New and improved: Our Masters in Marketing and Digital Transformation 2.0

First things first, Vlerick’s MDT is a one-year masters degree ? 

Frank: “It’s a one-year masters degree that offers a blend of marketing, digital business insights, techniques and leadership skills. It also explicitly inspires students to harness their creativity.”

What are the updates to the MDT, and why are they being implemented?

Frank: “Marketing is a dynamic, fast-moving discipline – so we are integrating several new and updated courses into the curriculum. For example, in addition to techniques and tools such as search engine optimisation (SEO), search engine advertising (SEA) and AI-driven analytics, we’re now also focusing on technologies like virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR).

If you think of algorithmic and analytics elements of marketing as being ‘digital technology under the hood’, a component that was already present in the programme and will remain so, then we’re now also bringing emerging ‘above the hood’ technologies more into the picture as these digital applications are increasingly used by companies to manage customer journeys in innovative ways. Next to new courses on digital technology, we also added courses with a clear focus on consumer psychology. These offer techniques to capture customer insights and next leverage such insights into creative marketing executions."

Interesting! Why is this so important to future marketing leaders?

Frank: “The business landscape is constantly evolving – and marketing professionals need to keep pace. Algorithms are becoming more sophisticated and new experiential technological applications like the Metaverse or Internet-of-Things are increasingly experimented with in the customer interface. Tomorrow’s CMOs need to understand how all of these technologies and available data analytics can be leveraged in a business-relevant way. And besides technology awareness, a good understanding of customer psychology is also needed to guarantee consumer buy-in.”

So what does this look like in practice?

Frank: “We’ve introduced improvements to the learning modules Digital Marketing Techniques and Tactics and Applied Marketing Analytics. They now touch on the latest in the world of algorithms, AI and data analytics.

We’ve also introduced a completely new learning module called Experiencing and Experimenting with New Technology in the Customer Interface. This empowers our students to understand and experience certain ‘above-the-hood’ technologies. During this course there are multiple field visits and technology try-outs.

Another completely new learning module is called Creative Strategy, Trend Watching and Customer Insight Generation. In it, we take our students out into world-renowned creative agencies like TBWA, where they work with – and learn from – professional creatives. We also have leaders from agencies like BBDO delivering lectures.”

Vlerick’s teaching style is typically very pragmatic – is this also the case with the new-look MDT?

Frank: “Our whole approach is based on learning by doing. We use real-life cases. There are field trips – and an international study trip to Dublin, Ireland, where companies like Google, LinkedIn and Oracle have their European headquarters. It's also the perfect opportunity for our Masters students to directly network with company representatives and tackle business challenges.
We welcome several business guest speakers, make students do retail safaris, and include multiple gamified learning approaches throughout the year. The students can also select a 3-week boot camp during which they work part-time with participants from other Vlerick masters on a real-life challenge facilitated by a company.

The programme also features a three-month in-company project where students take part in a market research consultancy challenge.”

You often use the term “marketing leaders” rather than simply “marketers”. Is this significant?

Frank: “This is a programme for people from a diverse range of backgrounds and nationalities – who have in common that they are ambitious and aim for a leading role in marketing. To allow MDT participants to become marketing leaders, they are also trained on specific leadership skills such as people management, strategy, negotiation, conflict resolution, networking, presenting and more. Our ambition is to have them graduate with the skills and mindset to be leaders with meaningful business impact.”

Wendy, is there a high demand for MDT graduates?

Wendy: “The jobs market is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Hence, our programmes reflect the changing needs of employers. And as a result, our students are graduating with the essential tools and skills to embark on impactful careers in diverse fields. Typical entry-level roles for our graduates include Brand Manager, Product Manager, Marketing Analyst, Account Manager, Business Development Manager, Market Researcher, Marketing Consultant and Business Information and Data Analyst. After a few years in these roles, we see many of our MDT graduates progressing into senior leadership and CMO roles.”

That’s impressive… So how does Vlerick help students in the search for their dream job?

Wendy: “At the very beginning of the programme, we tell students: ‘Your career starts now!’. By this, we mean the Vlerick Careers Team is there for them from day one. From a two-day career skills seminar, through to an assessment centre simulation, career fairs and mock interviews, the opportunities are there for the taking. MDT students all get a dedicated career advisor who’s there for them every step of the way. We have one-to-one coaching where we set up individual job search strategies.”

And who is the programme for?

Frank: “It’s for anyone who’s actively interested in a career that involves managing customers – especially people who want to combine a deep understanding of technology with creative marketing and insight generation. It’s definitely for people who are ambitious, who want to go all the way to the top of the marketing profession.

Although several business or economics students each year enrol for MDT, you definitely don’t need such a background. In fact, the MDT programme can be a natural next step for people with a  psychology, communications, product development, engineering or any other background - as we witness every year. The group diversity is also a real asset of the programme, as it allows students to learn to collaborate with others that have very different specialities.

Finally, I want to stress that we have a culture of working hard – but we also have a lot of fun. We aim to create a strong feeling of family in every cohort and build memories together that last a lifetime!”

Want to find out more?

Please reach out – or join our Masters Open House on 2 July, on our Ghent campus.

Also take a look at the video below, where our current Masters student Amber Marx shares how our Masters in Marketing & Digital Transformation programmed landed her dream job at Coca-Cola.

From Dream to Reality: Amber's Journey to Coca-Cola

How did Amber Marx land her dream job at Coca-Cola? Well, Amber is ready to spill the tea: watch the video to find out how!