, real world opportunity.

Overview

The program consists of a faculty director and student directors who manage teams of other students and related projects.

  • Agency associates work in 2-person teams
  • Varied backgrounds of study and colleges on campus
  • Equal balance of men/women

Director

Jeff Davis, Marketing & MBC faculty member

  • Selection of projects and assigning agency teams to founder companies
  • Priority setting and guidance for agency teams
  • Collaborating with MBC preceptors on key needs and priorities
  • Execute training sessions each month with agency associates led by student directors
  • Mentoring and coaching student directors and team leaders

Student Directors

  • Leadership of program and overseeing team leaders. They also have responsibility for recruiting and administration of the program
  • Communication weekly with team leaders to update status in Marketing Agency Workbook
  • Prepares and leads monthly agency training/sharing meetings

Team Leaders

  • Single point of contact for founder and team
  • Provide status update to founder in Marketing Agency Workbook each week
  • Assigns tasks to the team members and reports progress each week
  • Ensures good communication, clear expectations and written action steps each week for team/founder
  • Provides summary deck/report at end of project
  • Participates in bi-weekly agency priorities Zoom meetings

Associates

  • First time participants who learn the the system and tools from team leaders and student directors
  • Support team leaders and provide key work to deliver project objectives and provide summary reports to founders
  • Prepare to become team leaders

MBC Agency Leadership 2024-25

Jeff Davis

Faculty Director

Kailee-Jade Jenson

Student Director

Gabe White

Student Director

MBC Startups

The Master of Business Creation program has helped many diverse founders grow their businesses. They come from many backgrounds and are working in many industries. Learn about some of them by following the link below.

About the Master of Business Creation

The Master of Business Creation (MBC) is an award-winning masters program at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business for selected entrepreneurs to launch and accelerate their startup. It helps founders find product-market fit and grow sales through a unique, integrated, application focused curricula, intense one-on-one mentoring, experienced faculty, scholarships, and qualified funding.