Shout Digital taps Northumbria for business strategy advice

An experiential learning programme at Northumbria University has been selected to help an award-winning digital product design business in Newcastle build a strategy to bring a new product into the US market.

The programme is the university’s industry-leading Business Clinic, a scheme designed to enable students to undertake real-life business projects as an alternative to traditional dissertation. 

Through the partnership, students Lamas Alasi, Jade Harsley, Jack KNight and Nihaarika Nabakkam will team up with Shout Digital to devise a strategy to launch its new Canopy product to the US. Part of the project entails researching the US technologies market, carrying out competitor analysis and devising a marketing strategy, along with a launch plan.

Their work will be supplemented and supported by experienced academics from the university in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

“We are delighted that Shout Digital has come on board and are looking forward to working with them and helping them move forward on to the next step of their project,” said Northumbria University’s Business Clinic manager Nicola Burnip.

Run since 2013, the Business Clinic has worked with more than 300 businesses and over 1,200 students. It offers a range of capabilities to businesses with a challenge to solve, from providing advice on financial and strategic management decisions to building strategy. 

According to Burnip, the scheme first started off as a pilot, with a small number of student and business participants. But it grew in popularity with every successful project, leading it to where it is today. 

“We currently have 90 projects over the course of this academic year,” she said.

Late 2017, the school was “highly commended” by the British Academy of Management Education Awards Panel for its role in bringing students and businesses together to identify and deliver genuine solutions for real-world problems.

Earlier this year, the university netted £44,000 in government funding to build a digitally-enabled version of the free student-led business consultancy service. 

The work it will do to build Shout Digital’s business strategy will add to the clinic’s success.

According to Business Up North, the idea to work with the clinic came from Shout Digital’s digital account manager Amy Czuba, who had herself worked in the scheme when she was a Northumbria student.

“Having the Business Clinic on my CV was a great addition and I was thrilled to join Shout and open up a discussion with them about what I’d gained from my own experience of the Business Clinic scheme which was received really positively.

“We met with Nicola of the Business Clinic scheme in September to discuss our project to ensure both Shout and the students would get the most out of working together,” she said.

Established in 2009, Shout Digital has an impressive portfolio of clients across sectors from finance to property and tourism. Among others, it has worked on major digital platform and app builds for Newcastle International Airport, Newcastle United, OK! Magazine, P&G, Parkdean Resorts, Northumbria University, CPP and many others.