Madventurer case study

Company background

Madventurer offer award winning volunteer projects and exhilarating adventures in some of the most fascinating destinations in the world. Our placement student was fully engaged in promoting our trips to the UK market.

Total number of employees

Eight

Operational countries  

HQ in Newcastle / Operations in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Togo, South Africa, Peru, Fiji, India, Thailand, Vietnam

Challenge

The initial brief for the project was twofold:

• to manage a UK-wide network of university representatives;
• to help research, plan and organise a ten stop road show of UK universities in conjunction with two other companies.

Name of work experience scheme     

Road Show and Rep Project. 100 hours were allocated to the project.

Name of person responsible for scheme

John Lawler, Madventurer Founder and Chief

Steps to implementation

Working with the reps involved everything from recruitment, monitoring progress, organising careers fairs for them to attend and keeping up their motivation. Generally this involved regular contact with the group, providing updates on the progress of the road show (which seven of them were involved in) and keeping morale high with good news from head office, tailoring advice and support to their specific situation. The project also involved:

• working with an American marketing director from a different company to assist her in researching universities, media opportunities, costs and other elements;
• designing the themes and creative aspects of the road show but also the strategy to adopt in terms of marketing, advertising and promotion;
• in the later stages, organising the reps, who provided the staffing at the events, and ensuring that they were fully briefed in all aspects of the event. 

Benefits

• Gained a unique insight into the student and youth travel market by working alongside somebody who was still in that market and that can share their real life experiences with our graduate team.
• Increased the bottom line of the company without burdening the company with additional overheads when it does not have extra financial resources to make the project happen.
• Enabled our participant to develop essential skills and experiences in their chosen field and help provide an open door to further opportunities. Activities included:
• Working as a team on the road show and leading a team (albeit a virtual one) with our reps.
• Communicating ideas and instructions clearly and concisely over the period of the placement.
• Increasing confidence by giving the participant more independence and autonomy to act but to also take responsibility for their actions.
• Providing knowledge about the realities of the commercial world, developing their time management and organisation skills.

Results        

In the long run, the aim of the road show is to increase brand awareness and ultimately bookings for the company and the partner companies that decided to work with us. Although the project will develop in later stages we are already seeing a considerable increase in interest and bookings from UK universities beyond our traditional number.

Overall the work with the reps resulted in greater communication between HQ and the reps. The participant's priority was to make sure that the reps were all performing as effectively as possible and that they had the support they needed to do so. Team motivation and so efficiency greatly increased during the time the participant was here, and as a direct result closer relationships were established within the team, and with HQ.

In terms of the road show, the placement ended just before the events begun, in fact they are still ongoing. However the first few events have proven successful in terms of turnout, and general interest in the brands. The placement's input in the early stages provided a useful insight into the way students behave and what they respond to, and she also did a lot of the legwork in terms of research to decide which universities to target.

There is now a closer co-operation of the three companies who are involved in the road show, and we think this will be highly beneficial for the future in what is currently a difficult market. The placement student has gained a huge amount of commercial experience; has met senior professionals in different fields; and has had access to advice from a huge range of sources and in a huge range of fields (from Facebook marketing strategy to what to say when trying to negotiate a good deal on advertising space). The contacts she has made and the experiences she has had will stand her in good stead for the future.

Lessons learnt                             

• We would offer our participants a supported trip overseas to experience our projects first hand as this would bring extra knowledge and passion to the placement.
• Occasionally one of our partners in the Road Show would ask our placement student to do tasks that were outside her remit so perhaps some boundaries need to be set in order to make sure that the project is always on track. She was a real asset to the company and so everyone wanted a piece of her.
• Perhaps more time socialising with the core team before the placement starts to feed off the culture of the company.

Future plans

• The road show and rep network will be built on and continued as it has clearly shown to pay dividends and was a great source of ideas and resource for all concerned.
• We now aim to have two work experience students constantly within the Madventurer office working on specific timely projects throughout the year. It has been a fantastic, fun and rewarding experience for both the company and the participant.

Key tips  

• Immerse the work experience participant into the company's culture, people and goals and then let them roam free.
• Give them all the tools and time they need so that they have all the resources they need to make a success of their role.
• Make it a win-win for both the company and the participant - develop together, learn, feed and grow off each other.