Haaga-Helia students’ experiences on a project they worked on for the city of Vantaa, growth services
We are four students from Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Finland, degree program “International Sales and Marketing”: Nina Shorokhova-Palolahti, Aniketh Pusthay, Michael Mdaki and Mohammad Tawasoli.
In September-December 2020 our team had an exceptional learning possibility – we performed a digital marketing campaign as a student project for the city of Vantaa. The objective of this marketing campaign was to get understanding of how much food business operators are interested in moving towards sustainable food development and joining the Vantaa food cluster, operated by the City. Additionally, the campaign target was to create awareness about ecosystem of urban food production, where local food producers work together to produce clean local food in a sustainable way throughout the year.
The campaign was a pilot version and overall analysis showed, that there is an interest to sustainable local food programme, but consistent messaging on all channels is needed in order to move the whole food sector and shift from sustainability theories to practical implementation.
By our opinion, the project with Vantaa City was an extraordinary experience. We were able to grasp the nuances of working on challenging task that involved various stakeholders. In the beginning it took us time to learn the concept of the campaign: sustainable local food development and its benefits. Step by step we developed a plan for the campaign and created content which brought us closer to the implementation phase. The project kept us on toes every day and pushed us to learn about food sustainability, city involvement and its role in business development. The Vantaa project coordinator, Susanah Aalto, displayed a great cooperation and was actively helping us for a smooth implementation of the project.
Here is some reflection from our team members relating to the project with Vantaa City:
- Aniketh: “My suggestion is that educational institutions should cooperate with Vantaa for more projects in future”.
- Michael: “Working with the city of Vantaa has been a remarkable learning experience for me as a future Sales and Marketing expert”
- Nina: “Idea of the campaign “Sustainability and circular economy” inspired me for future projects and initiatives”
- Mohammad: “The work was challenging at times, but also very helpful for us to further develop our skills”.
