Student Experience

What to Expect

Algonquin College is proud to provide a diverse and dynamic student experience. Check out the highlights below to get a sense of what to expect as a student in the Advertising and Marketing Communications Management program.

Student Success & Testimonials

Advertising combines the best of theory with hands-on experience.
This program combines a unique combination of theory and knowledge that has been developed with input from industry professionals. This helps students build the specific skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the field and stay ahead of industry trends.

Work-Integrated Learning

Students get to put theory into practice and gain hands-on industry experience by working with DIG (the student advertising agency), SLiDE (work with social enterprises and not-for-profits), or Glue (events and fundraising initiatives).

Student Work

Annual Boot Camp
The program’s long-standing annual “Boot Camp” project kicks off third year with a real client and a tight deadline. In just 24 hours, students work in teams to uncover insights, develop a campaign, and bring their creative ideas to life before presenting to the client.

Happiness Habits 613 Awareness Campaign
Our latest Boot Camp client, Happiness Habits 613, challenged students to develop a campaign to attract new people to its free community events. The winning team—Robert Osborne, Alex MacNeill, Evan Freer, Simon Taubman, and Jamel Bigras-Johnny—created “Don’t Like It. Live It.” Their research uncovered a key insight: despite being highly connected online, young adults are seeking meaningful, face-to-face connections. Targeting this audience, their campaign invited people to trade scrolling for showing up.

TEDx Ottawa Recruitment Campaign
In our DIG Agency, second-year students produced this stand-out speaker recruitment campaign for TEDx Ottawa. After digging for insights, this team broke away from the stuffy speaker stereotype and asked Ottawa residents to share their unique ideas and voices. This DIG team—Nia Pascal, Nathan Hutchings, Tasneem Alhassan, and Madison Pickard—produced fabulous creative and strategic work that the client absolutely loved. This creative went live across multiple channels.

Real-World Industry Retail Clients
Each year, second-year students partner with local retailers to develop advertising campaigns. It’s especially rewarding when clients put those ideas into action, bringing student work to life beyond the classroom.

Tanger Ottawa Back-to-School Campaign
The “Back-to-School Bash” campaign positioned Tanger Ottawa as a place where families could tackle their shopping lists while making end-of-summer memories. Built on the insight that parents want to balance back-to-school errands with family fun, the campaign combined digital advertising, social media, influencer marketing, and public relations to encourage visits. The campaign was developed by Torrance-Vittoria Nanculef, Chloe Farstad, Robert Osborne, Molly Seegmiller, and Jamel Bigras-Johnny.

Bayshore Shopping Centre Store Launch Creative
Students Hassan Safaoui, Kate Piche, Emma Stronge, Emily García, and Anuja Khadkachhetri developed the “Uniquely You” creative theme for Bayshore Shopping Centre’s UNIQLO store launch.

Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Ottawa Monthly Donor Campaign
Another Boot Camp campaign for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ottawa (BBBSO) focused on attracting monthly donors. The “Connection” campaign reframes giving as preventing youth futures from “buffering,” using integrated social, email, and landing page tactics to drive conversions and reinforce the importance of sustained, ongoing support for youth mentorship. Congrats to students Jenna Bastarache, Lindsay Ott, Nick Parry, Fatima Rabi, Erica Tran for developing this campaign.