TU students take a bite of media strategy in experiential learning with Insomnia Cookies

By Phaedran Linger '22 & Emma DePalmer '22 on July 4, 2022

During the 2022 spring academic term, one Towson University mass communication class took on Insomnia Cookies as a marketing client, offering students a real-world learning experience.

TU's Social Media & Strategic Communications (MCOM 333) focuses on social media, marketing and brand communication skills. Under the instruction of adjunct faculty member Andrew Locke, students completed a term-long project where they worked with the nationwide cookie chain to design a social media campaign.  

The project’s goal called for the students to develop content that promotes Insomnia Cookies’ paid subscription service, CookieMagic, to college students while also entertaining the brand’s social audience. 

“Insomnia Cookies felt the campaign needed more attention. It was a great opportunity for our class to come in with a fresh perspective and market it to a younger audience,” says Locke.

The class was assigned to design a social media strategy and content for use on the company’s Instagram and TikTok. Students worked in groups of four with two designated for Instagram and two for TikTok.

Locke says working on a project with an actual client allows the students to immerse themselves in the world of catering to a brand. The students had an opportunity to hone their social media skills and produce a project the company plans to use.

“For me, it was less about teaching students how to make the best TikTok video. It was about using the resources and tools to achieve marketing goals,” says Locke.

Throughout the project, the class learned about marketing strategies, customer relations, analytics, paid advertising and how to apply those skills to social media.

It’s an example of TU’s commitment to distinguished faculty mentors pushing the possibilities of engaged learning, providing students with exceptional, student-centered educational experiences. 

Locke thought Insomnia Cookies would be a great brand for students to engage with since they are quite popular on college campuses. Coincidentally, Insomnia Cookies’ Chief Marketing Officer Tom Carusona was a former colleague of Locke’s, and put him in contact with the company’s brand director, Gabrielle Dolceamore.

Dolceamore provided students in the class with lectures and attended their final project presentations. Students also submitted suggestions for the client with research collected throughout the semester. 

“I know how beneficial a project with a real-life client can be when you’re wrapping up college, so I was honored just to be asked,” says Dolceamore. “The majority of our customers are also college students, so I knew there was a lot I could learn from their work.”

Dolceamore says throughout the course the Insomnia Cookies team gained strong insights from the class on how to produce content for their demographic and what marketing strategies resonate the most. 

“These are the channels customers are using most frequently, and where we could use more insight from Gen Z,” says Dolceamore. “The students also got a real taste of what working with a client is like, from the discovery phase of a project to the presentation of their work.”

Locke came up with the idea for a hands-on learning project in 2021, his first year at TU. That fall, his class worked on content for the American Marketing Association of Baltimore.

Through his classes, Locke provides project-based experiential learning opportunities and gives his students real-world experience they can take into their future careers. 

“While the students learn, they also produce [work that] a client will actually use,” Locke says. “It brings a whole new level of personal responsibility which allows the student to comprehend, understand and apply those things they learned. It’s a full circle process.”

Rising junior Jake Shindel, a mass communication major, says the experience allowed him to get an idea of what it's like to work with a team, develop a campaign and attend to deadlines and feedback. 

“I think it's one of the most valuable classes I’ve taken,” Shindel says. “You can only learn so much by doing examples. I was excited to work on creative content and it's a great accomplishment to put on my resume.”  

After the students packaged their research, campaign ideas and content, Insomnia Cookies plans to use the students' content in August for a back-to-school campaign.