Following successful partnerships with a number of European and American MBA and academic programs, JWT Dubai announced its partnership with the American University in Dubai (AUD), for the university’s Integrated Marketing Communications Development course covering the full second semester of the 2013-2014 academic year.
 
By assigning the agency’s Managing Director, Michiel Hofstee, as the guest lecturer, the university is bringing a hands-on agency experience to the lecture hall. The course will focus on integrated marketing communications campaign development, and introduce the students to the fundamental creative and strategic elements of every successful communications strategy in today’s multi-channeled and highly connected world.
 
AUD President, Dr Lance de Masi, welcomed the new collaboration stating, “Over the years, universities and communications companies have become more adept at substantive collaboration. I mean collaboration that really makes a difference. Both sides have a lot to gain in such hook-ups because agencies are masters of technique and craft and universities uphold science and have a keen sense of the future. This thinking is behind my having invited JWT to partner with me this semester in the design and delivery of my IMC Campaign Development course.”
 
Commenting on the initiative, Hofstee added, “Education is one of the two CSR pillars at JWT Dubai and we are very proud to partner today with AUD on their Integrated Marketing Communication Development course. It is a topic that is close to our hearts. In today's environment where technological innovation is happening at lightning speed, we the agency, need international imagination to connect an impactful brand idea with the target audience through a growing variety of channels.”
 
Hofstee noted that “in addition to the theory” he will be “working with Nestle to brief the students on a live case which they will be tackling during the semester.”
 
“At AUD, when we teach IMC, we very much stick to the tenets of those who founded and named IMC. Often, that means that our teaching is well ahead of the times. Joining forces with JWT, a strategic planning and creative powerhouse, provides our students with a snapshot of where the past and the future meet in the present and exposes them to the vocabulary, templates, methods and attitudes of some of the industry’s most emblematic practitioners. The result can only be better prepared entry level candidates, ready to hit the ground running, equipped to make a difference,” concludes de Masi.
 
The Integrated Marketing Communication Development course kicked off with a highly acclaimed session on 15 January 2014, and will continue till the end of the current semester.