Boldsquare Building Blueprint for Agency-Specific Skills Development Through Pioneering Partnership With The University of Tennessee

Boldsquare, one of the South-East’s fastest growing strategic communications and marketing agencies, has entered into a groundbreaking partnership with the University of Tennessee to create a new undergraduate course that will better prepare future marketing professionals for work in agencies and beyond.

The first cohort of junior and senior students in the Department of Marketing at the Haslam College of Business to participate in the three-credit course will start the hands-on agency residency in the current spring semester. The course will consist of in-person academic theory and teaching from the University’s marketing faculty, asynchronous content including video segments featuring members of the Boldsquare team, and real-world client-facing marketing agency experience in both Boldsquare’s headquarters and the Skills Lab at the Haslam College of Business.

Independent research consistently shows that college students feel unprepared for a professional career after they graduate. The newly-created residency course provides a solution through a full agency immersion for students. The course offers a more effective and equitable alternative to internships, which many students can no longer afford due to cost-of-living challenges.

Course students will work on core projects for real clients in the commercial, cultural and non-profit sectors, and will put to use skills developed in both the academic program and alongside the Boldsquare team, to solve complex marketing challenges. The course will give a solid grounding in core agency processes including understanding client briefs, project scoping, ideation, pitch development, utilizing client feedback and project management.

“We see this as a new model for collaboration between universities and the marketing industry, that will benefit both students and the sector as a whole,” said Dylan Jones, Managing Partner of Boldsquare. “It’s too easy for agencies or marketing departments to complain about a lack of position-ready young talent. It’s our belief that marketers have to stop delegating full responsibility for their talent pipeline, and instead build partnerships with schools and universities to play an active role in the development of future leaders.

“Residencies have been proven as a successful teaching model in the medical profession for decades, and this is a first step towards bringing that approach to marketing,” he continued. “The Boldsquare residency is a way to bridge the gap between theoretical study in university and the practical realities of the workplace. We’ve found an engaged and enthusiastic partner in the Department of Marketing at the Haslam College of Business, and we’re excited by the collaborative approach and the impact that this course can have on students.”

University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business Marketing Department head and Gerber/Taylor Professor of Marketing, Dr. Alex Zablah, said the department was excited about working with Boldsquare to integrate hands-on experience with academic learning in an innovative way. “The residency that we are creating with Boldsquare will round out the marketing education we are offering our students by giving them real-world exposure and practice in all elements of agency life, including working directly with multiple clients, developing creative marketing solutions, and executing effective strategy,” Zablah said. “This will be an immersive learning experience, in a controlled environment, and this is what today’s undergraduates need and are looking for.”

The residency was piloted across twelve weeks in the summer of 2023 with a cohort of University of Tennessee marketing students, ensuring that a high-quality experience that met the expectations of faculty, Boldsquare and course participants could be successfully engineered.

Boldsquare was founded in 2018 by a group of experienced marketers and communicators with experience in-house at some of the U.S. and Europe’s best-known brands. The company has quickly grown into one of the most effective agencies in the region, and has been recognized on the Inc. 5000 for the past two years as one of the fastest growing privately-held organizations in the United States.