During the Winter semester 2025/26, our part-time students from the Bachelor’s program in Marketing & Sales developed creative and emotionally engaging campaigns for an urban snow experience world as part of their first business field project.
“Snow connecting people” is the credo of the Snowsports Academy – the Vienna Ski and Snowboard Instructors Association, which spreads enthusiasm for snow sports throughout the world. In September, managing director Martin Dolezal briefed the students on an idea that is unique in Austria: bringing indoor snow sports to the city. The students were tasked with surveying three different target groups in urban areas and using the results to develop marketing concepts for a snow experience world.
Market research for three target groups
The six teams of students enrolled in the Bachelor’s program in Marketing & Sales (part-time) were literally thrown in at the deep end with this challenging task in their first business field project in the third semester. They mastered the market research on the three target groups – urban residents, tourists, and educational institutions – in a professional manner and incorporated the high-quality results into their strategy derivation, together with a comprehensive environmental analysis.
Creative campaign design at agency level
The marketing concepts, perfectly tailored to the respective target group, impressed with appropriate key ideas, emotional slogans, and great visuals. The teams not only demonstrated their marketing expertise and analytical skills, but also proved themselves to be true creative agencies with their professional use of generative AI in image creation!
Martin Dolezal, his team, and Sandra Stichauner, Chief Marketing Officer at Österreich Werbung, were impressed by the high level of professionalism and quality of the final presentations at the beginning of December 2025:
“You could clearly see how the students caught the enthusiasm for snow sports. They delivered excellent results for all three target groups and developed strong approaches that are extremely valuable for us.”
Coaches Melanie Gratzer and Bernhard Pfaffeneder from FHWien der WKW are also convinced by the results:
“The students’ development over the past three months has been remarkable. Initial skepticism turned into genuine enthusiasm for the project – clearly reflected in the exceptionally high-quality market research for third semester students and in the precise, high-impact marketing concepts. Congratulations to our students!”
As a heartfelt thank-you from the Snowsports Academy, the students were invited to a Snow Experience Day at Hirschenkogel, including skiing, snowboarding, sledding, and traditional alpine hut hospitality.