A year in marketing studies at Surrey
At Surrey Business School, we are committed to creating an engaging, industry-focused learning environment that has a lasting impact on our students’ employability. Our marketing students engage with professionals, undertake real-world projects and participate in learning opportunities that bring marketing theory to life.
Here is a taste of what our undergraduate and postgraduate students experienced during the 2025/26 academic year.
Guest speakers
A key feature of the marketing programmes at Surrey is the opportunity for students to learn directly from industry practitioners and experts. This year, we welcomed:
- Joe Fletcher, Consulting Director at Omnicommerce, who drew on his extensive industry experience to deliver a guest lecture exploring the practical applications of marketing analytics in business.
- Akanksha Singh, Founder & Creative Marketing Director of The Storyteller's Lens, who delivered a guest masterclass about personal branding on social media. She highlighted the growing importance of personal branding in today’s digital landscape and offered practical advice on how students can build a professional online presence.
Projects and practical workshops
To help students deepen their understanding of digital marketing, Associate Professor in Marketing, Dr Ioanna Anninou ran a workshop on Applications of Virtual Reality in Digital Marketing. During this hands-on session, students experienced virtual reality advertising technologies first-hand before discussing the opportunities and challenges presented by virtual and augmented reality in contemporary marketing practice.
Lecturer in Marketing, Fil Zanasi delivered a workshop on Capturing Market Insights: A Real Client Case Study. Drawing on his professional experience, he demonstrated how organisations gather and interpret consumer insights to support business decisions. The session gave students valuable exposure to current trends, emerging technologies and the real-world challenges facing marketers today.
Trips and educational visits
Marketing students had several opportunities to step outside the classroom and experience marketing in practice through educational visits and field trips.
Denbies Wine Estate
Postgraduate Marketing students visited Denbies Wine Estate as part of a field trip focused on sustainable customer experience and wine-making. Students explored England’s largest single-estate vineyard, enjoyed panoramic views across the North Downs, and learnt about how sustainability and visitor experience are integrated into the brand’s positioning.
The visit to Zero Carbon Guildford profoundly shifted my perception of sustainability marketing. I realised its true power lies not in polished corporate campaigns but in localised, visible community action.
MSc Strategic Marketing studentZero Carbon Guildford
As part of the Sustainability Marketing module, students visited Zero Carbon Guildford (ZCG), an award-winning charity, to get involved in interactive sessions led by ZCG representatives around community engagement strategies, sustainable behaviour change and effective sustainability communications.
Students worked with consumer personas representing Surrey residents and collaborated to develop targeted sustainability marketing messages using behavioural insights. The workshop enabled them to apply concepts such as segmentation, targeting, positioning and marketing communications to real-world sustainability challenges.
Following the event, seven of our students were selected as digital marketing volunteers and began working with ZCG to support the charity’s ongoing marketing and communications activities.
Opportunities beyond the classroom
Marketing Analytics Hackathon
Two teams of Surrey students participated in this year’s Marketing Analytics Hackathon, organised by the Academy of Marketing’s Marketing Analytics and AI Special Interest Group and sponsored by Two Sides.
Hosted at Oxford Brookes University, the competition challenged students to act as marketing consultants within Accenture’s marketing analytics team. Working with a real customer dataset provided by Two Sides which analysed 1,064 UK consumer responses from the 2025 Trend Tracker, students were asked to investigate a timely business challenge and won third prize!
Instagram Content Creator role
Each year, undergraduate students can apply for the paid Business School Instagram Content Creator role. This is a position which provides an excellent opportunity to develop professional experience and build a creative portfolio.
Working on content strategy, filming and editing content, scheduling posts and working with key teams across the Business School and University, this year, second-year Marketing student Jess has done a brilliant job of sharing stories that capture the Surrey Business School student experience.
Preparing our students for the future – and creating lasting memories
Marketing at Surrey is built on hands-on learning, industry engagement and real-world application.
By working closely with industry experts, community organisations and real clients, our students graduate with the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to thrive in an increasingly digital, data-driven and sustainability-focused marketing landscape. They also leave Surrey with fond memories and valuable experiences from their time here.
Find out more about our undergraduate programme
Business Management with Marketing BSc
Find out more about our postgraduate programmes
Related sustainable development goals
