AHMEDABAD: MICA, Ahmedabad, India's Strategic Marketing and Communication school, concluded its MI-IMPACT (MICA's Impact Management Projects for All Cities Transformation) Program with a total of 68 students across all programs, helping organizations create an impact in the areas of digital transformation, social change, branding, etc.

Launched in 2019, MI-IMPACT (formerly Urban Impact) aims to give experiential learning to the students, leaving an 'impact', on the ecosystem with their proposed strategy and implementation. This year, the program partnered with 12 organizations from various sectors like Food and Beverages, Hospitality, Fashion, Non-profit Organization, Education, Media, and Venture Capitalist.

The projects involved creating a social media marketing plan for Janvikas's initiative; Driverben-Ek Nayi Pehchan'; building a strong presence for Blind People's Association across social media platforms, and creating sensitivity around societal stereotypes attached to people with disabilities. Other projects include filling in the gap of walk-in customers due to the pandemic for House of MG, effectively understanding Radio Nazariya's audience, catchment area, and engagement patterns through stakeholder analysis and mining consumer insights.

Students worked with organizations, namely House of MG, Sense International India, Soul Square, Linen Cut, KareKaBa Ventures (Bihar), Ananta International School, MIVIK garments, Janvikas, Blind People's Association, Drishti – Art, Media, and Human Rights, and Le Artisan Boulangerie

The immersive program, led by Professor Apurva Sanaria and Professor Rasananda Panda, concluded in March 2021. Student teams presented their proposal and findings to eminent jury members, namely Dr. Dinesh Awasthi, Former Director, EDI, Gandhinagar and presently Vice-Chancellor at LJ University, Ahmedabad, Dr. Preeti Shroff, Dean, MICA, Prof. Dharun, Digital Platforms and Strategies and Specialization Lead - Marketing Analytics) and Prof. Falguni Vasavada Oza, Area Leader, Strategic Marketing.

Dr. Preeti Shroff, Dean, MICA, said, “The Ahmedabad city institutions and businesses serve as the classrooms for this program. This year, due to the COVID-19 situation, digital engagements with city clients provided a unique learning experience for MICA students and the faculty mentors. This program is designed to be inclusive, and student teams are formed across all MICA programs for bringing interdisciplinary expertise. The student teams help clients address evolving business challenges, and present final projects to the jury members.”

MICA student Taniya Bodani on behalf of her team that worked for Radio Nazariya, said, "Our biggest challenge was to put ourselves in the shoes of our target impact group and make sure that we make an impact that is helpful to them. Our biggest learning was to see how impactful radio as a medium can be, and it can change lives by customizing their content and listening to their audience."

Another student Ravisha Sarupria whose team worked with Soul Square, shared, "MI- IMPACT has been a great learning experience for all of us. It helped us put the learnings of our course into practical use. Working with Soul Square exposed us to different aspects of the food and beverage industry, especially marketing and branding. We were able to gain hands-on experience by managing their online food delivery platform."

Ms. Rakshita Sareen, Assistant Program Coordinator, Drishti Media, Ahmedabad, said, "This program helped us with the digital outreach plan and brought more sensitivity on the social issues affecting the communities in the catchment area of our community radio. For six months, MICA students worked with Radio Nazariya 107.8 FM to increase our community base and engagement with our audience. We saw an increase of 50% in overall engagement and reach through their content design and engagement plan, and our followers base increased by 5%. Some of our radio programs that received good engagement were Radioshala, Shehernama, City Tantra, and other shows on women- centric issues like domestic violence, property rights of women, unpaid work by women, and so on."

Dr. Kamal Nagpal, Founder, Soul Square, Ahmedabad, said, "A sustained and successful intersection of business owners and managers is the key to growth. MI-IMPACT program allowed young management minds to work closely with local businesses and sensitize them to the problems - both generic & specific, to the strengths & weaknesses of the entrepreneur - thus to learn and understand the lacunae. This can lead to a multidimensional understanding, a key to a brilliant career."