Partner with the MSDM Culminating Experience Project
Collaborate with graduate students and faculty on a data-driven digital marketing project
1 What Is the CEP?
The MSDM Culminating Experience Project represents the culmination of the students’ graduate learning experience. Over one academic year—fall, spring, and summer—students apply data analysis, strategic thinking, and digital marketing execution skills to an organization’s business needs.
Each project is guided by a faculty lead and typically results in:
- actionable insights based on data analysis;
- strategic recommendations;
- a data-driven digital marketing plan;
- execution of selected marketing activities; and
- an assessment of campaign performance and outcomes.
2 Who Can Participate?
Businesses, nonprofit organizations, public agencies, and other organizations are welcome to participate.
A project can begin with a practical question such as:
- How can we improve the performance of our digital marketing?
- Which customers or market segments should we target?
- How can we make better use of our website, advertising, sales, or customer data?
- How should we allocate our marketing budget?
- How can we improve customer acquisition, retention, engagement, or experience?
- What digital marketing strategy should we pursue next?
The organization does not need to determine the analytical methods, exact data requirements, or final marketing objectives before contacting the program. The faculty lead will help translate the organization’s needs into appropriate project objectives, data requirements, and digital marketing activities.
3 Possible Project Topics
Projects may address a wide range of data-driven marketing topics, including:
- Social media campaign analysis
- Search engine marketing (SEM)
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Customer lifetime value modeling
- Customer segmentation and targeting
- Marketing budget allocation and optimization
- Product development and management
- Pricing strategy and optimization
- Online and offline channel optimization
- Integrated marketing communications
- Consumer behavior analysis
- Retail strategy and e-commerce
- Sales performance evaluation
- Customer service and experience management
Other digital marketing topics are also welcome.
4 What Every Project Includes
4.1 Data
Students analyze primary or secondary data related to the project’s objectives. Depending on the project, data may come from the client’s:
- Google Analytics 4;
- Google Ads;
- sales or transaction systems;
- CRM or customer databases;
- social media platforms;
- website or e-commerce systems; or
- other relevant business sources.
Survey research, public datasets, or other external data may also be used when appropriate. The faculty lead will help determine what data are needed and whether they are feasible to obtain.
For the project to remain on schedule, the necessary data should generally be available or verifiable by the end of the fall semester.
4.2 Digital Marketing Plan and Execution
During the spring semester, students analyze the data, interpret the results, and develop recommendations. Based on those insights, the team creates a digital marketing plan designed to address the client’s business goals and challenges.
Beginning near the end of spring and continuing through summer, students execute agreed-upon components of the plan and evaluate their performance. This analysis-to-action process is a core feature of the MSDM program’s data-driven marketing approach.
4.3 Faculty Leadership
A faculty lead oversees the project across the fall, spring, and summer semesters. The faculty lead helps refine the project scope, guides the students’ analytical and strategic work, and ensures that the project meets the academic standards of the program.
5 What Is Expected of the Client?
Client organizations are generally expected to:
- identify a meaningful digital marketing need or business challenge;
- designate a primary contact for the project;
- provide relevant organizational context and timely feedback;
- provide agreed-upon access to data, platforms, or other resources when feasible;
- participate in selected meetings and major presentations; and
- collaborate with the team on feasible implementation activities.
6 How the Partnership Works
- Contact the MSDM Program Director. Share your organization’s digital marketing need or challenge.
- Identify a faculty lead. The Program Director will help find a faculty member whose interests and expertise align with the project.
- Develop the proposal. The faculty lead will work with the organization to refine the scope, objectives, data needs, and expected outcomes.
- Submit the project to the MSDM program. The faculty lead will finalize and submit the formal proposal.
- Match the project with students. The MSDM program will present approved projects to students and facilitate formation of a team of approximately four to six students who are interested in the project.
- Launch the project. The team begins work in the fall and continues through the following spring and summer.
7 Typical Project Timeline
| Phase | Primary Activities |
|---|---|
| Early Summer | Initial conversations with potential client partners and identification of faculty leads |
| August (8/17/2026) | Project proposal finalized and submitted to the MSDM program |
| September | Student team formation, project assignment, and kickoff (Week of 9/15) |
| Fall Semester | Scope development, literature review, research design, data access, collection, and verification |
| Spring Semester | Data wrangling, visualization, analysis, findings, and strategic recommendations |
| Late Spring–Summer | Digital marketing plan development, execution, performance assessment, and final presentation |
8 Interested in Becoming a Client Partner?
Organizations are encouraged to begin the conversation even when the project details, data, or implementation plan have not yet been fully developed.