Optimus Performance Marketing (OPM) is bridging the gap between education and the workplace. The affiliate marketing company is working with students from Plymouth University and colleges to bridge the gap between the theory and the practice of digital marketing in the UK.
The company regularly takes on placement students and interns from the University of Plymouth. The students will typically spend anywhere up to a year in the Plymouth-based offices, helping to assist OPM employees across different sectors of the company to help them become a fully integrated member of staff.
Roles and responsibilities of the interns and placement students include managing the portfolio of client accounts, developing and maintaining relationships with clients and suppliers, keeping analysis and reports on clients and compiling newsletters.
Additionally, Mark Russell, managing director of OPM, holds talks at Plymouth University and various colleges in order to give groups of marketing, business and technology students and undergraduate’s a better understanding of digital commerce.
Russell said: “In such a quickly evolving environment and industry, it is virtually impossible to encompass the latest thinking in a syllabus or an exam that needs to be finalised before the start of an academic year. Basically, what we are trying to put across during interaction with the students is how the basic advertising, marketing and business curriculum relates to the real world of current e-commerce.
“The value of the work we carry out is in reinforcing the link between web development and ecommerce as a critical success factor in modern business. Treating these two entities as separate functions increases the difficulty and cost in developing effective e-commerce solutions. As well as this, we are aiming to increase the knowledge and awareness of e-commerce in Plymouth as a whole.”