Gemma Austin – MA Digital Marketing

Gemma Austin set up a wedding photography business with a friend whilst studying for her Master's in digital marketing. The company Cotton Candy Photography has quintupled target bookings and been a runaway success.

'I was working as a bid manager for over four years and although I was doing well I really wanted to be working in a more creative industry. So I made the difficult decision to quit my job and go back to university. Embarking on the digital marketing course has been life-changing; I can’t believe how fast the business has grown.

My friend Philippa had been planning to set up her own freelance photography business and I approached her at first to offer to design, build and market a website. However, as we’re both keen photographers and creatively quite similar we decided to go into business together instead.

Studying for the digital marketing course meant I wasn’t just setting up a business from scratch; I was using my knowledge of the design, development and implementation of digital media marketing applications, so I felt confident that I had solid foundations.

The project incorporated designing an identity, building a website, establishing a brand and an online presence all through the use of various digital media marketing tools.

Changing careers and studying for this course has worked out brilliantly for me. It was quite a risk but one I’m really glad I’ve taken.'

Cotton Candy Photography specialises in shooting artistic, natural and modern photography for couples who have chosen to do things a little differently.

Melanie Retzlaff – MA Digital Marketing

After completing a Master's in digital marketing, Melanie has now returned to Germany to work as an IT consultant for Logica.

'I chose this particular degree because I liked the link between the technical and the business side of the course. I really wanted to get a grasp of technology because it has always been a bit of a weakness that I wanted to work on. Now I feel really comfortable talking about technology and have even secured a job in that field – so I guess I really did turn around my weakness.

I enjoyed the small size of the class, which made me feel part of a little family and that made studying a lot more comfortable because people really helped each other out.

Lillian Clark is a fantastic course leader and I enjoyed learning from her and the other lecturers. What I valued most were the projects that we were able to do while studying; especially the final project, which made my skill set grow incredibly fast. I had a lot to talk about when I had the job interview for Logica and I was able to impress them very much with the digital media marketing campaign we did for Gosport.'