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Can INSEAD MBAs Make Viral Marketing Videos?

INSEAD marketing professor Andrew Stephen thinks they can and has challenged students to make a viral video about their b-school and spread it on the net

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The INSEAD MBA class are a close knit group

INSEAD marketing professor Andrew Stephen has set his students quite a daunting task these last couple of months: selling their own b-school.

MBAs are usually pretty gung ho about their school, but we all know that selling something you really love is often harder than selling something you’re indifferent too.

Students on his Advertising & Social Media Strategy were given three to four weeks to create a viral video about the Insead experience, and a further three to four weeks to post it on YouTube and use whatever means they could to get as many views and likes as possible.

“I think this is really cool,” says Stephen on his blog. “At INSEAD we have… a healthy number of courses with business simulations... In my social media course this video exercise is going beyond simulation and into real content creation and, importantly, dissemination. The students are developing viral marketing strategies that put the concepts from the course into practice in a real-time learning environment.”

We caught up with student Yvonne Gruendler, who's behind one of the more hilarious videos in the contest, on a recent trip to Insead Fontainebleau. She was very positive about the experience, describing the class as "cutting edge". More importantly it was a great reality check for her and her class mates, as they discovered that making and spreading viral videos is a lot harder than they expected. With no budget and no extra help from Insead, they had to try different tactics and figure out what would fly. Who says MBAs are all talk and no action?

Yvonne Gruendler at the INSEAD campus in Fontainebleau

Stephen will announce the winner of the competition in the next few days. You still have a few hours to “like” your favorite video as today is the last day of the contest!

Check out the videos here. There’s everything from a spoof of the movie Top Gun, to a single dude on campus using MBA strategies to get a date (Gruendler's team), to a sentimental Snow Patrol-backed promo (the current leader...).

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Comments

1 November 2011

Hello :)

JemaGeola

11 July 2011

i visitied the video page and it's interesting how contrasting they are

Nathan Portman

3 July 2011

hardly a 'daunting' task - surely the collective brains at INSEAD can piece together a few minutes of video footage? Or maybe not?!

Mark Murray

If INSEAD MBAs can't sell their course, who else can? I think every biz school should get their students to make viral videos - surely cheaper than paying a marketing agency?!